Robert Rhodes announces Preserve Ramapo Plans to Sue Ramapo over Sale of Quarry to Builder

July 3, 2008   Letters to the Editor The Journal News

[Editor's note: text appearing in red was removed from the original letter by The Journal]

According to your recent article the Suffern quarry was turned over to Ramapo for flood mitigation and possible recreational use. Ramapo in turn has sold the land to a developer for the construction of 440 units.

We believe this sale is illegal. A municipality is not allowed to give gifts to private parties. The fact that the developer is a generous contributor to St. Lawrence’s election campaigns does not give him the right to accept gifts from the town of Ramapo.

Any sane developer would be delighted to pay $50,000 or more per residential unit in an approved subdivision in this area. The developer is buying land with a value of more than $20 million for only a fifth of this cost! Moreover, the builder is getting a cost free option to walk away if Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence can’t twist enough arms on the Suffern village board to get this subdivision approved.

This land grab is an outrage. We are going to sue Ramapo to prevent this illegal sale.

If St. Lawrence’s crazy deal goes through no "open space" in Ramapo will be safe. Is St. Lawrence stockpiling open space all over Ramapo for future gifts to his favored developers? Is this why the Ramapo town board has refused to dedicate "open space" as park land?

Robert I. Rhodes, Chairman, Preserve Ramapo
 

Images below thanks to RossPilot at www.RossPilot.com. Top image (©2007) shows the quarry and surrounding property with Lake Antrim in the lower right corner. Ramapo sold the 65 acres to Jeffrey Goldstein who intends to build 440 condos on the Suffern site.  

This photo, taken this week, shows a wider perspective with the Sheraton-Crossroads Hotel and Sharp buildings in the distance at the top of the picture.

Additional background on the sale here.