Dudley Road Ass'n v. Adirondack Park Agency

214 A.D.2d 274, 632 N.Y.S.2d 876
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedOctober 26, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 214 A.D.2d 274 (Dudley Road Ass'n v. Adirondack Park Agency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dudley Road Ass'n v. Adirondack Park Agency, 214 A.D.2d 274, 632 N.Y.S.2d 876 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Spain, J.

In 1990 respondents Erwin Barber and the Barber Homestead Trust (hereinafter collectively referred to as the applicants) applied to the Adirondack Park Agency (hereinafter APA) for a permit to develop a 51-site recreational vehicle campground (hereinafter the project) on approximately 14 acres of a 91.6-acre parcel of property located in the Town of Westport, Essex County, along the westerly shore of Lake Champlain. The property is situated in an area classified as "rural use” on the Official Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan Map. APA thereafter solicited and received comments from the public regarding the project, including petitioners, who are persons and entities with an interest in property in the Town of Westport. Because of the historic significance of the property and the surrounding area, APA also requested comment from the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (hereinafter Historic Preservation), which informed APA that the project would have an adverse impact upon historical sites located in the vicinity and recommended that the applicants work with APA to reduce the project’s adverse impact.

A public hearing was held which consisted of eight days of testimony; additionally, APA received submissions and exhibits consisting of approximately 900 pages of documents. After closing and reviewing the record, APA staff prepared a draft order recommending disapproval of the project citing its adverse impact upon, inter alia, the historic sites; the draft disapproval order also identified an alternative design which could satisfy the staff’s concerns. In response to a request from APA, Historic Preservation suggested several modifications which would mitigate the project’s adverse impact. Thereafter, the applicants submitted a revised plan in an attempt to comply with the suggestions made by the APA staff and Historic Preservation. APA subsequently submitted the applicants’ revised plan to Historic Preservation together with an additional set of conditions which would have to be met prior to APA issuing a permit. Historic Preservation then informed [278]*278APA that these submissions constituted "a feasible and prudent project design alternative that mitigates the adverse impact” of the project and issued a proposed letter of resolution setting forth a number of additional conditions which would have to be satisfied in order for the project to obtain Historic Preservation’s final approval. APA then sought to include the revised plan and Historic Preservation’s proposed letter of resolution in the hearing record. Petitioners objected to reopening the original record, asserting that the revised plan should be regarded as a new application which should be subjected to another round of public hearings.

On June 11, 1993 APA, without further hearings, issued an order which supplemented the original record with the applicants’ revised plan, together with the relevant correspondence with Historic Preservation, and granted conceptual approval to the project on the condition that the applicants incorporate additional modifications into their plans prior to being issued a permit. The applicants thereafter submitted a series of revisions to the project plans which ultimately received final approval from Historic Preservation, and a permit was issued to applicants on October 19, 1993 which allows the construction of the campground.

On September 10, 1993, prior to the issuance of the permit, petitioners commenced a CPLR article 78 proceeding (hereinafter proceeding No. 1) which, inter alia, challenged the APA’s June 11, 1993 conceptual approval; respondents then moved to, inter alia, dismiss the petition as premature. After the permit was issued, petitioners, joined by Camp Dudley YMCA Inc., commenced a second CPLR article 78 proceeding seeking, inter alia, a judgment declaring both the June 11, 1993 conceptual approval and the October 19, 1993 permit to be null and void, and seeking a preliminary injunction enjoining the construction of the project. Respondents’ answer in proceeding No. 2 included, inter alia, a request for an order transferring proceeding No. 2 to this Court based upon petitioners’ assertion that the determinations of APA were not supported by substantial evidence. Supreme Court dismissed the petition in proceeding No. 1 as being both premature and moot in light of APA’s issuance of a final permit, denied petitioners’ request for a preliminary injunction and transferred proceeding No. 2 to this Court. Petitioners appeal.

Initially, we conclude that Supreme Court properly determined that the issues raised in proceeding No. 1 regarding the propriety of APA’s June 11, 1993 conceptual approval of the project were not ripe for review (see, Ferrer v Appleton, 190 AD2d 146, 150, lv denied 82 NY2d 662). However, insofar as the petitions in proceedings Nos. 1 and 2 were duplicative, [279]*279the filing of the petition in proceeding No. 2, not the granting of the permit to applicants, constituted the event which rendered the petition in proceeding No. 1 moot.

We further conclude that APA’s departure from the procedures set forth in the Executive Law and relevant regulations in granting conceptual approval to the project does not warrant vacating its final determination. Executive Law § 809 (13) (d) authorizes APA to, inter alia, "allow, upon request of a project sponsor, projects to be reviewed conceptually * * * to be divided into and reviewed by sections, and to grant or deny permits for such sections” (9 NYCRR 572.3). The regulations which apply to APA indicate that conceptual review should be sought by a project sponsor "[p]rior to applying for a permit” from APA (9 NYCRR 572.2 [a]). The record reflects that the applicants never formally requested conceptual review of the project, which is not a sectional plan, and that APA’s conceptual approval of the project was granted subsequent to the applicants’ application. However, it is well settled that an agency’s failure to follow procedural provisions that are merely directory rather than mandatory in nature will not warrant annulling a subsequent determination unless the challengers show that substantial prejudice resulted from the agency’s noncompliance (see, Matter of Syquia v Board of Educ., 80 NY2d 531, 535-536; Matter of Sarkisian Bros. v State Div. of Human Rights, 48 NY2d 816; see, also, Matter of Harris & Assocs. v deLeon, 84 NY2d 698, 703).

The determination as to whether statutory procedural provisions are either directory or mandatory requires an analysis of the statute and the legislative intent (see, McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 1, Statutes § 171; see also, Matter of Syquia v Board of Educ., supra, at 536). The statutory language of Executive Law § 804 (9), which authorizes APA "to do any and all things necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes and policies of this article” and the additional language of Executive Law § 809 (13) (d), which provides that APA can make conceptual determinations "as the agency deems reasonable and necessary”, demonstrates the legislative intent that the various procedural provisions included in that statute be considered merely directory in nature.

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Bluebook (online)
214 A.D.2d 274, 632 N.Y.S.2d 876, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dudley-road-assn-v-adirondack-park-agency-nyappdiv-1995.