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 strictest regulations affecting those natural resources. The New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) regulates the way all levels of government review land-use applications. The State, Towns, and some Villages have adopted independent and cumulative Wetlands Codes to regulate activities in or near tidal and freshwater wetlands. Coastal areas are governed by additional layers of Coastal Erosion Hazard Area Codes, “FEMA” flood-zone building standards, and a variety of dune, bluff, and beach regulations impacting the use and development of waterfront properties. Additional waterways regulations affect the ability to construct docks, piers, jetties, bulkheads, and revetments within the various East End Towns and Villages. Inland properties are facing increasing clearing restrictions, stormwater control regulations, and groundwater-protection measures. The region has even seen the adoption of the Long Island Pine Barrens Protection Act, an unprecedented State law with a massive scope and severe impact on tens of thousands of acres of land within the Towns of Southampton, Riverhead, and Brookhaven.
EHADP has been part of the evolving landscape since before these environmental regulations first emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. Our attorneys have seen, first-hand, that these layers of laws are not static but have been a constant state of flux, as most-recently illustrated by the debate over the impacts of sea level rise and the focus on groundwater protection. Municipalities and owners have long struggled with the tension between protecting coastlines and natural resources and recognizing private property rights, and the impact of sea level rise has led to policies of “managed retreat.” Local governments are also focusing more on groundwater protection, such as through “innovative/alternative” sanitary systems and treated sewer systems, not only to protect drinking water supplies but local bays and estuaries.
For over a half-century, EHADP’s attorneys have been at the forefront of these localized areas of environmental law, advising East End municipalities and landowners about the various levels of natural resource regulations and SEQRA compliance. Our attorneys have also been heavily involved in environmental litigation, successfully defending compliant actions but overturning non-compliant ones. A sampling of the firm’s successful environmental projects and litigation include:
- Counseling the Village of Westhampton Beach through the difficult process of creating a sewer district to serve its “downtown” area and improve its waterways;
- Invalidating certain East Hampton Town’s zoning code changes due to non-compliance with SEQRA;
- Overturning Southampton Town’s attempt to avoid the SEQRA decision of the NYSDEC;
- Invalidating Suffolk County’s proposed acquisition due to non-compliance with SEQRA;
- Obtaining a multi-million dollar damage award against the State for a “regulatory taking” due to the NYSDEC’s application of the Tidal Wetlands regulations; and
- Defending Southampton Town’s subdivision approvals from a multi-property “cumulative impact” claim brought by a civic organization.