A Montrose resident claims that the Town of Cortlandt has allowed Dakota Supply Corp. to develop a 10-acre property without meaningful regulatory oversight, for the third time in 21 years.
Ralph G. Mastromonaco petitioned Westchester Supreme Court on May 20 to reverse a site plan approved by the Cortlandt planning board and to direct the town to take down any illegal work already in place.
“The board ignored the most basic tenets of site planning,” the petition states, “and blindly approved … a new building without an overall site plan.”
Mastromonaco describes himself as a licensed engineer with expertise in site planning, zoning law and land development. He lives about 700 feet from Dakota Supply’s property on Albany Post Road.
Dakota Supply, based in Rye, makes and sells masonry products at a site adjacent to the Cortlandt train station. The company provides landscaping materials, makes Ready-mix concrete, and operates a solid waste facility for construction and demolition debris.
Mastromonaco depicts the property as a “10-acre dystopian landscape of lung-scarring dust, diesel engine fumes, noise from industrial hammering, erosion, water pollution, broken-down trucks and cars, and odors from unknown solvents.”
This past January, an attorney representing Dakota Supply and company executive Jay Bilotta submitted a two-page letter to the planning board asking for approval of a “modest,” 2,400-square-foot metal storage building with no plumbing or electrical features.
On Feb. 6, the board approved the request. On March 29, a building permit was issued.
Mastromonaco says Dakota Supply downplayed the magnitude of the project. The structure will actually include two floors for a total of 4,700 square feet, he claims, and architectural plans show electrical and plumbing features.
He says the town did not issue a public notice or hold a public hearing, and the planning board quickly approved the project seven days after it was proposed.
He argues that the action is invalid because the board failed to refer its decision and provide an environmental assessment report to the Westchester County Department of Planning for review.
He alleges that the Cortlandt planning board also bypassed state law requiring county review in 2003 and 2005, for Dakota Supply projects.
He is asking the court to nullify the 2003, 2005, and 2024 site plan approvals, as well as the new building permit; order the town to hold a formal public hearing and require a comprehensive site plans for any future projects; and direct the town to disassemble and deconstruct any illegal works.
Town attorney Thomas Wood and Dakota Supply did not reply to an email asking for their responses to the allegations.
This is Mastromonaco’s fourth lawsuit in seven years challenging Cortlandt’s oversight of Dakota Supply. The courts rejected his previous petitions, and he has appealed two of the cases. He is representing himself without an attorney.
