Akiko Matsuda

amatsuda@lohud.com

Judge Walsh suspends Ramapo Planning Board%27s approvals for Patrick Farm development.

Opponents celebrate the order as a vindication of their environmental concerns.

RAMAPO – A judge's order has suspended town approvals for the controversial plan to build nearly 500 houses on Patrick Farm because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had not reviewed wetlands at the site.

State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Walsh's decision this week sent the plans back to the Planning Board for consideration before the project can proceed on 206 acres along the Route 202-306 corridor just outside of Pomona village.

The Planning Board's March 22, 2013, approvals were opposed in court by neighbors of the site as well as members of the grassroots environmental group Ramapo Organized for Sustainability and a Safe Aquifer.

Walsh this week denied one of the Article 78 proceedings but decided on the other two by issuing an order to suspend the Planning Board's approvals.

He wrote the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Rockland County Sewer District No. 1 would not issue necessary permits for the project in the absence of a review from the Army Corps.

Suzanne Mitchell, director of ROSA, celebrated Walsh's decision.

"We believe this official judicial decision will help the Town of Ramapo Planning Board understand more clearly what ROSA has been arguing throughout this approval process when ROSA presented independent wetland expert testimony explaining that the developer was vastly under reporting the size and scope of the wetlands," Mitchell wrote in an email.

Terry Rice, an attorney representing the developer, Scenic Development of Monsey, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Ramapo Town Attorney Michael Klein, wrote in an email that the Planning Board's actions have been affirmed by the prior court decisions dismissing the opponents' other complaints.

He noted that Walsh, in his decision, "acknowledged that the Planning Board correctly approved the applications before it based on information available at that time."

"However, the Planning Board has been directed by the court to consider further review in light of recent correspondence from the state DEC and Rockland County Sewer District regarding wetlands," Klein wrote.