Zoning

The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the usual rule that an owner may have a “vested right” to engage in activity on land if the owner invests substantially in reliance on existing law even if the use has not commenced before the zoning law is changed to prohibit the previously lawful use. In this case, Glacial Aggregates LLC v. Town of Yorkshire, 924 N.E. 2d 127 (N.Y. 2010), the owner had invested $500,000 in mitigation measures to secure a mining permit and had received the permit; when the town amended its zoning law to classify mining as a use needing a special permit and then refused to issue the permit, the Court of Appeals had little trouble in finding the $500,000 investment, when coupled with the permit grant, to be sufficient to give the owner a vested right to engage in the mining activity. The case is interesting because …

Vested right to mine protected despite change in local zoning law Read More »