House of Worship Proposed for Chestnut Ridge

Suburban neighborhoods are seeing more homes go off the tax rolls, particularly in the Town of Ramapo

A quiet corner on Wallace Drive is being proposed for a House of Worship by a group of investors calling themselves 29 Wallace Drive LLC.

The HOW up for consideration would be two stories high and approximately 12,000  square feet, not including the basement area. Included in the developer’s plans is a proposed sanctuary with 125 seats and parking for 25 cars. It has also been proposed that the current bilevel standing on the property be removed.

The project at 29 Wallace Drive will be on the agenda for the next Chestnut Ridge Planning Board meeting on Thursday, September 11, beginning at 8:00 p.m.

The town of Ramapo’s coffers are slowly being drained by the increasing number of Houses of Worship in the municipality, with many local homes and other parcels coming off the tax rolls as religious communities in its villages continue to grow at a steady pace. 

The NYS Senate continues to parse the merits of the Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act (S2297/3647), first introduced in 2023, which would permit houses of worship – churches, synagogues and mosques – to ignore local zoning/planning requirements so long as the entities build affordable housing that complies with the law’s tenets. These would include 30 units per acre being permitted for small municipalities with less than 50,000 residents and 50 units per acre for those with more than 50,000 residents. 

County Executive Ed Day, along with other county leaders across the state, have vowed to fight the proposed legislation, saying Albany is trying to eradicate home rule and bypass local codes.