Before adjudication, a court must determine whether a plaintiff has standing. Standing means that the party has a right to access the courts for a particular dispute. A petitioner bears the burden to show an actual injury and that the violated statute was meant to prevent this type of injury. In land use matters specifically, a petitioner “must show that
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Prior Agreement Limiting Waste Processing Trumps DEC Renewal Permit
In Incorporated Village of Lindenhurst v. One World Recycling, LLC, et al., the Second Department reversed the lower court’s denial of permanent injunctive relief, in large part based on the existence of prior agreements between the parties. The appellant, Incorporated Village of Lindenhurst (the “Village”), sought to prohibit One World Recycling, LLC (“One World”) from exceeding waste processing limits
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Second Department Reverses Dismissal of Article 78 Proceeding on Ripeness Grounds
A recent Second Department decision, Matter of Village of Kiryas Joel v County of Orange, et al., addresses the intriguing justiciability doctrine of ripeness, as applied to judicial review of municipal administrative action.
In 2007, Orange County (the “County”) acquired property known as Camp LaGuardia from the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Originally, the County’s plan was to
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Standing And The Open Meetings Law
A popular topic on this blog is standing in the context of a challenge to a municipal determination, primarily under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. A recent case issued by the Appellate Division, Second Department, entitled Matter of McCrory v Village of Mamaroneck Board of Trustees, involves standing in the context of a challenge to a municipal
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Second Department Affirms Dismissal of Article 78 Proceeding for Lack of Standing
The City of New Rochelle adopted an ordinance in 2017, amending the zoning code to apply a senior citizen overlay district to certain real property comprised of approximately 3.4 acres at 121 Mill Road in New Rochelle. The City adopted a negative declaration pursuant to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act for the amendment. The zoning code amendment
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SEQRA Challenge Rejected by Appellate Court Because of Lack of Standing and Untimeliness of the Challenge
Several prior blog posts discussed standing requirements under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and the timeliness of challenging a SEQRA determination. A decision from the Appellate Division, Third Department, Schulz v Town Board of the Town of Queensbury, issued on October 24, 2019, involved both of these elements and was a one-two punch that knocked out
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Lack of Standing Prevents a Challenge to a Local Law that Requires Massage Therapists to be Licensed by the Municipality
The Appellate Division recently issued a decision that explained why a massage therapist and the American Massage Therapy Association, (AMTA), a professional organization of massage therapists, lacked standing to challenge a local law enacted by the Town of Greenburgh. At issue in Matter of American Massage Therapy Association v Town of Greenburgh was a local law that required massage
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Fourth Department: Interest in Architecture and Historic Preservation Not Sufficient to Confer Standing Under SEQRA
In Schmidt v. City of Buffalo Planning Bd., 174 A.D.3d 1413 (4th Dept., July 31, 2019), the petitioner, Terrence Robinson, filed suit to prevent the demolition of an architecturally significant apartment complex, claiming that the City Planning Board failed to comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) when it adopted a negative declaration of environmental significance on
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Lack Of Standing, Once Again, Dooms A Challenge To Municipal Action
A recent case from the Appellate Division, Second Department, addresses one of our favorite topics, standing. It is a cautionary tale about how not to establish standing.
Tilcon New York, Inc. v Town of New Windsor involved a hybrid proceeding in which the plaintiff/petitioner asserted nine separate causes of action. The appellate court determined that plaintiff/petitioner lacked standing on each
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City of Rye Lacks Standing to Challenge a Westchester County Board of Legislators Decision
Over the past several years, this blog has presented several posts on the topic of standing. It is a frequent topic because it is often raised as a threshold issue in zoning and land use cases. If a challenger to an administrative decision fails to establish it has standing, the challenge will be dismissed even before the Court reaches
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