The Appellate Division determined that the challenge to a proposal for a telecommunications facility (cell tower) on State land was not yet ripe for review. In Village of Pelham Manor v. Crown Communications N.Y., Inc. the Appellate Division found that, where Crown Communications had a contract with the State to construct cell towers on state land, the failure of the State to take final action on the proposal had, under the specific circumstances of this case, neither triggered a default provision in the contract that would have constituted an approval, nor otherwise resulted in a “final” acti ..read more

The New York Court of Appeals, in an action challenging the issuance of a use variance, clarified the application of the “relation back doctrine” to allow an amended petition adding a necessary party, after expiration of the statute of limitations. In Matter of Joseph Nemeth v. K-Tooling https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2023/2023_05349.htm the Court found, omitting the owner of the property at issue from the initial petition in the Article 78 challenge to the use variance could be cured through the relation back doctrine in CPLR 203 (C). Outlining the general rule at issue, the Court ..read more

The Appellate Division Second Department found that challenges to requirements of two  Zoning Board of Appeals decisions and the conditions to a site plan approval issued by a Planning Board should stand. In the Matter of Florida Historical Society v. the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Florida, the Court held that the challenges to the two determinations by the Zoning Board of Appeals (“ZBA”) were not timely, as they failed to be commenced within thirty days of the filing of the determinations and further upheld the determination of the Planning Board, fixing  conditions w ..read more

Last week the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an action pursuant to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”) challenging a local law that resulted in a religious school being denied the right to install specific lighting and a sound system for its baseball field. In Marianist Province of the United States; St. John Vianney High School, Inc.  v. City of Kirkwood, the Court held that the local regulations prohibiting spillage of light and sound, beyond certain levels,  into the adjacent neighborhood did not violate RLUIPA. The high school, which provides religio ..read more