In a case primarily dealing with the authority of a Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to interpret a zoning provision, the Court also addressed the issue of late filing of the ZBA decision. In the Matter of Stone Industries, Inc. v. Zoning Board of appeals of the Town of Ramapo,…
The Appellate Division upheld a zoning board determination that the existence of a legal nonconforming use did not give the property owner the right to maintain a different nonconforming use. In Bradhurst Site Construction Corp. v Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Mount Pleasant, the Court found the…
The denial of a special permit was found to be arbitrary when unsupported by empirical evidence. In Matter of 7-Eleven, Inc. v. Incorporated Village of Mineola, the Appellate Division reversed the Village Board and the lower court and remanded the matter for the Board of Trustees to issue a special…
The Appellate Division overturned the lower court reversal of a zoning board of appeals (ZBA) decision for failure to certify the record filed in response to an Article 78 proceeding. In Matter of Robert E. Haveli Revocable Trust v.Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Monroe, the Appellate Division…
The difficulty of meeting the burden of proof for a use variance was demonstrated again this week. In Matter of Nemeth v. Village of Hancock Zoning Board of Appeals, the Appellate Division reversed the lower court and the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), holding that a use variance to expand…
The Appellate Division upheld the denial of area variances to permit the legalization of an addition to an accessory structure. In the Matter of Sacher v. Village of Old Brookville, the Court and the Zoning Board appear to have been influenced by the fact that the applicant had constructed the…
The Appellate Division had to once again remind a Zoning Board of Appeals that practical difficulty is no longer the test for an area variance. In Matter of Mimassi v. Town of Whitestown Zoning Board of Appeals, the Appellate Division reversed, in part, the lower court’s dismissal of the petition…
This week the New York Court of Appeals clarified that a parking variance is an area variance, except when it is not. In Matter of Colin Realty Co. v. Town of North Hempstead, the Court concluded that, in most instances, a parking variance is an area variance. However, at the…
The Appellate Division, in a somewhat rare instance, upheld the denial of a special permit to expand an existing day care center. In Matter of Smyles v. Board of Trustees of Incorporated Village of Mineola, the Court found there was sufficient expert evidence that the expansion of the facility would…
The Appellate Division restated the limited nature of judicial review of the decisions of a Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). In Matter of Slonim v. Town of E. Hampton Zoning Bd. of Appeals, the Court noted that the ZBA properly upheld the determination of the building inspector finding that a…