Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR for New York Times Climate change / sea-level rise in Fiji The shoreline of Vunidoloa is heavily eroded due to the rising waters. Vunidoloa is situated on the Natewa Bay on Viti Levu, Fiji's main island. Vunidoloa has 140 inhabitants and frequently floods due to the rising waters. The situ ation became so precarious that the government decided to relocate the village. Unfortunately the site was poorly designed and is eroding before anyone moved there.

Asharoken, N.Y. January 10, 2017 — Swayed by public opinion, the Incorporated Village of Asharoken (“Asharoken”) opted out of a federal beach nourishment plan implemented by the Army Corp of Engineers (“ACOE”) in order to prevent the general public from accessing the Villages’ private beaches.

Asharoken is a narrow isthmus connecting the Village of Northport

At its January 10, 2017 meeting, the Town Board of the Town of Huntington held a public hearing to discuss its proposed ban on short-term rentals.  Several residents testified at the public hearing in opposition to the ban, explaining why short-term rentals are important to the Town.  A few residents explained that these short-term rentals

Last April, my colleague Anthony Guardino blogged about the Town of Southold’s local law banning “transient rental properties”, which Southold defined as dwellings that are rented out for less than fourteen nights at a time.   Now the Town of Huntington, New York is considering enacting a similar local law.

Huntington’s Proposed Ban

house for rent shutterstock_84704473The Town

logo-colorBefore we blog our way into 2017, we wanted to take a moment to review the topics that we blogged about in 2016 and to remind our readers that the land use practice group at Farrell Fritz is a diverse group of attorneys, which is why the topics that we blog about are quite diverse.

Monopole-TowerB1On December 21, 2016, the Appellate Division, Second Department, rendered yet another decision whereby an appeal was dismissed “as academic” on the grounds that during the pendency of the appeal, the land use development project that was the subject of the lawsuit/appeal was completed.

In Bruenn v. Town Board of the Town of Kent, 2014-07666

Jointly responsible for enforcing the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”), the U.S. Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development (“the Departments”) have issued numerous guidance documents and policy statements to help the public and state and local governments fully understand the FHA.  In November 2016, the Departments issued a new guidance document (“guidance

hour-glassUnder New York State law, zoning boards and planning boards are authorized to impose reasonable and appropriate conditions  and restrictions on the grant of a variance or special permit, provided that they are directly related to, and incidental to, the proposed use of the property.  Such conditions shall be consistent with the spirit and intent

IMG_0713At its November 17, 2016 meeting, the East Hampton Town Board (Town Board) unanimously adopted a local law that temporarily suspends the authority of the East Hampton Town Planning Board to grant certain site plan and subdivision approvals for properties located on or adjacent to Montauk Highway in Wainscott. The moratorium applies to non-residential Central

land bankAlthough the use of land banks has been in existence for many years in other states, it was not until after the New York real estate market collapsed in or around 2008  that the New York State Legislature enacted the 2011 New York State Land Bank Act (“Land Bank Act”). 

The Land Bank Act authorizes

We recently came across an interesting decision from a federal appeals court involving a town’s rescission of a 25-year-old negative declaration issued under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).  A “negative declaration” is a written determination by a lead agency that a proposed action will not result in significant adverse environmental impacts.