Liberty, prejudice and summer camps

Posted 4/26/17

As members of the Liberty town board were debating the merits of a one-year moratorium on new summer camps in the town, one of their number, Vincent McPhillps, said the he could not support a …

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Liberty, prejudice and summer camps

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As members of the Liberty town board were debating the merits of a one-year moratorium on new summer camps in the town, one of their number, Vincent McPhillps, said the he could not support a moratorium because he was not “prejudiced,” and a vote in favor would make him appear to be “prejudiced.”

This was a clear reference to the fact that most summer camps in Liberty cater to and are operated by Hasidic Jews, and McPhillip’s clear implication was that anyone who supported the moratorium was prejudiced against that group of people.

But the question of zoning regarding summer camps is in reality a land-use issue, and land-use issues are regularly litigated in Sullivan County, with no assumption by any elected official that the people involved are motivated by prejudice.

In 2002, for example, a company called Calpine wanted to build a gas-fired power plant in the middle of Monticello. Many people opposed it, and they arranged demonstrations and turned out to public meetings to express opposition to the facility and, ultimately, the company dropped its plans. There was no assumption at the time that the people who opposed the plant were prejudiced against the people who would operate it, or the customers who would use the electricity generated by it. The assumption was, rightly, the opposition simply did not want a power plant in the middle of their village.

Another example came in 2006 when the county was attempting to expand the Sullivan County Landfill, and the expansion would have placed it just across the street from a development of condominiums that happened to be owned by Hasidic Jews. The owners hired a lawyer, and eventually the county legislature changed its plans because of this and other hurdles. No one at the time assumed that the condominium owners were prejudiced against the people who would operate or used the expanded facility; they just didn’t want and landfill across the street from their homes.

Then there is the case of the Monticello Motor Club, which many people complained about because of the noise that was generated by the racing cars. There was never an assumption that the people who complained were somehow prejudiced against people who like to drive cars fast.

In one of the most famous zoning cases in New York State, the one in which the New York State Court of Appeals determined that non-conforming uses were supposed to eventually be eliminated, a New York City agency sued Toys R Us, and won. But there was never an assumption that the people in the agency were somehow prejudiced against the people who either operated or shopped in the toy store.

The issue of summer camps in the Town of Liberty has arisen repeatedly over the years, and elected officials should assume, as they would with any other land-use issue, that residents have concerns about the impact of this particular land use on the value of their homes and other issues related to the effects of the use. No one who spoke at any of the two meetings where the moratorium was discussed had anything negative to say about the Hasidic community generally or about specific individuals.

For McPhillips to imply that people who supported the moratorium did so because they are prejudiced is an insult to the more than 100 of his constituents that turned out each meeting.

McPhillips also called the question of summer camps “stupid,” as if the whole question was not worthy of taking the time to consider it. More than 100 of his constituents think differently, and some 138 of them signed a petition saying so. As an elected official of the town, McPhillips has a duty and obligation to consider the opinions of those he represents, and they deserve an apology.

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