At the Ellenville Planning Board on January 18, Jason Rashford of the Eastgate Group appeared with a preliminary plan for an application of a change of use for the former Chinese restaurant at 211 South Main Street.

The property is owned now by Congregation Anshei of Ellenville. The same group is believed to have bought the Emerald Pond apartment buildings directly across South Main Street. The Emerald Pond management has not returned phone calls, but it is thought that Congregation Anshei are in fact Satmar Hasidim.

Rashford explained that the applicant seeks to fix the structure and correct the numerous issues that the village code enforcement officer discovered last July. The plan is to divide the building and have one part become a “shul” (Yiddish for synagogue), with the rest becoming space for an educational use.

A playground space would be set up behind the building, where there is currently a parking area. The change in use therefore is from a restaurant to a “business and an assembly space.”

Brian Schug, the village code enforcement officer, recalled that the building was originally a house. He noted that a kitchen was added in the back. Rashford, when asked about the kitchen, said the plan was not to cook or serve food, but only to have a small “coffee” area.

It was noted by Village Planner Dan Shuster that the current property map lists 21 parking spaces on the lot. There is also a poorly delineated separation from the gas station situated next door.

The building earned a brief spell of notoriety in the summer of 2022 when Schug discovered a box with sick and dying baby chickens outside the building. Ellenville Police arrived on July 13 and found eight boys, aged between 11 and 14, sleeping upstairs in the building. The children were removed and their parents were contacted. At the time there was no water in the building, no smoke alarms, no fire protection, as well as “multiple egregious electrical violations.”

Later, one Burec Stein, aged 24, from Harrison Avenue in Williamsburg, was arrested and charged with eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. He was also charged with a number of village ordinance violations. Shug had come to the building on July 11 after putting up a Stop Work Order after observing that work was being done without the requisite permits. It appeared that the new owners did not obey the stop work order from the village.

The planning board recognized that a religious project would conform to the current zoning for the property. However, there was some discussion of problems that could arise from having numerous people crossing Route 209 back and forth between Emerald Pond and 211 South Main.

Rashford said the application will return to the planning board once changes are made to improve it.