Monroe, N.Y. – When it came time to name five new streets last year, village of Monroe officials chose the last names of five local victims of the World Trade Center attacks as a tribute to them.
But the developer Shlomo Ekstein who is planning to build 60 homes along those roads had something different in his mind. Something redolent of tweed, Tudor and old Scottish golf courses like Prestwick – in other words, something befitting upscale homes across the road from Mansion Ridge Golf Course.
Ekstein has sued the village and Orange County to prevent the 9/11 names from being entered into the county’s E-911 system and gaining permanence. He insists the name swap will derail the marketing of homes.
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“We’re trying to be stately, subdued, a very elegant design,” said Jeff Rosenfeld, co-owner of Monroe Realty Center, which is handling the marketing. “And when you use the names of these treasured people, there seems to be an inappropriate use here.”
He argues in the lawsuit that Monroe trustees had no right to name streets that belong to Ekstein until he gives them to the village. He called their decision “an act of pure municipal arrogance, taken without an iota of legal authority.”