1160 Mamaroneck Ave. Corp. v. City of White Plains

211 A.D.3d 723

180 N.Y.S.3d 211

In the Matter of 1160 MAMARONECK AVENUE CORP., appellant,

v.CITY OF WHITE PLAINS, et al., respondents.

2018-11308

Index No. 1831/17

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Argued—May 9, 2022

December 7, 2022

McCullough, Goldberger & Staudt, LLP, White Plains, NY (Patricia W. Gurahian of counsel), for appellant.

Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, White Plains, NY (Peter A. Meisels and John B. Martin of counsel), for respondents.

HECTOR D. LASALLE, P.J., FRANCESCA E. CONNOLLY, LARA J. GENOVESI, WILLIAM G. FORD, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

In a hybrid proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 to review a negative declaration of the respondent/defendant City of White Plains pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, dated January 3, 2017, made in connection with certain amendments to the zoning ordinance of the respondent/defendant City of White Plains, and to annul the amendments to the zoning ordinance, and action for a judgment declaring that the amendments to the zoning ordinance are invalid as arbitrary and unconstitutional, the petitioner/plaintiff appeals from an order and judgment (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Paul I. Marx, J.), dated July 23, 2018. The order and judgment granted the motion of the respondents/defendants for summary judgment dismissing the petition/complaint, denied the petition, and dismissed the proceeding/action.

ORDERED that the order and judgment is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision thereof dismissing so much of the proceeding/action as sought a judgment declaring that the amendments to the zoning ordinance are invalid as arbitrary and unconstitutional, and adding thereto a provision declaring that the amendments to the zoning ordinance are not invalid as arbitrary and unconstitutional; as so modified, the order and judgment is affirmed, with costs to the respondents/defendants.

The petitioner/plaintiff, 1160 Mamaroneck Avenue Corp., is the owner of real property located within the respondent/defendant City of White Plains, upon which it operates a nursery. The petitioner/plaintiff's nursery is a nonconforming nursery use located in a residential district. The petitioner/plaintiff's operations include the processing, grinding, and composting of raw materials such as top soil, wood chips, and mulch (hereinafter processing activities). In January 2017, the City's Common Council, upon determining that processing activities had various harmful effects that were incompatible within residential districts, adopted amendments to the City's zoning ordinance (hereinafter the zoning amendments) which ban processing activities by nurseries located within a residential district. The zoning amendments had been considered a Type I action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (hereinafter SEQRA), and were given a negative declaration pursuant to SEQRA by the Common Council, following its environmental review thereof as lead agency.

The petitioner/plaintiff then commenced this hybrid proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 to review the negative declaration and to annul the zoning amendments, and action for a judgment declaring that the zoning amendments are invalid as arbitrary and unconstitutional. The City, the City's Mayor, and the Common Council (hereinafter collectively the respondents/defendants), moved for summary judgment dismissing the petition/complaint. In an order and judgment dated July 23, 2018, the Supreme Court granted the motion, denied the petition, and dismissed the proceeding/action. The petitioner/plaintiff appeals.

Standing to bring a SEQRA challenge is a threshold issue, and the burden of establishing standing is on the party seeking review of governmental action on the basis of alleged procedural and substantive SEQRA violations (see Society of Plastics Indus. v. County of Suffolk, 77 N.Y.2d 761, 769, 570 N.Y.S.2d 778, 573 N.E.2d 1034 ).

"To establish standing under SEQRA, a petitioner must show (1) an environmental injury that is in some way different from that of the public at large, and (2) that the alleged injury falls within the zone of interests sought to be protected or promoted by SEQRA" ( Matter of Tuxedo Land Trust, Inc. v. Town Bd. of Town of Tuxedo, 112 A.D.3d 726, 727–728, 977 N.Y.S.2d 272 ). Further, to qualify for standing to raise a SEQRA challenge, a party must demonstrate that it will suffer an injury that is environmental and not solely economic in nature (see Matter of County Oil Co., Inc. v. New York City Dept. of Envtl. Protection, 111 A.D.3d 718, 719, 975 N.Y.S.2d 114 ). Economic injury is not by itself within the zone of interests which SEQRA seeks to protect (see Society of Plastics Indus. v. County of Suffolk, 77 N.Y.2d at 777, 570 N.Y.S.2d 778, 573 N.E.2d 1034 ; Matter of Mobil Oil Corp. v. Syracuse Indus. Dev. Agency, 76 N.Y.2d 428, 433, 559 N.Y.S.2d 947, 559 N.E.2d 641 ; Matter of Board of Fire Commrs. of the Fairview Fire Dist. v. Town of Poughkeepsie Planning Bd., 156 A.D.3d 621, 623, 67 N.Y.S.3d 30 ). Here, the gravamen of the petition/complaint is that the zoning amendments will cause the petitioner/plaintiff to suffer economic harm. Such allegations are insufficient to confer standing to challenge the adequacy of the Common Council's environmental review of the zoning amendments under SEQRA (see Matter of County Oil Co., Inc. v. New York City Dept. of Envtl. Protection, 111 A.D.3d 718, 975 N.Y.S.2d 114 ; Matter of Bridon Realty Co. v. Town Bd. of Town of Clarkstown, 250 A.D.2d 677, 672 N.Y.S.2d 887 ). Accordingly, the Supreme Court correctly granted that branch of the motion which was for summary judgment dismissing so much of the petition/complaint as sought to review the negative declaration.

"It is well settled that facial constitutional challenges are disfavored. ‘Legislative enactments enjoy a strong presumption of constitutionality ... [and] parties challenging a duly enacted statute face the initial burden of demonstrating the statute's invalidity beyond a reasonable doubt. Moreover, courts must avoid, if possible, interpreting a presumptively valid statute in a way that will render it unconstitutional’ " ( Overstock.com, Inc. v. New York State Dept. of Taxation & Fin., 20 N.Y.3d 586, 593, 965 N.Y.S.2d 61, 987 N.E.2d 621, quoting LaValle v. Hayden, 98 N.Y.2d 155, 161, 746 N.Y.S.2d 125, 773 N.E.2d 490 ). "As legislative acts, zoning ordinances carry" that same "presumption of constitutionality" ( Robert E. Kurzius, Inc. v. Incorporated Vil. of Upper Brookville, 51 N.Y.2d 338, 344, 434 N.Y.S.2d 180, 414...