Property owners (hereinafter owners) brought action against the Town of Yorktown (hereinafter Town) to recover damages, claiming that certain regulations deprived them of economic use of their property, and thus constituted a de facto taking. The Supreme Court of Westchester County dismissed the claim and owners appealed. The Second Department held that diminution in the property’s value was insufficient to constitute a de facto taking.
Owners sold approximately 11 of their 15 acres of land for $3.6 million. The owners’ appraiser assigned the land a value of $10 million. Owners claim they were forced to sell the land because Town denied permits to build a car wash and auto body shop, denied wetland permits, imposed onerous environmental regulations on a supermarket project to be built on the property and refused to allow their property to be included in the sewer district. These actions, owners allege, constituted a de facto taking. The Second Department held that even assuming the appraisal value was accurate, the difference between $10 million and $3.6 million does not constitute a diminution in value sufficient to constitute a de facto taking. Owners must show that the parcel would never, under any permissible use, be capable of producing a reasonable return, and they failed to do so here.
Adrian v. Town of Yorktown, 920 N.Y.S.2d 411 (A.D. 2 Dept. 4/12/11)
The opinion can be accessed at: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad2/calendar/webcal/decisions/2011/D30788.pdf
