A landowner is suing the Village of Sloatsburg, New York, after local officials blocked vehicles from using a 50-foot-wide strip that had provided access to roughly 50 acres of property for more than four decades.
asserted
that → sue → decades
Ramapo Fields, LLC, claims the village’s zoning decision effectively cut off the only route to its larger parcel, leaving the land undevelopable and potentially worthless.
uncertain
decision → claim → land
According to Rockland County Business Journal, the dispute centres on whether vehicle access should be treated as a separate land use under the village’s zoning code.
uncertain
access → accord → code
The company is asking the court to overturn the decision, prevent enforcement and award damages for the alleged loss in property value.
asserted
company → ask → value
The strip at the centre of the dispute
Ramapo Fields owns three parcels with a combined area of about 50 acres.
asserted
Fields → own → acres
The larger parcel, measuring approximately 48 acres, lies in the Town of Ramapo near the border with Sloatsburg.
asserted
parcel → measure → Sloatsburg
The property is landlocked, meaning it does not have an independent route connecting it to a public road.
asserted
it → mean → road
For more than 40 years, vehicles and commercial trucks reached the larger tract through a 50-foot-wide strip of land connected to Sterling Mine Road.
asserted
vehicles → reach → Road
The strip is located within the Village of Sloatsburg and is owned by Ramapo Fields, but it is legally separate from the larger parcel.
asserted
it → locate → parcel
That division has become central to the case.
asserted
division → become → case
The larger property falls under the Town of Ramapo’s zoning framework, while the narrow access parcel is within Sloatsburg and subject to the village’s rules.
asserted
parcel → fall → rules
The lawsuit argues that the village is focusing on the use of the smaller parcel without properly considering what its decision means for the larger property.
asserted
decision → argue → property
How the zoning conflict began
The dispute reportedly began after a complaint led the Sloatsburg building inspector to issue a code violation.
uncertain
complaint → begin → violation
The citation stated that allowing commercial trucks and other vehicles to cross the 50-foot strip for access to other properties was not a permitted use in the village’s Industrial Park, or IP, zoning district.
asserted
trucks → state → district
The village’s Zoning Board of Appeals later upheld that interpretation.
asserted
Board → uphold → interpretation
Officials treated the strip as a stand-alone parcel and concluded that truck traffic was not among the uses permitted under the local zoning code.
asserted
traffic → treat → code
The IP district permits several forms of nonresidential activity.
asserted
district → permit → activity
These include light manufacturing, research, assembly, processing, packing and warehousing of goods and products, provided that storage of materials and equipment takes place inside fully enclosed buildings.
asserted
storage → include → buildings
The district also allows offices, garden nurseries, landscape contractor yards and masonry suppliers.
asserted
district → allow → offices
Ramapo Fields argues that the village’s approach creates an unreasonable result.
asserted
approach → argue → result
The company says the strip’s function is to provide access to the larger property, not to operate as an independent commercial facility.
asserted
function → say → facility
If vehicles cannot cross it, the larger parcel has no practical entrance.
asserted
parcel → cross → entrance
Why the owner says the land became worthless
The lawsuit claims that Sloatsburg’s interpretation of its zoning code effectively makes the larger tract impossible to use or develop.
uncertain
tract → say → code
Ramapo Fields says the property had access for decades and that the sudden restriction removed the only route for trucks, equipment and other vehicles.
asserted
restriction → say → trucks
The company is asking the court to declare that vehicular ingress and egress, meaning entering and leaving a property, is not an independent land use requiring separate permission under the village code.
asserted
ingress → ask → code
Its position is that access should be treated as a necessary function of reaching the land, rather than as a standalone use of the strip.
asserted
access → treat → strip
The owner also alleges that the village is applying the rule selectively.
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village → allege → rule
According to the lawsuit, other landowners in the Industrial Park district are permitted to have trucks travel across their properties.
uncertain
trucks → accord → properties
Ramapo Fields claims that treating its access route differently is unfair and unsupported by the zoning law.
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treating → claim → law
The company is seeking damages based on the alleged taking of the larger parcel’s value.
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company → seek → value
In legal terms, a taking claim can arise when government action is alleged to deprive a property owner of the practical or economic use of land, although the court will have to determine whether that argument applies in this case.
uncertain
argument → arise → case
Earlier court battle over property rights
The current lawsuit follows an earlier legal dispute over ownership and easements involving the same Sloatsburg parcel.
asserted
lawsuit → follow → parcel
In January 2025, Rockland County Supreme Court Justice David Fried ruled that Ramapo Fields owned the 50-foot strip in fee simple, according to the report.
uncertain
Fields → rule → report
Fee simple generally refers to full ownership of real property, subject to applicable laws, restrictions and easements.
asserted
simple → refer → laws
The court’s decision also recognised access rights held by two neighbouring property owners.
asserted
decision → recognise → owners
That earlier litigation involved allegations that the neighbouring easement holders had gone beyond the rights granted to them.
asserted
holders → involve → them
One neighbour was required to remove part of a building constructed within the easement area.
asserted
neighbour → require → area
Another had to remove a parking pad that had allegedly been installed improperly.
uncertain
that → have → pad
The ownership ruling did not resolve the separate question of whether Ramapo Fields could use the strip for vehicle access to its larger parcel.
uncertain
Fields → resolve → parcel
What Ramapo Fields is asking the court to do
Ramapo Fields has requested both temporary and permanent injunctions against enforcement of the zoning interpretation used by the building inspector and the Zoning Board of Appeals.
asserted
Fields → ask → Appeals
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
