Hillburn man demands right to park on boulder-blocked village lot

A Hillburn man who failed to persuade Rockland Supreme Court to make the village let him park on municipal property is trying again in federal court.

Dwaine C. Perry accused Hillburn of violating his civil rights by denying access to a small, vacant lot across the street from his house on Boulder Avenue, in a complaint filed Dec. 30 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.

“Perry and his family have parked on the vacant lot for over 100 years without interruption,” the complaint states, and “Perry’s understanding is that he and his family had the right to use and park on the vacant lot without interference.”

Perry is a disabled Vietnam veteran and the chief of the Ramapough Munsee Lunaape Nation.

Hillburn has owned the vacant lot since 1937, according to court records, and has allowed residents to park there.

Perry traces the dispute back to October 2021, when he spoke out against a zoning proposal that he believed could cause inequality problems for Native Americans.

In early March 2022, the village installed no-parking signs on the Boulder Avenue lot.

Weeks later, Perry petitioned Rockland Supreme Court to declare that he has the right to park on the vacant lot and to rule that the village harassed him in retaliation for questioning a proposed zoning change.

On Sept. 15, 2022, five large boulders were placed on the property, blocking access to the lot.

“As a disabled veteran having to walk a very long distance in the dark, cold and inclement weather from the … nearest legal parking,” Perry states in the federal lawsuit, “his health and personal safety are threatened.”

On Sept. 30, 2022, Rockland Supreme Court Justice Thomas Zugibe dismissed Perry’s county court petition.

While Perry alleged animus against Native Americans and persons with physical disabilities, prejudice against religious minorities, public corruption and retaliation for expressing his views at public hearings, the judge said, “the record does not elevate the rhetoric of these serious allegations into grounds to bootstrap this parking dispute into anything more than just that.”

Perry has appealed the decision.

Now, in the federal case, Perry alleges “taking of property” under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for barring his right to use the village lot; violation of his First Amendment rights by punishing him for speaking out against proposed zoning; and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act for failure to remove architectural barriers.

He is asking the court to order the removal of the boulders and no-parking signs, grant him a permanent parking easement, and award more than $350,000 for the diminished value of his property.

Mayor Joseph P. Tursi, who also is named as a defendant, did not reply to a messsage asking for his side of the story.

Perry is represented by Nanuet attorney Susan H. Shapiro.