NEW YORK — A lawsuit brought against the Town of Forestburgh for alleged discrimination under the Fair Housing Act has been ruled “ripe for adjudication,” according to a March 7 Statement of Interest rendered by the United States.

The Town is trying to get the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds it is unripe and therefor nonjusticiable.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Lost Lake Holdings, LLC against “the Town of Forestburgh and other municipal defendents, alleges that they engaged in a series of discriminatory acts to prevent an Orthodox Jewish development from building a subdivision in Forestburgh because the defendents [Forestburgh] believed it would attract Orthodox Jews.”

The Democrat reached out to the town Monday to comment on the statement and they said they were unaware of the recent Statement of Interest being written by the US Attorney’s office, and had no further comment.

The statement said, “The Amended Complaint alleges that the developer Plaintiff, who are Orthodox Jews, purchased a “shovel ready” housing development – previously approved by Forestburgh – but that Forestburgh discriminatorily obstructed and delayed the development when it learned that the homes could be purchased and lived in by Orthodox Jews.”

According to the statement, “Forestburgh increased tax assessments, denied building permits and issued violation notices and stop work orders for the project.”

The statement goes on to explain how Forestburgh allegedly “reopened proceedings under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act against the plaintiffs, creating a potentially indeterminate delay of the project.”

Forestburgh, in its motion to dismiss, cites the Second Circuit’s recent decision in BMG Monroe I LLC v. Village of Monroe 

However, the statement said “the facts are inapt and do not reflect the situation alleged by the Plaintiffs – that Forestburgh’s course of conduct is motivated by anti-Semitism.”

The statement further said that Lost Lake’s allegation that Forestburgh has wielded the land use process itself in a discriminatory fashion to delay the Plaintiffs from ever developing Lost Lake is sufficient at this stage of the litigation to allege an injury.

The Statement can be found here: www.justice.gov/crt/case/lost-lake-holdings-llc-v-town-forestburgh-sdny.

This is a corrected version of a story which ran in the Tuesday, March 18 print edition.