Petitioners Did Not Have Standing to Contest County’s Negative Declaration After a SEQRA Review

The Fourth Department determined petitioners did not have standing to contest the county’s negative declaration pursuant to a State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) review.  The action involved the county’s permitting the Monroe County Fair and Recreation Association, Inc. to operate a four-day agricultural festival on county land:

Where, as here, the proceeding does not involve a “zoning-related issue . . . , there is no presumption of standing to raise a SEQRA challenge” based solely on a party’s proximity … . In such a situation, parties seeking to establish standing must establish that the injury of which they complain “falls within the zone of interests,’ or concerns, sought to be promoted or protected” …, and that they “would suffer direct harm, injury that is in some way different from that of the public at large” … . Contrary to petitioners’ contention, we conclude that the court properly determined that the environmental effects relied on by each petitioner to establish his or her standing are no different in either kind or degree from that suffered by the general public … . We further conclude that the alleged environmentally related injuries are too speculative and conjectural to demonstrate an actual and specific injury-in-fact … . Thus, the court did not err in concluding that none of the petitioners has standing … . Matter of Kindred v Monroe County, 2014 NY Slip Op 05069, 4th Dept 7-3-14