Jones v. Town of Carroll

• Decision Date: 31 December 2008
• Docket Number: CA 07-02507.
• Citation: 873 N.Y.S.2d 391,2008 NY Slip Op 10262,57 A.D.3d 1376
• Parties: DONALD J. JONES et al., Respondents, v. TOWN OF CARROLL et al., Appellants. (Appeal No. 1.)
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

57 A.D.3d 1376

873 N.Y.S.2d 391

2008 NY Slip Op 10262

DONALD J. JONES et al., Respondents, v. TOWN OF CARROLL et al., Appellants. (Appeal No. 1.)

CA 07-02507.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department.

December 31, 2008.

Appeal from a judgment (denominated order) of the Supreme Court, Chautauqua County (Timothy J. Walker, A.J.), entered August 10, 2007 in a declaratory judgment action. The judgment, inter alia, declared sections 2 and 3 of the Town of Carroll Local Law No. 1 of 2005 invalid as they relate to plaintiffs' property.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously modified on the law by denying the motion and vacating the declaration and as modified the judgment is affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: In June 1984 plaintiff Donald J. Jones (hereafter, Jones) and his wife, plaintiff Carol L. Jones, purchased 50 acres of property in an agricultural/residential (AR-1) zoning district located in defendant Town of Carroll (Town). In 1989 the Town's Zoning Board of Appeals granted the application of Jones for a use variance permitting him to use the entire parcel as a construction and demolition landfill (C & D landfill). Jones obtained a permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) permitting him to use "less than two acres" of the property as a C & D landfill, and in 1996 he obtained another permit from the DEC permitting him to construct a "one acre expansion." After defendants were informed that a potential buyer of plaintiffs' property had applied for a DEC permit to operate a landfill on the entire parcel, defendants enacted Local Law No. 1 of 2005 (2005 Law). Section 1 of the 2005 Law states that its purpose is "to eliminate the operation of sanitary landfills/demolition landfills in the [Town's AR-1] zoning district," and section 2 states that section 406-C of the Town's Zoning Law is amended to provide that "[s]anitary landfill/demolition landfill is eliminated as a use allowed by special use permit." Section 3 provides that sanitary landfills or demolition landfills "operating under a permit issued by the [DEC] shall be allowed to continue without expansion[, but a]bsolutely no expansion of any landfill beyond the area and scope allowed under the operator[']s permit from the DEC as of the date of th[e] Local Law shall be allowed."

Although plaintiffs commenced a CPLR article 78 proceeding to challenge the 2005 Law, Supreme Court previously converted that proceeding to a declaratory judgment action and declared sections 2 and 3 of the 2005 Law invalid as applied to plaintiffs' property. On defendants' appeal from that judgment, we modified the judgment by vacating the declaration on the ground that neither plaintiffs nor defendants had been afforded an opportunity to make a motion in the declaratory judgment action and thus "judgment was granted prematurely" (Jones v Town of Carroll, 32 AD3d 1216, 1218 [2006]).

Following our decision, plaintiffs moved for summary judgment declaring the 2005 Law void. Alternatively, plaintiffs moved for partial summary judgment declaring that the 2005 Law effected a regulatory taking of their property without compensation, and they sought a plenary hearing to determine their damages. Defendants cross-moved for, inter alia, summary judgment declaring that the 2005 Law is valid. According to the court's decision on the motion and cross motion, "[p]laintiffs specifically object[ed] to sections 2 and 3" of the 2005 Local Law. We now conclude that the court erred in granting judgment in favor of plaintiffs declaring sections 2 and 3 of the 2005 Law invalid as they relate to plaintiffs' property. We therefore modify the judgment accordingly.

In granting judgment in favor of plaintiffs, the court determined that they had engaged in substantial construction and demolition activities over a long period of time that "manifested an intent to appropriate the entire 50-acre parcel to the particular business of a Land Fill," and the court thus determined that "the protection of this non-conforming use must extend to the boundaries of this entire parcel." We agree with defendants however, that they "rationally exercised [their] police power and determined that a change in the zoning was required for the well-being of the community" (Matter of Gernatt Asphalt Prods. v Town of Sardinia, 87 NY2d 668, 684 [1996]). Further, "[b]ecause nonconforming uses are viewed as detrimental to zoning schemes, public policy favors their reasonable restriction and eventual elimination . . . Accordingly, municipalities may adopt measures regulating nonconforming uses and may, in a reasonable fashion, eliminate them" (Matter of 550 Halstead Corp. v Zoning Bd. of Appeals of Town/Vil. of Harrison, 1 NY3d 561, 562 [2003]; see Matter of Syracuse Aggregate Corp. v Weise, 51 NY2d 278, 286-287 [1980]). We thus conclude with respect to the first and sixth causes of action that defendants rationally exercised their police power in determining that landfills in AR-1 zoning districts should be eliminated and that sections 2 and 3 of the 2005 Law are reasonable measures to regulate and eventually to eliminate nonconforming uses.

We further agree with defendants that the court, in its decision, misapplied the holding of Syracuse Aggregate Corp. (51 NY2d 278 [1980]) by concluding with respect to the second cause of action that plaintiffs' nonconforming use extended over plaintiffs' entire parcel. "[T]he right to maintain a nonconforming use does not include the right to extend or enlarge that use" (Matter of McDonald v Zoning Bd. of Appeals of Town of Islip, 31...