The Journal News reports:

Nearly 150 people jammed the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting to object to a proposed yeshiva and dormitory on the former estate of the late actor Burgess Meredith.

The board heard from 10 speakers, all opposed to Mesifta Beth Shraga’s project on Camp Hill Road, which they saw as clashing with their single-family neighborhood and destroying grounds with links to the American Revolution.

Board Chairman Morton Summer appeared inclined to close the hearing – “I don’t know if the public interest is served by having 100 people say the same thing” – but two board members and Alan Simon, Ramapo’s planning and zoning administrator, urged that it be kept open.

It is to continue at 8 p.m. June 18.

No one representing Mesifta was present. Its lawyer, Ira Emanuel of New City, sought a postponement of last night’s session, but Simon rejected the request and the board decided to go ahead.

Objections heard last night were similar to ones expressed at other public hearings regarding similar projects on Remsen Avenue in Monsey and on Route 306 near the Pomona border.

People in all of the neighborhoods complained that the proposals were too large and did not complement their single-family homes.

Mesifta’s representatives have said that the main and oldest portion of a house on the property, dating back to the American Revolution, would be preserved.

That has not appeased some residents, though, who thought the overall construction would dwarf the house.

Mesifta wants variances from zoning codes to accommodate the construction, while residents opposed any variances.

“This no more belongs in Pomona than a Wal-Mart belongs in Monsey,” Garrett Higgins told the Ramapo zoning board, referring to Monsey residents’ opposition to plans since abandoned by the retailer.

Pomona Deputy Mayor Brett Yagel and others advised the board to heed a county Department of Planning report critical of the Mesifta plan.

The county warned Ramapo that the plans for a 34,430-square-foot yeshiva, a 14,515-square-foot dormitory and four 2,764-square-foot houses risked straining roads and sewers.

Ramapo “must consider the cumulative and regional impacts of permitting such development,” the county said in a March 30 review.

Resident Martin Silverberg said the plan was unfair to neighbors of the 7-acre site, who expected other homes to be built in their neighborhood, “not a college, not a gas station, not a rubber plant.”

Mark Ettlinger, who owns 22 acres near the project site, said he traveled from his home in Toronto for last night’s meeting.

“There is no space for a large boarding school there,” said Ettlinger, who grew up in the neighborhood. “It will change the atmosphere of the single-family-home area, and adversely so. None of the residents want this.”

Some residents said the board was not listening to their pleas.

“We’re taxpaying citizens who feel we are not being fairly represented,” John McDowell said.

Summer’s decision to end the session was met by jeers, leading a visibly angry Summer to say loudly: “Nobody says we have to sit here and listen to the same stuff over and over.”

Higgins, referring to the county’s report, told the board that it had a “responsibility to the residents to look at the true facts.”

(LoHud.com)