In reversing an opinion of the trial court, an appeals court determined that the Town followed proper procedures in the adoption of its 2007 Comprehensive Plan pursuant to local law which contained a recommendation for elimination of a light industrial zoning district floating zone which allowed residential and agricultural areas to be rezoned for industrial uses, including mining. The Court concluded that the Town properly complied with the required environmental law, and that the suggestion that the effect of the change in zoning would be a “blanket prohibition” of mining goes to a judgment of the substance of the law as opposed to the quality of the Town’s environmental review. Furthermore, the Court determined that the Town complied with applicable referral requirements (General Municipal Law 239-m) in adopting the local law since the full environmental assessment form was sent to, and received by, the County Department of Planning and Development. The fact that the Town did not forward to the County one comment made during the public hearing concerning the enactment of the law, which in essence expressed the opinion that the hearing was unnecessary, was not an error since the comment was not essential to the Town’s finding of non-significance.
Red Wing Properties v Town of Milan, 2010 WL 1231201 (N.Y.A.D. 2 Dept. 3/30/2010).
The opinion can be accessed at: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad2/calendar/webcal/decisions/2010/D25469.pdf
See also, http://www.hudsongreenway.state.ny.us/news/10-04-06/Greenway_Compact_Indemnity_Case_Decided.aspx
