Eastern Long Island, perhaps more than most regions, is governed by an active and interactive system of Village, Town, County, State, and Federal boards, agencies, and officials. For more than six decades, the firm has played an active role in the East End’s municipal government, serving as counsel to both municipalities and citizens or businesses facing the impacts of land use regulations.
On the public side, EHADP has served as counsel to some municipalities and their boards, including its tenure as Village Attorneys for the Village of Westhampton Beach for over a decade, its past tenure as counsel to the Shelter Island Planning Board for over fifty years, and individual appointments as litigation/special counsel to the Villages of Southampton, Sagaponack, Quogue and other municipalities, in cases involving specific land-use applications, condemnation proceedings, or intra-governmental disputes.
On the private side, EHADP is routinely called upon to protect its clients’ property rights and civil liberties, generally by working within the municipal permitting processes but, when necessary, by guarding against governmental overreach through governmental litigation. In addition to bringing or defending “Article 78” proceedings, the firm has brought direct challenges to laws and zoning codes through “declaratory judgment” or injunction actions and has defended landowners against governmental “enforcement proceedings.”
When zoning, wetlands, or other governmental restrictions go too far, so as to amount to a “regulatory taking,” the last line of protection can often be constitutional damages actions known as “takings” or “inverse condemnation” claims (based on the “just compensation” clauses of the Federal and State constitutions) and “1983” actions (named after the Federal statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1983). EHA attorneys have developed a unique knowledge of the difficult and complex road through such proceedings and have successfully obtained both judgments and settlements on behalf of affected landowners.