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DETERMINATION ALLOWING USE OF RESIDENTIAL STREETS TO ACCESS A CLAY MINING OPERATION REVERSED, NO DEMONSTRATION PROPERTY WAS WORTHLESS UNDER EXISTING ZONING.

The Fourth Department, reversing the zoning board of appeals (ZBA) and Supreme Court, held that the ZBA’s determination allowing respondent Seneca Meadows Inc (SMI) to use residential streets to access a clay mining operation was irrational and unreasonable. SMI did not demonstrate that no reasonable return may be obtained from the property under existing zoning:

SMI’s proposed clay mine is located within its agriculturally zoned parcel, but it is bordered by its commercially and residentially zoned parcels that provide access to public roads. The Zoning Law of the Town of Waterloo prohibits commercial excavation operations in residential districts. Nevertheless, the ZBA upheld [the code enforcement officer’s] determination that the access road can cross the residential district because the agricultural portion of the property is landlocked. …

The ZBA’s and the court’s reliance on our determination in Matter of Passucci v Town of W. Seneca (151 AD2d 984) is misplaced. In that case, similar to this case, the commercially zoned portion of the petitioner’s property was landlocked, and the only access was over the residentially zoned portion of the property (id. at 984). In that case, however, the Town’s ordinance prohibited the petitioner from using the residential portion of his premises to access his commercial portion, and thus enforcing the zoning restriction would be unconstitutionally applied inasmuch as it “would prevent [the petitioner] from making any use of the property and would destroy its economic value” (id. …). SMI has failed to carry its “heavy burden of establishing that no reasonable return may be obtained from the property under the existing zoning” … . Matter of Lemmon v Seneca Meadows, Inc., 2017 NY Slip Op 00798, 4th Dept 2-3-17

 

ZONING (DETERMINATION ALLOWING USE OF RESIDENTIAL STREETS TO ACCESS A CLAY MINING OPERATION REVERSED, NO DEMONSTRATION PROPERTY WAS WORTHLESS UNDER EXISTING ZONING)

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