Eastern Long Island is home to not only some of the most beautiful ocean beaches, bays, tidal wetlands, and pine barrens in New York, but also some of the most strict regulations affecting those natural resources, from the New York Pine Barrens Act and Tidal Wetlands regulations to local codes regulating all aspects of wetlands, dunes, beaches, waterways and erosion protection devices (bulkheads, revetments, jetties, groins, and “geocubes”).  EHA has been involved in these areas of regulation since they were first adopted in the 1970s and 1980s and has been at the forefront of advising landowners, prospective purchasers, other attorneys, and municipalities of the various levels of natural resource regulations and their options and limitations.  When needed, EHA attorneys have successfully challenged overly harsh application of these regulations in both “Article 78” proceedings and regulatory takings/inverse condemnation claims.

Because of the extraordinary value of waterfront properties on Eastern Long Island’s “Hamptons” and “North Fork” regions, landowners are also confronted with unique claims affecting their “littoral rights,” also known as “riparian rights.”  Whether the disputes are between neighboring owners over the use of beaches and waterways or between individual landowners and governmental bodies over the separation between private and public rights, EHA has the experience and knowledge needed to protect the landowners’ rights.