Petitioners’ Properties Not Close Enough to Proposed Development to Confer Standing to Allege Violations of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA)
The Second Department determined petitioners did not have standing to bring an action alleging violations of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) because petitioners’ properties were not sufficiently close to the location of the development project:
To establish standing under SEQRA, a petitioner must show (1) an environmental injury that is in some way different from that of the public at large, and (2) that the alleged injury falls within the zone of interests sought to be protected or promoted by SEQRA … . An injury in fact may be inferred from a showing of close proximity of the petitioner’s property to the proposed development … . Generally, the relevant distance is the distance between the petitioner’s property and the actual structure or development itself, not the distance between the petitioner’s property and the property line of the site … . Here, the individual petitioners’ properties were not located in sufficient proximity to the proposed development to give rise to standing … . Matter of Tuxedo Land Trust Inc v Town Bd of Town of Tuxedo, 2013 NY Slip Op 08255, 2nd Dept 12-11-13