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Revised Regulations

  • Green infrastructure upgrades or retrofits;
  • Installation of solar arrays on closed landfills, cleaned-up brownfield sites, wastewater treatment facilities, and sites zoned for industrial use, or solar canopies on residential and commercial parking facilities;
  • Installation of solar arrays on an existing structure not listed on the National or State Register of Historic Places;
  • Reuse of a residential or commercial structure, or structure containing mixed residential and commercial uses;
  • Acquisition and dedication of parkland;
  • Land transfers in connection with one, two or three family housing; and
  • Construction and operation of certain anaerobic digesters at operating publicly owned landfills.
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Cases

Friends of P.S. 163 v. Jewish Home Lifecare, Manhattan

  • The Appellate Division, Second Department ordered the preparation of a supplemental EIS to assess the presence of wetlands on the site of a housing development in the Town of Ramapo, where the town planning board had relied on a 2007 letter from the Corps of Engineers about a smaller project rather than requiring a new jurisdictional determination from the Corps. Shapiro v. Planning Board of the Town of Ramapo, 155 A.D.3d 741 (2d Dept. 2017). A separate decision required a supplemental EIS for that project concerning the impacts of placing the homes in close proximity to a natural gas pipeline. Youngewirth v. Town of Ramapo Town Board, 155 A.D.3d 755 (2d Dept. 2017).
  • Ramapo was keeping the Second Department busy, and the court affirmed the nullification of the approval of a commercial development straddling the Towns of Ramapo and Haverstraw because there had not been consideration of whether a supplemental EIS was needed in view of the addition of a 16-pump gasoline station to the project. Green Earth Farms Rockland v. Town of Haverstraw Planning Board, 153 A.D.3d 823 (2d Dept. 2017).
  • The Fourth Department annulled a negative declaration for a supermarket in Rochester, where the presence of soil contamination on the site had been ignored. Rochester Eastside Residents for Appropriate Development v. City of Rochester, 150 A.D.3d 1678 (4th Dept 2017).
  • The Supreme Court for Seneca County required the preparation of an EIS for a local law adopted by the Town of Seneca Falls that would allow an existing solid waste landfill to stay open, despite an earlier law requiring its closure. Waterloo Contractors v. Town of Seneca Falls Town Board, 2017 NY Misc. Lexis 3540 (Sup. Ct. Seneca Co. Sept. 13, 2017).
  • The Supreme Court for Broome County vacated the site plan approval and negative declaration for a natural gas compressor facility in the Town of Fenton near a public park and near an intersection needed for access to a school. Chenango Valley Central School District v. Town of Fenton Planning Board, 2017 NY Misc. Lexis 3243 (Sup.Ct. Broome Co. Aug. 28, 2017).
  • The Supreme Court in Suffolk County required the preparation of a supplemental EIS for a townhome development in Southampton to consider whether there was adequate water supply. Shinnecock Neighbors v. Town of Southampton, 55 Misc. 3d 1224(A), 61 N.Y.S.3d 193 (Sup. Ct. Suffolk Co. 2017).

Mutual Aid Association of the Paid Fire Department of the City of Yonkers v. City of Yonkers Michael B. Gerrard is a professor and director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, and senior counsel to Arnold & Porter. Edward McTiernan , a partner in Arnold & Porter, is a former general counsel of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.