Most homeowners in bedroom communities, small towns and villages buy their homes, likely the biggest purchase of their lives, based on the nature and features of home and the nature of its surrounding community. They assume that a neighborhood zoned as a single family home residential district will remain so. After all, homes in single family residential areas are significantly more expensive than homes in areas zoned for commercial uses or multi-family housing.

Of course, nothing is forever and changes in the broader area, society at large and other factors, may dictate a need for zoning changes. But the homeowner assumes that such changes require a process that the municipal body has to follow and courts available to enforce compliance. That assumption, however, is unfortunately wrong.

Not only are municipalities and developers represented by an army of experienced professionals and law firms such that, in certain areas of the state one cannot obtain a land use lawyer to challenge the municipalities' actions, the courts developed a rather skewed concept of standing which is used successfully to blunt essentially all legal challenges regardless of how blatantly the municipalities ignored the law, or how capricious and arbitrary their actions were. (Moreover, homeowners opposing zoning and land use actions can't come close to matching the legal and professional fees that large developers spend. See, e.g., Who Wouldn't Want a $500 Million Theme Park in Their Town?, New York Times (Oct. 3, 2021) ("It's a billion-dollar corporation and we spent $40,000 to $50,000 fighting it.").)