Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Real Estate & Property Law Blogs -> New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog

Real Estate & Property Law

: New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog

New York Court of Appeals Expands Criteria for Standing to Bring a SEQRA Challenge

By Steven Silverberg and Katherine Zalantis

The New York Court of Appeals has held that a person who can demonstrate greater enjoyment of a natural resource than the general public has standing under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) to challenge an action by a governmental entity which may threaten such a natural resource. In Matter of Save the Pine Bush v Common Council of the City of Albany, the Court held that both the individual petitioners and the organization had standing to challenge an action that allegedly threatened certain endangered species within the Pine Bush area. However, the Court also found that Petitioners had failed to prove their case on the merits as the City had examined the major potential impacts and the City "was not required to scrutinize every possible environmental issue, and the failure of the City's environmental impact statement (EIS) to discuss the possible impact of rezoning on certain rare species was therefore not a fatal flaw...continue to full post

Full post as published by New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog on October 27, 2009 (boomark / email).