143- The Bruderhof Factory

You can read the minutes of the Esopus Planning Board meeting of January 15, 2014.  In this meeting we see the familiar mugs of Michael Moriello and Dennis Larios, representing Bruderhof's legal and engineering interests respectively.

The project was presented to the Planning Board, though in the project application, Bruderhof claims that discussions with town officials took place before the property was purchased two years earlier and assurances were made by town personnel that the factory would be approved.

For now, we will just pretend that everybody here was on the level, and we will look at the project on its face.

The application included descriptions of what would be produced in the factory.  The toys and medical equipment, the items disclosed to the Planning Board, are not approved manufactured items in the RF-1 zone.  The only manufacturing that is allowed in the RF-1 zone is mill work, but not furniture production.

A vague reference to federal statute in a legal letter by somebody unknown to me has me suspecting that the exception Bruderhof will claim is the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), described in a previous post.  Here is how that would work:

Bruderhof is a religious community, which is a permitted use in the Riverfront (RF-1) zone, the property in question.  Under normal circumstances, there would likely need to be a subdivision for the manufacturing use.  However, the applicants (Bruderhof) through Hans Boller, their PR guy, claimed that  "manufacturing is part of their religious life. Whatever is made and sold is filtered back into the religious community." What we see here is a claim that the act of "manufacturing" is claimed as part of the religion, so theirs will be a religious factory, no matter what it produces.

For some years, not far from Ulster County, Bruderhof produced airplanes.  It might again.  Who is to say that once the factory is built, it will not then switch manufacturing to whatever else Bruderhof is doing at the time?  This church has been assigned the aircraft patents of its interest's CEO, Christian Domer.

I spent hours trying to track this company's, sorry, church's corporate/operational web, and I lost the trail when the Rifton Aviation Services sold, and I got lost among Rifton Management LLC, Rifton Enterprises Inc, Rifton Enterprises LLC, Rifton Equipment, Bruderhof Communities in CT Inc, Community Products LLC, and of course Community Playthings LLC (dissolved).

This church has some SLICK accountants.

the interesting thing is that Hans Boller volunteered that Bruderhof wants to pay taxes to the town on the factory portion of the religious manufacturing experience, but does not want to subdivide the land, or seek a variance from the town in order to legally manufacture consumer products.  What this comes down to is the following:  Bruderhof wants their factory to be part of their general (and allowed in RF-1 zone) religious community, but they also want to pay taxes on this business.  Paying taxes on money earned in religious contemplation and activity, which is then spent to sustain the very people and very land that the workers live on, is all part of the same religious experience.  There is no way that the town can grant this church a religious exemption to produce furniture, or wheelchairs, or airplanes, or any other disallowed use in the RF-1 zone, and then turn around and collect taxes on the business operation, as though it were secular.

Is this church an exempt religious organization making consumer product to support itself?  Or is it a taxpaying landowner?  It seems the Esopus Planning Board and the church want it to be some of each.  Attorneys for Bruderhof stated, naturally, that there is no need to subdivide the property, which means that when the property is sold, manufacturing will be an allowed use for any buyer.  If no variance is granted for the factory, then the factory can only ever be operated by a religious organization.  How can a buyer of a property with a factory on it not be permitted to use the factory?  It can, since the use will be grandfathered in, somehow.  This is what the Town of Esopus is setting itself up for. Eventually.

To be fair, it has been reported to me that opinions of other employees of the Town of Esopus that have been consulted and ignored, are that this project requires a zoning variance.

142- That is SOME Vow of Poverty

I just found this New York Times article and could not resist sharing it.  To help set the tone for upcoming information about the factory these people want to build and operate on Mt St Alphonsus in Esopus.

From the New York Times, 1996:

Sometimes A Luxury Jet Serves God

By EVELYN NIEVES
Published: October 13, 1996

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THE Woodcrest Bruderhof have lived here for more than 40 years, and people still think of them as the Amish With Cars. Not so. Why, just the other day, members of this Christian pacifist sect were talking up big plans for their Gulfstream III executive charter jet.

Johann Christoph Arnold, the church elder, held up a two-page brochure with flattering glossies of the 11-passenger luxury plane. ''How'd you like to fly in one of these?'' he said teasingly, pointing out seats that looked like Barcaloungers.

Sipping strong coffee and nibbling dark chocolates, the Bruderhof were positively ecstatic over their new deal with the State Department of Transportation to lease an old hangar at Stewart airport in Newburgh. The deal will give their international air charter business, Rifton Enterprises, a home base a half-hour from home. In a few months, once they renovate the hangar, the Bruderhof plan to offer a gamut of services, from training to aircraft maintenance to plane rentals and sales. They're especially excited at the prospect of selling fuel, breaking a monopoly at Stewart by an American Airlines subsidiary.

WHICH sounds like a pretty deep dive into the waters of free enterprise for a spiritual movement whose 2,500 members in the United States and England pledge to live lives of hard work, community service and poverty.

141-The Ulster County Charlatans Are At It Again in Esopus

One of Ulster County's Hudson River jewels is the 400+ acre land known as Mt. St Alphonsus.  It was founded by the (Roman Catholic) Redemptionist Congregation in the early 20th century, and was home to Redemtionist seminarians for about one hundred years.  The land and the beautiful buildings were maintained in pristine condition, and due to a decrease in number of seminarians, sold in 2012.  The buyer is Bruderhof, a church growing out of the Anabaptist movement (from the 16th Century, the root of Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite churches.)

Bruderhof is a huge presence in Ulster County already, and their purchase of and residence on Mt. St. Alphonsus has only strengthened their representation and influence.

Bruderhof is currently applying to build a factory on Mt. St. Alphonsus, and their legal and engineering representation is none other than the sleazy team of Risely & Moriello, and Brinier & Larios.  These of course pushed the RUPCO project into Woodstock, and are at their same tricks now in Esopus.

Bruderhof runs several manufacturing businesses.  One of them is toys and furniture for children.  The furniture is made of maple.  Another business is Rifton, which makes furniture and other devices for the disabled.  These items involve metal, paint, upholstery, etc.

But wait, a factory?  On Mt. St. Alphonsus?  Isn't Mt. St. Alphonsus protected from hosting a factory by local zoning laws.? Yes, of course.  Mt. St. Alphonsus is in the RF-1 zone in Esopus, which is "rivefront residential."  The riverfront part is especially important, as it is supposed to protect the region as a natural riverfront asset.  Bruderhof claims that their business of manufacturing is part of their religious life, and that all of their income will be filtered back into their church.  Sounds typical of a church justifying whatever they care to do.  So, hand these people a religious exemption, and let them do whatever they want to do, whatever the zoning restrictions.

How can this be allowed?  It is allowed.  This is par for the course under RLUIPA:

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), Pub.L. 106–274, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq., is a United States federal law that prohibits the imposition of burdens on the ability of prisoners to worship as they please and gives churches and other religious institutions a way to avoid burdensome zoning law restrictions on their property use. It also defines the term “religious exercise” to include "any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief."

By claiming that manufacturing and selling {whatever} is part of their religious life, Bruderhof can put a factory producing {whatever} on their land.  It's that easy.

If that was the end of the story, we could blame the federal statute and go home.  But, of course, where Michael Moriello is seen in a planning board meeting having a fit, yelling defensively, you know there is more at play.

Let us dig deeper.  Soon.