Faith, Stewardship, and Local Control: Separation of Church and State

Dear Friends and Neighbors

Across faith traditions, we are taught that the Earth is sacred and entrusted to our care. Stewardship is not symbolic; it is moral law. In rural communities like Fallsburg, that stewardship has very real meaning: protecting aquifers, preserving farmland, maintaining infrastructure, and ensuring that growth does not overwhelm the land or the people who live here year-round.

State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Brian Cunningham, are again advancing the “Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act (S3397B/A3647B).” The bill would allow religious organizations to build housing on their property “as-of-right,” bypassing local zoning authority and many environmental review requirements under SEQRA. Supporters describe the legislation as a solution to the housing crisis. But in rural towns like Fallsburg, we must ask deeper questions.

Does Bypassing Local Review Respect Our Needs?

Faith traditions call for humility and balance. Yet this bill removes local oversight — the very mechanism communities use to protect wetlands, groundwater, road capacity, emergency services, and rural character.

In Fallsburg, we already face:
• Water supply limitations
• Strain on aging infrastructure
• Seasonal population surges
• High-density projects proposed in areas never designed for them

Allowing development to move forward without full environmental review or meaningful local input does not reflect stewardship. It reflects speed and greed. And greed is not a virtue when natural systems are at stake.

Will This Truly Serve the People Most in Need?

The bill promises “affordable housing.” But affordability definitions are tied to area median income formulas, not necessarily to the homeless, the working poor, or local workforce families struggling to stay here. Moreover by allowing a religious organization to control housing, it also means allowing them to control who the resident maybe.

In Fallsburg, most recent developments function as:
• Seasonal housing
• Secondary residences
• High-density units serving summer populations

If new projects follow the same pattern, how does this solve homelessness? How does this house year-round working families? How does this stabilize the local economy outside the summer months?

Affordable on paper is not always accessible in practice.

Rural Towns Are Not Urban Districts

The bill was largely designed with urban areas in mind. But rural towns operate differently:
• We rely on groundwater, not large municipal reservoirs.
• We depend on volunteer fire departments.
• Our roads and electric systems were built for farmland and low density, not urban-style buildouts.

Removing zoning safeguards in such areas risks irreversible consequences. Once aquifers are depleted or wetlands destroyed, they do not regenerate on a legislative timeline.

Faith Should Elevate Responsibility, Not Eliminate Oversight

True faith-based stewardship does not mean building without limits. It means building wisely and within limits.

It means:
• Comprehensive environmental review.
• Transparent local planning.
• Infrastructure capacity studies before approvals.
• Ensuring projects truly serve all full-time residents in need.

If housing is genuinely meant for the homeless or working poor, it should be structured and monitored in a way that guarantees this outcome.

Stewardship Over Expediency

This legislation has been introduced before. It may return again, especially in an election year. But voters of faith, and voters of reason, should ask:

Does removing local control protect communities?
Are religious communities truly inclusive of everyone?
Does density without infrastructure serve the vulnerable, or does it strain the towns that must absorb it?

Fallsburg does not oppose compassion or new construction. Fallsburg opposes reckless expansion without accountability.

Faith teaches restraint.
Science teaches sustainability.
Local governance exists for a reason.

If we are truly people of faith, we must insist that any housing solution reflect both compassion and conservation, not one at the expense of the other.  

Fallsburg's Future is a community network of concerned Fallsburg residents established in January 2016. Its Mission is to help guide the urban development of the town of Fallsburg and its five hamlets, to promote its sustainable economic development, protect the fragile beauty of its natural habitats and enhance the opportunities and quality of life for all its residents and visitors. We hope to curb the suburban sprawl that is threatening to overwhelm the town’s physical infrastructure and destroy the natural beauty that the area depends on for its future development. See us on Facebook and our website Fallsburgsfuture.com.