Petitioners Did Not Have Standing to Challenge Construction of Shopping Mall/No Showing of Unique Environmental Injury

The Second Department determined that members of a “Neighborhood Preservation Coalition” did not have standing to challenge the construction of a shopping mall.  The petitioners lived approximately 1300 to 2000 feet away from the proposed construction site:

Contrary to the petitioners’ contention, the Supreme Court properly concluded that they lacked standing. ” [I]n land use matters . . . the plaintiff[s], for standing purposes, must show that [they] would suffer direct harm, injury that is in some way different from that of the public at …large'” … . Here, the individual petitioners, none of whom allege that the site of the proposed mall is visible from their homes, do not live close enough to the site to be afforded a presumption of injury-in-fact based on proximity alone … . Further, the individual petitioners’ allegations are insufficient to demonstrate that the construction of the proposed mall would cause them to suffer an environmental injury different from that of members of the public at large, who use Fairway Drive for access, inter alia, to a golf course… . Matter of Riverhead Neighborhood Preserv Coalition Inc v Town of Riverhead Town Bd, 2013 NY Slip Op 08640, 2nd Dept 12-26-13