The Appellate Division upheld two lower court decisions which dismissed challenges to the SEQRA findings, site plan and subdivision approval for a shopping center in the Town of Newburgh. In Matter of Save Open Space v. Planning Bd. Of the Town of Newburgh the court noted judicial review is limited…
The New York Court of Appeals has held that a person who can demonstrate greater enjoyment of a natural resource than the general public has standing under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) to challenge an action by a governmental entity which may threaten such a natural resource. In…
In a case involving a challenge to site plan approval for a Wal-Mart, the Appellate Division Fourth Department found a number of challenges to procedural/technical oversights by the planning board to be insufficient to cause the court to overturn the approval. In Matter of Residents Against Wal-Mart v. Planning Board…
In Matter of Oyster Bay Associates Limited Partnership v. Town Board of Town of Oyster Bay the Second Department upheld the denial of a special permit. This case has a seven year litigation history with multiple decisions by the Supreme Court and Appellate Division addressing the SEQRA review for a…
The Appellate Division Second Department modified a lower court decision dismissing an action challenging a zoning amendment, where the lower court had held that petitioners all lacked standing to bring the action. In Matter of Bloodgood v. Town of Huntington the court separated the petitioners into several categories in order…
Last year we reported on the case of Goldstein v Pataki, 516 F3d 50 [2008] involving the proposed condemnation of property in Brooklyn, New York in order to build the so called Atlantic Yards Project which includes a huge residential and commercial development along with an arena for the New…
When a findings statement fails to pass, SEQRA does not preclude a reconsideration of the exact same findings statement at a later date. In the Matter of East End Property Company #1 LLC v. Town Board of the Town of Brookhaven, the Appellate Division found that there was nothing in…
Due to a busy litigation schedule, we fell short in reporting a number of SEQRA and zoning cases that came down during March of 2008. So we thought we would provide a brief summary of some of the cases decided by New York appellate courts during March of 2008, in…
Occasionally, early in the process of reviewing an application, everyone on the municipal board knows that an application is not likely to be granted. Then the question occurs, do we have to require that the applicant go through a full environmental review under SEQRA before we turn down the application?…
The appellate division dismissed a challenge to a town board resolution authorizing consideration of a cluster development in the case of Maor v. Town of Ramapo Planning Board, finding it was not a “final determination” subject to review. Toll Brothers had applied to the planning board for a subdivision and…