Seven years after purchasing property in the Town, the owners applied to the zoning board for area variances to allow them to subdivide the property into two separate lots. The board denied the request. Twelve years after the denial, the owners, a husband and wife, conveyed a portion of property that was improved with a single-family residence to the husband, and they conveyed a smaller unimproved portion to the wife. The wife then applied for, and was denied, a building permit for the unimproved lot. She appealed to the zoning board for area variance to enable her to build a residence on the lot. The zoning board denied the application and an appeal ensued.
The trial court annulled the zoning board’s determination but the appeals court reversed. In upholding the denial, the Court found that the board properly considered the statutory factors for the granting of an area variance and that the denial had a rational basis in the record and was not illegal, arbitrary nor an abuse of discretion.
Zaniewski v. Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Riverhead, 2009 WL 2180579 (N.Y.A.D. 2 Dept. 7/21/2009).
The opinion can be accessed at: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad2/calendar/webcal/decisions/2009/D24041.pdf
