Law of the Land
The Law of the Land blog focuses on land use law and zoning. This blog, maintained by Albany Law School Associate Dean and Professor Patricia Salkin, is designed to provide a forum for the discussion of current laws, policies, and decisions that affect the use of land. It highlights new court decisions, new state and federal laws and policies, and actions at the the local government level that guide and/or impact land use and community development.
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Featured Articles
Zoning Board’s Finding that Wind Farm is a Public Utility Upheld by Appellate Court
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...

