Zoning Case Decision – 12/2/20

The Appellate Division, Second Department has upheld a Zoning Board’s dismissal of a neighbor’s appeal from a building permit and certificate of occupancy, in Jane H Concannon Revocable Trust v. Building Department of Town of East Hampton.  The controversy involved a renovation of a motel in Montauk completed in 2015, where the neighbor in question argued that an earlier certificate of occupancy issued in 2005 was improperly granted.   In the ensuing proceedings before the Town’s Zoning Board, the Board found that the neighbor’s challenge was untimely, because the neighbor had constructive notice of the 2005 certificate of occupancy no later than 2010, five years before the appeal to the Zoning Board.  The Appellate Division’s decision, which upheld the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the neighbor’s Article 78 proceeding, agreed with the Supreme Court that the Zoning Board’s findings were rational and not arbitrary and capricious.