Ateres Bais Yaakov Yeshiva Wins $200,000 Settlement From Town of Clarkstown to Settle Grace Baptist Church RLUIPA Case

By M. C. Millman

Ateres Bais Yaakov won a legal settlement of $200,000 from  Clarkstown after suing the town for $10 million for violating its religious rights under the RLUIPA federal statute. 

According to RCBJ, in addition to the $200,000 payment, Clarkstown's town board, zoning board of appeals, planning board, and building inspector are required to take a rigorous religious liberty land use training course within 120 days of the settlement dated March 4. 

The ongoing saga was mostly recently reported on by Rockland Daily in December of last year.

The case revolved around Ateres Bais Yaakov, which contracted in 2018 to purchase facilities from Grace Baptist Church for $4.5 million. However, the Town of Clarkstown obstructed the purchase to deny Ateres from being able to build an Orthodox school, and instead, in 2020, its council authorized the town to purchase the Grace Baptist Church in Nanuet for the same price for "general municipal purposes." leading for the termination of the Ateres contract in June 2019. Since then, the town has done nothing with the property, although it did receive a state grant for nearly half a million dollars for onsite demolition of the dilapidated structures on the property.