Featured Articles

Zoning Board’s Finding that Wind Farm is a Public Utility Upheld by Appellate Court

Patricia E. Salkin
July 28, 2008 10:46

The Beekmantown Zoning Board of Appeals approved an application for a conditional use permit to allow the construction of a wind farm on a 700-acre parcel in an R-2 Residential District.  According the Town’s zoning law, conditional use permits are required for essential services defined in part as...

Recent Articles

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
January 03, 2009 05:01

Widener Law School Professor John Dernbach has pulled together what may be the most important book of 2009 for lawyers, planners,  officials at all levels of government and the general public – Agenda for a Sustainable America.  With thoughtful contributions from 41 leading scholars, scientists and ...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
January 02, 2009 12:30

Skycasters sued Didado Electric for breach of contract in a dispute over electrical work on its satellite dish.  Prior to trial, Skycasters moved to disqualify Didado’s attorneys because they had helped an agent for Skycasters obtain a zoning variance to allow it to install the satellite dish. The t...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
January 01, 2009 15:48

In 1996 the United States closed an Army Reserve facility on a 17-acre parcel of land in the Town of Hempstead.  The parcel was located in an area zoned as “B Residence” permitting single-family detached homes on 6,000 square foot lots with minimum frontage of 55 feet.  Also permitted in the zoning ...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
December 31, 2008 15:52

Facing serious financial hardship and difficulty in maintaining their exisiting building due to significant declines in membership, the Third Church of Christ entered into a twenty-year lease agreement with a private venture, the Rose Group, allowing the group to hold catered social events in the...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
December 30, 2008 12:30

During the pendency of a criminal enforcement action, the petitioners sought a stay of the criminal proceedings as well as declarations regarding the conforming nature of certain alterations and improvements made to a residence an accessory building on the petitioner’s lot. The criminal action i...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
December 29, 2008 12:28

In an effort to challenge the granting of a variance for an accessory apartment, the petitioners, three individuals and an association of homeowners, were found to lack standing to commence the action since they failed to establish that any of the named parties would suffer an environmental “injury ...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
December 28, 2008 12:57

A veterinary clinic operating pursuant to a nonconforming use variance was shut down on September 1, 2006 by the City after 278 cats were discovered on the premises, many of whom were dead, injured and malnourished. In May 2007, the petitioner was found guilty of 28 violations of the State...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
December 27, 2008 12:17

Gallo owns two adjacent lots which have been held in common ownership since at least 1945. One lot contains a residence (and is approximately 13,418 square feet) and the second lot has never been developed (and is approximately 12,918 square feet).  Since 1956 the zoning regulations require 20,000 ...

Patty Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin
December 26, 2008 12:29

A charter school for high school students applied to the city for a special use permit to build a new school facility on an undeveloped 4.1 acre parcel.  The proposed site is zoned for “office commercial” use, not for residential, and schools are permitted only subject to special use permit. The sch...