A Vizhnitz Hasidic community called Ateres is one step closer to being incorporated as a village in the Catskills, reports the Times Herald-Record.

Vizhnitz leaders delivered the petition requesting incorporation on June 14. After holding two public hearings on the matter in August, the supervisors of the two Sullivan County towns where Ateres is located announced on Friday that the petition met all legal requirements. 

Anyone opposed to the plans now has 30 days to challenge the petition in court. If no one does so, the town supervisors, Thompson Supervisor Bill Rieber and Fallsburg Supervisor Kathy Rappaport, will schedule a referendum where adults in Ateres will vote on whether or not it should become a village.

Led by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hager, Ateres is a 929-acre enclave with a population of 834 people, roughly 320 of whom are adults, according to the the Times Herald-Record.

In addition to Ateres, Seven Springs, a Hasidic community near Kiryas Joel, is also seeking to incorporate a village in New York State. Whether these communities will be able to do so will depend on Governor Kathy Hochul’s response to recent legislation.

Under current state law, 500 residents must live in a given area in order for that area to be eligible for village incorporation. But earlier this year, state senators James Skoufis, whose district includes Kiryas Joel, and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, in whose district village incorporation has also come up in a non-Haredi context, each sponsored bills that would make changes to the village incorporation law, including raising to 2,000 the required number of people living in a proposed village. These bills were passed by the state legislature in June, but Hochul has yet to sign them into law. The governor has until the end of the year to either sign them into law, or veto them, according to the Times Herald-Record.

In a joint statement, Rieber and Rappaport voiced support for the bills. They said opponents of the Vizhnitz petition raised "many well-articulated objections," but they couldn’t consider them given current village incorporation law, which limits the review to technical compliance and geographical requirements, rather than a substantive look at environmental or financial implications. "Therefore, many of these objections, while full of merit, are not actual reasons for challenge based on the antiquated Village Law," Rieber and Rappaport wrote.

In New York State, village designation allows residents to continue voting as part of the larger town in which they’re situated, while also offering some opportunities for self-governance. Villagers still often rely on the town for highways, fire protection, and utilities, but get to make their own decisions about zoning and local ordinances, and elect their own mayor.

Zev Tarkieltaub, the organizer of Ateres' incorporation push, told the Times Herald-Record why he thinks incorporation is necessary. “We feel that there’s a lot of priority that is, to us, a priority, that to the town, is not going to be a priority,” he said, using sidewalks and street lights as examples. “The town is busy now with a big job demolishing the 105 exit, so we understand that that’s priority over our sidewalks.” 

Tarkieltaub says the community also wants to improve lighting in the area, especially on Shabbat. But Tarkieltaub said that when he raised that issue with the town supervisor, the supervisor, while agreeing that lighting is important, did not share Tarkieltaub’s sense of urgency.

“We feel that by making our own village, we can put safety before other things,” Tarkieltaub said.

Tarkieltaub also dismissed concerns that the new village would approve high-density housing. “We're not looking for high density, we're looking just at what the town has approved up until now,” he said.

Vizhnitz is one of the largest Hasidic sects in New York, with large communities in Brooklyn and in Kaser, a village in Rockland County. Founded in 1990 and home to over 5,000 residents, Kaser is the most densely populated municipality in the state.