Landscaping in Monsey, NY

Working in Monsey

Monsey is a hamlet in the Town of Ramapo with about 27,000 residents on roughly 2.3 square miles, which works out to nearly 11,800 people per square mile in the 2020 census. The village of Kaser sits entirely inside it, and it borders Airmont, Spring Valley, New Hempstead, and Viola. Routes 59 and 306 meet near its center.

That density shapes almost every outdoor project. Houses sit close together, yards are small next to the size of the homes, and roofs, driveways, and paved areas cover much of each lot. Rain has little open ground to soak into, so water from roofs and hard surfaces has to be piped and graded to an outlet on purpose.

Many Monsey yards also get heavy daily use. Patios and walks need a base built for traffic, fences need to handle privacy and safety on tight lot lines, and cleanups and deliveries have to happen without blocking a shared street or a neighbor's driveway. We plan staging and material drops before the job starts.

What we build in Monsey

Before you build in Monsey

Permits and rules in Monsey

Most of Monsey is unincorporated and falls under the Town of Ramapo Building, Planning and Zoning Department. Parts of the surrounding area are in incorporated villages such as Airmont, Kaser, Chestnut Ridge, and Wesley Hills, which run their own building departments and codes. We confirm which municipality your property is in from the tax map before applying for anything.

In the town, a fence or wall up to 4 feet is allowed along any lot line, and up to 6 feet along the part of a lot line behind the required front yard. Anything over 6 feet must be set back from the line by two thirds of its height, and the better looking side has to face the neighbor or street. At corners, fences, walls, and hedges in the sight area cannot rise more than 3 feet above the street centerline, and fences around in-ground pools must be at least 48 inches high and approved in writing by the Building Inspector.

Residential patios appear on the Ramapo building permit fee schedule, so we plan for a permit on patio work. The town also issues land disturbance permits under its soil erosion law, with a fee of $25 per acre disturbed and a $25 minimum; jobs without a building permit submit a simple sketch of the area and the erosion controls. Lots in a mapped floodplain need a separate floodplain development permit, and we prepare the plot plans and file each application.

When to schedule work in Monsey

For town collection, leaves go to the curb in biodegradable brown paper bags, grass clippings go in the same kind of bags, and brush must be cut to 4 feet or less and tied in bundles of 60 pounds or less. Villages around Monsey may run their own schedules, so we check the rules for your address before a cleanup.

Patio and drainage projects are best booked for late spring through fall, when the ground is dry enough to compact properly. Plan permit time into that schedule, especially for patios. Snow removal on dense streets is mostly about clearing walks and short driveways, and we salt steps and entries so they stay usable through a busy morning.

All services in Monsey

Guides for Monsey homeowners

• Yard drainage in Rockland County. Most wet yards in Rockland come down to clay soil, a bad grade, and roof water with nowhere to go.
• Downspout drainage options: where roof water should go. Most wet basements and soggy foundation beds we look at in Rockland and Bergen start at a downspout that empties within a foot or two of the wall.
• Regrading a yard to slope away from the house. When the ground next to a house is flat or tilts toward the foundation, rain runs to the wall and soaks in beside it.
• Fence permits and property lines. A fence is one of the few projects where a few inches of placement can start a legal dispute.

Nearby

We also work in Nanuet, New City, Suffern, Pomona, West Nyack, Pearl River, Hillburn, Valley Cottage, and across Rockland County.

Questions

Something to haul away first? See junk removal in Monsey.