ELIZABETHTOWN -- Essex County Supreme Court will not transfer the Lewis Family Farm Inc. building permit case to Judge Kevin Ryan.

Acting Supreme Court Judge Richard Meyer issued a decision, filed Monday.

In it, Meyer also adhered to his earlier order that the Lewis Family Farm Inc. remit $50,000 in Adirondack Park Agency fines while the legal dispute over construction of farm-worker housing is reviewed in court.

Meyer said the nearly completed houses at the heart of the matter must remain unoccupied until the jurisdiction issue is resolved.

APPEAL FILED

Lewis Family Farm attorney John J. Privitera appealed Meyer's decision after it was filed Monday.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled in Appellate Court on May 12 in Albany.

APA spokesman Keith McKeever said that, "during the interim, the Appellate Division ordered that the Lewis Farm must pay the $50,000 civil penalty to the Essex County treasurer by May 5 and ordered temporary occupancy allowed in one of the single-family dwellings until the matter is heard by the Appellate Division on May 12."

The jurisdictional challenge arose after APA's Enforcement Committee ruled March 25 that the Lewis Family Farm, owned by Salim B. and Barbara Lewis of Essex, had to apply for building permits for two of three new buildings because farm-worker houses are defined as "single-family dwellings" on Resource Management land.

One of the buildings, APA staff attorneys said, is a replacement structure and not subject to permit requirements.

Privitera argued that all the buildings are agricultural-use structures and thus not subject to any APA jurisdiction by state Right-to-Farm Law.

DENSITY ISSUE

Density is a key aspect defining the regulation dispute.

Density requirements, as measured by APA in the Adirondack Park Act, limit one house per 42.7 acres of Resource Management lands.

But density on agricultural land counts all farm buildings together as a single principal building.