Latest on WT's land purchase in Ramapo NY

by sir82 9 Replies latest jw friends

  • sir82
    sir82

    Here is an update to the topic posted here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/173229/1/WT-to-entirely-shut-down-Brooklyn-soon-New-developments

    http://www.lohud.com/article/20090326/NEWS03/903260466

    Ramapo views Jehovah's Witnesses development plan

    (Excerpts follow)

    The society plans to move many of its administrative offices from Brooklyn, where it has overseen its worldwide operations for 100 years.
    Instead of housing on 292 lots, town records showed that Watchtower's plan included an office and worship building, a service building with a central kitchen, dining room, laundry, storage and infirmary, and residential buildings.
    Two maintenance shops are proposed.
    Watchtower is seeking an amendment to the zoning law to permit construction of a "monastery" subject to a permit from the Town Board.
    As defined in the proposed amendment, a monastery would be a "planned development of buildings for integrated living, working and worshiping arrangements." Schools would not be included.
    Before the Town Board rules, it likely will seek a recommendation from the Planning Board, said Alan Simon, the town's planning and zoning administrator.
    A public hearing will be held by the Planning Board before it makes its recommendation.

    Reach James Walsh

    at
    [email protected]
    or 845-578-2445.

  • Meeting Junkie No More
    Meeting Junkie No More

    Holy S#_%&^! - A "MONASTERY"???

    I am having some difficulty digesting this...but thanks for the heads up!

  • SnakesInTheTower
    SnakesInTheTower

    "monastery" ... it is a zoning thing.... and think about it...isnt that what Bethel residential housing is? A bunch of monks Bethel drones going to do their daily prayers and worship pointless work in their printeries, etc?

    Walkill, Patterson, and Ramapo, NY = The Bermuda Triangle of the Watchtower

    Snakes ()

  • rebel8
    rebel8

    We're Jehovah's Witnesses TM ! We don't have communes! Only cults do!

  • jeeprube
    jeeprube

    Sounds like a commune to me. Don't the Scientologists have some kind of secret compound? I know that radical political movements often buy up land and build similar communes. I bet they could pick up Jim Jone's old property for cheap.

  • jws
    jws

    No schools? Would that include Gilead, elder training, etc. I assume those would be held elsewhere? Or is there a specific zoning definition of a school that wouldn't apply?

  • blondie
    blondie

    No schools? Would that include Gilead, elder training, etc

    These have been held at the Patterson facility for some time.

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    I couldn't imagine planning staff giving the Town Board a recommendation to approve the zoning change without some very significance concessions made by the Watchtower as part of the development agreement. It sounds like the zoning change will be to what is in essence some sort of conditional use permit, which would mean the Town has a lot more leeway in what it would require from the applicant as far as the funding of infrastructure improvements, development standards, and the like. The problem is that this jurisdiction wouldn't recieve any property taxes from the Watchtower, with it having tax-exempt status. Hopefully, the Town will be able to negotiate some in-lieu "contributions" to be rendered by the Watchtower, since it would be requiring many public services for which there would be a funding gap, since they don't pay property taxes.

    One of my concerns is how much this Town really knows about the potential drawbacks of having a relatively huge institution like this within its jurisdiction, and that they aren't swooned with intitial development fees and/or negotiated fees for infrastructure improvements not directly related to the Watchtower's development.

  • whereami
    whereami
  • sir82
    sir82
    Anyone know whatever happened to this?

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/147793/1/Watchtower-Farms-plans-millions-in-expansion

    Have not heard any updates.

    But they will be flush with cash if they sell everything they own in Brooklyn. They could build a rocketship to Mars if they wanted to then.

    It will be interesting to see how they spin the sale of Brooklyn to the R&F. When JWs hear (and they will - it will be big news) how many hundreds of millions, or more, they reap from that, I suspect "Worldwide Work" contributions will shrivel to a small fraction of their current level.

    The worrying thing, from the Society's standpoint, is how do you get the contributions to ramp up again when the profits from selling Brooklyn properties dry up? Their cash flow problems will be solved for a decade or so, but then what?

    Oh, right, I forgot. Armageddon is "very soon now" so they don't need to worry about it.

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