Dozens of municipal officials, mostly from villages in the town, were drawn together for a discussion of a federal anti-discrimination law that some saw usurping their zoning regulations.An overview of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 was presented by Patricia Salkin, associate dean and director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. Salkin, a former Wesley Hills resident, discussed reasons for the law – some communities had refused to even consider religiously linked projects – and how communities could respond to it.
The discussion, organized by Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, came as Pomona prepared to review a proposed rabbinical college housing nearly 5,000 people, and as developers of a yeshiva with dormitories eyed Sloatsburg as a potential building site.
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