New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog

The Appellate Division upheld a zoning board’s determination that recreation facilities open to the public is a permitted accessory use for a school. In the

The Appellate Division upheld dismissal of an action by a Town seeking to mandate construction of a pool as part of a private community recreation facility. In Matter of Town of Huntington v. Beechwoord Carmen Bidg. Corp,the Court reviewed the history of the development, which included a zoning amendment to…

The Appellate Division concluded that a notation on a subdivision map “not approved for building lots” was inadequate to place a purchaser on notice that there was an intention to maintain the two lots in question as undeveloped space. In Matter of Fuentes v. Planning Board of the Village of…

The Appellate Division held this week that by failing to obtain a preliminary injunction the challenge to a preliminary subdivision approval was ultimately rendered academic. In Matter of Sherman v.Planning Board of Village of Scarsdale, the Court found that while the challenge to a preliminary subdivision was pending the property…

The Appellate Division held that a planning erred in imposing a recreation fee without first doing an analysis of the recreation needs created by approving a site plan. In Matter of Dobbs Ferry Development Associates v. Bd. of Trustees of the Village of Dobbs Ferry, the court found that in…

The Appellate Division upheld a local planning board on a challenge to the location of access for a retirement community. In Matter of Fairway Manor, Inc. v. Bertinelli, an adjacent retirement community challenged the site plan approval based upon the proximity of the new access for the proposed development to…

The Court of Appeals reversed the Appellate Division and denied access, under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), to the names of teachers working at a charter school. In Matter of New York State United Teachers v. Brighter Choice Charter School, the Court of Appeals, after noting that charter schools…

The Appellate Division found that a request for an area variance to park in the front yard of the petitioner’s property would produce an undesirable change in the neighborhood and therefore the zoning board properly denied the requested variance. In Matter of Russo v. City of Albany Zoning Board, the…

Citing the public trust doctrine, the Appellate Division sustained the issuance of a preliminary injunction against the non-park use of alleged parkland, despite the fact that the use of the property for non-park purposes dates to 1946. In

A court granted summary judgment to the Town of Southold enjoining continued violation of the local zoning ordinance. In Town of Southold v. Estate of Edson, the court restated several basic principles relating to enforcement of local zoning: “plaintiff was entitled to injunctive relief to enforce its zoning laws…and estoppel…