DEVELOPER DID NOT HAVE A VESTED RIGHT IN A CONDITIONAL FINAL SITE APPROVAL IN LIGHT OF A CONFLICTING REZONING LAW IN EFFECT PRIOR TO THE APPROVAL.

The Court of Appeals determined petitioners did not have a vested right in a conditional final site approval because it was not reasonable for petitioners rely on the approval in light of the conflicting local law rezoning the property:

An owner of real property can acquire a common law vested right to develop the property in accordance with prior zoning regulations when, in reliance on a “legally issued permit,” the landowner “effect[s] substantial changes and incur[s] substantial expenses to further the development” and “[t]he landowner’s actions relying on [the] valid permit [are] so substantial that the municipal action results in serious loss rendering the improvements essentially valueless” (see generally 4 Rathkopf’s The Law of Zoning and Planning § 70:20 [4th ed]). Here, it was not reasonable for petitioners to rely on the December 2007 conditional Final Site Approval of the development, in carrying out any substantial actions furthering the development. In particular, in 2005, the year before the rezoning of petitioners’ property by means of Local Law No. 3 (2006) of Town of Newburgh, the Town Planning Board had repeatedly warned petitioners of the proposed rezoning. The December 2007 Approval itself did not engender expectations to the contrary. It included a statement of the new zoning status of the property. Additionally, while petitioners challenged the rezoning in court, petitioners must have been “cognizant of the potential for an eventual legal ruling that the Local Law was in fact valid” … . Matter of Exeter Bldg. Corp. v Town of Newburgh, 2016 NY Slip Op 00999, CtApp 2-11-16

ZONING (DEVELOPER DID NOT HAVE A VESTED RIGHT IN A CONDITIONAL FINAL SITE APPROVAL)