The New York Court of Appeals does not issue decisions on zoning law or land use planning topics as often as it resolves a case involving, say, questions of criminal or commercial law. Thus, when the Court does issue a zoning law opinion, it is something to which practitioners, as well as property owners, developers, and government officials, typically pay careful attention.
On June 30, the Court issued an interesting ruling involving an important zoning law subject—prior nonconforming uses—that involved a unique use of land—- quarrying operations. The Court’s decision, in Buffalo Crushed Stone Inc. v. Town of Cheektowaga,1 applying its nearly 30-year-old ruling in Syracuse Aggregate Corp. v. Weise2—which also was a prior nonconforming use case involving quarrying—sets a roadmap for nonconforming use law and highlights the importance of the underlying facts when analyzing and advocating for or against claims of nonconforming use.
Quarrying
