Judge Dismisses Suit Against Deerpark Planning Board Regarding New Century Project

The Moon Festival at New Century off Route 209 in the town of Deerpark, N.Y., on Sept. 16, 2023. Larry Dye/The Epoch Times

An Orange County Supreme Court judge dismissed on technical grounds a lawsuit seeking to reverse Deerpark Planning Board decisions regarding a proposed development at New Century, according to a court order filed on Sept. 4.

Known for hosting the annual Moon Festival, one of the largest cultural events in the tri-state region, the 40-acre event venue has an expansion plan that includes a theatre, a boutique hotel, and several restaurants to further drive tourism growth.

Last August, the town of Deerpark planning board determined that the development had no significant adverse environmental impacts and subsequently greenlit a conditional site plan.

In January, William Smith, president of the unincorporated Lower Huguenot Neighborhood Alliance, took the town and New Century to court to reverse the environmental decision and subject the company to a more demanding review under the New York state Environmental Quality Review Act.

In his dismissal of the case, Judge Timothy McElduff agreed that Smith filed the petition after the applicable statute of limitations had passed.

New Century is represented by counsel from Blustein, Shapiro, Frank & Barone law firm.

As counsel noted, under state law, a challenge to a town planning board decision must be initiated within 30 days after the filing of such decision with the town clerk’s office. That did not happen here.

Contrary to plaintiffs’ arguments about inconsistencies in timestamps and potentially falsified documents, McElduff found the challenged board resolutions were filed with town clerk Florence Santini on Sept. 29, more than two months before the suit.

McElduff also found Smith and his neighborhood alliance lacking standing to sue because petitioners failed to adequately “allege [ ] who these members were and/or where their property was located.”

What’s more, the Court stated that the petitions failed to prove Smith, its only identified member, owned property near or otherwise affected by New Century’s development.

Though Smith’s counsel later supplied more membership information in replies to the defendants’ dismissal motion, it was unable to cure the insufficiency of the petition itself; instead, a cross-motion should have been filed to amend the petition, according to the judge.

New Century COO Peter Wei told The Epoch Times in a statement that he is pleased with the court decision and that, if everything goes as planned, the development will further revive the former equestrian site and boost the local economy in an environmentally responsible way.

Since it took ownership of the site seven years ago, the company has paid close to $600,000 in property taxes, according to public records on Orange County government website.

John Barone, a partner of Rupp Pfalzgraf, told The Epoch Times in a statement that Lower Huguenot Neighborhood Alliance is disappointed with the dismissal short of the requested fact-finding and that his firm continues to review options regarding the court decision.

Ties to NYenvironcom

Since the birth of Lower Huguenot Neighborhood Alliance, the unincorporated group has maintained a close relationship with the New Paltz-based NYenvironcom.

The neighborhood alliance’s Facebook page shows the two share the same website. Not only that, but NYenvironcom’s quarterly newsletters regularly mention the alliance’s activities; and a fundraising webpage states that donations to the alliance are processed through NYenvironcom.

A previous Epoch Times investigation found that NYenvironcom exerted the bulk of its energy into campaigns against development projects along the Neversink Valley in the town of Deerpark. The organization financially sponsors a local group called Deerpark Rural Alliance to carry out much of its advocacy on the ground.

Most such profitable developments have been put forth by a growing Chinese diaspora in town, many of whom are Falun Gong practitioners who have fled religious persecution in China.

Once in the United States, some still face transnational repression under the direction of the communist regime. According to a Chinese Communist Party directive document previously obtained by The Epoch Times, the regime deems the Dragon Springs campus in the town of Deerpark the global Falun Gong headquarters and has called for the perpetration of strategic and systematic attacks against Dragon Springs.

Recently two men pleaded guilty in federal court for acting as illegal agents of the Chinese regime and trying to bribe an IRS official in Newburgh in an attempt to topple a Falun Gong-related entity. At one defendant’s plea hearing in July, federal prosecutors unveiled the targeted institution was Dragon Springs-based Shen Yun Performing Arts.

According to a court filing, in addition to the bribery scheme, the duo had traveled to New York, “surveilled Falun Gong residents in Orange County,” and collected information for a “potential environmental lawsuit meant to inhibit the growth of Falun Gong community in Orange County.”

The Epoch Times’ previous investigation found that NYenvironcom’s founder and executive director, Alex Scilla, had lived in China for more than a decade and still maintains business interests there.

The Epoch Times reached out to Smith, Scilla, and Grace Woodard, who heads the Deerpark Rural Alliance, for comment but received no reply by publication time.

Scilla said in a court affidavit dated last December in an environmental lawsuit against Dragon Springs that he had never been employed by the Chinese regime and that neither he nor Woodard had acted on its behalf.