Repetitive and unfair demands that Town of Chester planning officials used to stymie a 385-unit subdivision for a decade preclude the town from claiming the developer failed to obtain a final decision before he could sue, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Reversing a lower court while quoting from the Joseph Heller novel “Catch 22,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the widow of the late Steven Sherman can pursue a case that Chester violated the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause because it repeatedly moved the goal posts on Sherman’s development.
