Grace Pangbourne et al. v. Stephen Thomsen

Court:	Appellate Division, Second Department
Index No.:	175 A. D. 3d 547, 107 N.Y.S. 3d 80 (2d Dept 2019)
Plaintiff:	Grace Pangbourne et al.
Defendant:	Stephen Thomsen

Facts:Plaintiff sold property, including a single-family home to Defendant. Plaintiff purchased the property with the intention of demolishing the single-family home and erecting two new two-family homes on the property. In order to build the new houses, Plaintiff required two types of variances from the local zoning authority – a height variance and a coverage area variance. Upon the Plaintiff’s application, both variances were denied. Plaintiff then commenced an Article 78 proceeding to review the zoning board’s determination. The Supreme Court upheld the denials of the variances by the local authority and the Plaintiff appealed.

Holding:The Appellate Division, Second Department held that the local zoning board did not properly consider all of the five factors of Village Law, Section 7 -712(b)(3) (b). Without the variances, Plaintiff could not make constructive use of the property and could not build the two- family houses.

Submitted:Davida S. Scher

Precis: Davida S. Scher