Ateres Wins Appeal Regarding Clarkstown's Obstruction of Property Purchase in 2018

by M.C. Millman

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York's dismissal of a lawsuit accusing the Town of Clarkstown, Clarkstown Superintendent George Hoehmann, and Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods (CUPON) of interfering with a yeshiva's contract to purchase a church in Nanuet and of violating the Academy's religious rights.

The most recent development took place on Friday as the saga of the ongoing case continues, as reported by Rockland Daily here in December of last year as well as here in July 2022 when Ateres lost its $10 million religious discrimination lawsuit but was told they could appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

The case involves 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.

While the case was dismissed by the court because Ateres never received zoning approval before the deal was terminated, the school appealed that ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

In an amicus brief, Agudath Israel of America argued that the Town of Clarkstown's actions against Ateres violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal law that protects religious institutions from discriminatory land-use regulations. The brief states, "Throughout the property purchase process, the officials of Clarkstown, in collaboration with local citizen activists, stoked hostility toward the school, describing their efforts to buy the building as a 'hostile invasion'. The defendants blocked Ateres from closing on the property and prevented it from entering their community by obstructing the zoning application process, withholding the necessary regulatory permissions; deterring investors from financing the purchase, purchasing the property for itself; and initiating the process to amend the zoning laws to make it impossible for Ateres and religious organizations like it to move in.

Clarkstown officials trapped Ateres in administrative purgatory, exhausting the school's resolve and recourses until it was forced to abandon the agreement and sell the property to the Town itself."  

The school has since moved on to purchase a new property on Summit Park Road, where a building for the elementary school division was completed last year. The high school is presently located in trailers on site, with hopes for a building for them as well on the same property. 

Yehudah Buchweitz, who is representing Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy of Rockland, spoke about the newest development, saying, according to the Rockland County Business Journal, "This case is, unfortunately, one of the many instances where municipality abuses its powers to try to keep religious minorities from moving in or practicing their religion freely...This is the latest in a decades-long battle against anti-Semitism, in particular with respect to Orthodox Jews, and we will not stop our efforts to try to stop religious discrimination."