JUDGE ORDERS ALL ATTORNEYS TO COURT ON AUGUST 22ND ROSA’S LAWSUIT TO BE ARGUED IN STATE SUPREME COURT

9th Judicial District - Rockland County, NY

1 South Main Street

New City, NY 10956

Lawsuits and Affidavits Filed In Supreme Court of New York On Behalf of ROSA Support Citizen Concerns Over Massive High Density Housing Development on Patrick Farm Property

RAMAPO, NY, August 18, 2011: At 5pm on August 11th less than 24 hours before a scheduled appearance in State Supreme Court, attorney Terry Rice representing Scenic Development in ROSA’s lawsuit against the developer of the Patrick Farm, requested a postponement for the August 12th court date. Today, Judge Walsh has ordered all parties in this case to appear in court on Monday morning, August 22nd, 2011 at 9:30am.

State Supreme Court Justice Hon. Thomas E. Walsh, II will hear oral argument from the Albany based firm Tabner, Ryan and Keniry, representing the citizen’s group ROSA in their legal action to halt the current high density development plan for the Patrick Farm Property in the town of Ramapo. ROSA, along with the Village of Pomona, and Ramapo residents Milton and Dr. Sonya Shapiro are suing Scenic Development LLC, the Town of Ramapo, and the Town of Clarkstown. All concede, including the developer, the property is environmentally sensitive. The developer believes the issues of environmental sensitivity and community character can be mitigated and ROSA does not. "ROSA has long maintained the current plan for a massive development on this property is ill-conceived. It threatens the sole source aquifer that provides safe drinking water to over one million homes in Rockland, Orange, Passaic and Bergen counties", stated ROSA board member, Deborah Munitz. Munitz continued, "Our legal arguments are multi-pronged and go beyond issues of population density, traffic safety, and protecting drinking water that comes from an enormous sole source aquifer. We have presented solid evidence that the Ramapo Planning Board has failed in its duties to properly evaluate the development plan under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. We are confident in the strength and integrity of our legal position."

As part of its advocacy and lawsuit, ROSA hired certified experts to review both the Patrick Farm property and development plan itself. ROSA’s experts pursued topics ranging from aquifer protection, watershed management, and traffic analysis, to population density, view shed protection and wetlands that have been delineated incorrectly or in some instances, not at all. The lawsuit and the materials submitted along with it reveal a disturbing checklist of issues that place ROSA’s professional review directly at odds with the developer’s findings as accepted by Ramapo’s Planning Board. ROSA Director, Suzanne Mitchell Stated, "Our independent experts have citied many areas where either the developer’s plan or professional findings are

inaccurate and were allowed to stand by the Town of Ramapo’s Planning Board. Our lawsuits and professional review cast serious doubt as to the efficacy of this unsafe and inappropriate development plan."

According to ROSA Director, Suzanne Mitchell, "Over the past decade the Town of Ramapo has experienced major growth in its population, putting tremendous stress on our community and its infrastructure. If we do not begin to plan wisely, the very essence of the way we live and our quality of life will be forever changed. If the Town of Ramapo allows the Patrick Farm to be developed in a way that is not sustainable and has little relationship to the surrounding community’s character, there will be a ripple effect throughout the region." Mitchell goes on to explain, "This is why this particular case is so important and unlike anything our county has seen.

According to Clouser Engineering’s Andrew Willingham: The Patrick Farm property is located within Ramapo’s Scenic Road District which has requirements under the Town Code (Local Law No. 7-2004). The law requires that the project substantially preserve the scenic and natural features of the site. "Per our review of the plans, the development will decimate the scenic and natural features of the site with extremely dense and highly visible development. The development’s design does not meet the requirements of this section of law. In further application of an engineering review, Willingham goes on to say, "Despite the clear importance in properly identifying the site’s wetlands, we found that this task was completed in crude, incomplete and inaccurate fashion. As a result, the project’s environmental impacts have not been properly assessed and the Applicant has not shown that the project meets the Town of Ramapo’s basic zoning requirements."

David Clouser, the principal engineer for David Clouser & Associates, submitted ROSA’s traffic analysis review. He states, "Land developers must evaluate potential significant and important impacts and submit information that must be correlated to studies that are site and project specific, and not simply based on generic industry standards. In the case of the Patrick Farm development, it appears that the analysis performed does not comport with the development that is actually being proposed with respect to the non-typical size of the much larger than average dwelling units. As a result, the traffic generation estimates for Patrick Farm were substantially underestimated. Using the appropriate Population Method measurement standard tells us that AM and PM peak time traffic will be approximately 45-51% higher…" than figures the developer presented and the Planning accepted. This fact is significant not only in light of overall congestion along Routes 202 and 306, but also as it relates to emergency preparedness and any related necessity for evacuation if a disaster such as Indian Point were to occur.

ROSA’s primary concern is over the issue of water quality and water quantity as it relates to protection of the Ramapo River Basin Aquifer System, a Federal EPA protected sole source aquifer, part of which rests beneath the Patrick Farm. This aquifer supplies water to a vast part of Rockland County and parts of Orange (NY) and Bergen (NJ) counties, serving residents on both public water and private well supply. Karen Schneller-McDonald, a wetlands specialist, has her own concerns over the planned development of the Patrick Farm. She says, "The scientific report accepted by the Planning Board does not adequately address or describe indirect and cumulative impacts on wetlands and the watershed. Mitigation is especially critical for the Patrick Farm development project due to the significance of its water resources for drinking water and the fact that a portion of the sole source aquifer underlies the property. All of the wetland areas on the site and associated streams are part of the headwaters for the Mahwah River and recharge area of the sole source aquifer. All of these water resources are important for maintaining the area’s drinking water quality and supply, and provide benefits including flood control, water quality improvement, and groundwater recharge."

ROSA’S LAWSUIT TO BE ARGUED IN STATE SUPREME COURT AUGUST 12th