The decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, in which the Supreme Court applied a strict scrutiny test to local sign laws, initially drew little notice but it is already having far reaching implications. Sandwiched between high profile decisions on gay marriage and Obamacare in late June, in the case…
At the end of June, lost among the headlines about other rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a local sign law was unconstitutional. In Reed v. Town of Gilbert, 135 S.Ct. 2218 (2015) the Court broke new ground in interpreting permissible sign regulations. In our article, published in the…
The New York Court of Appeals held that the use of certain lands for park purposes under a memorandum of agreement or license/lease was not an implied permanent dedication for park purposes. In Matter of Glick v. Harvey the Court rejected the challenge to the City’s granting permission to utilize…
The Appellate Division granted a petition challenging condemnation of property on the grounds that the Town segmented the review of the project in violation of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). In Matter of J. Owens Building Co., Inc. V. Town of Clarkstown the Court held the proposed condemnation…
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 reversed the lower court and upheld the denial of an application for area variances to construct an apartment building in a neighborhood largely consisting of single family homes. In the Matter of People, Inc. V. City of Tonawanda Zoning Board of Appeals, the Court held that the…