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Court Finds Village of Piermont Local Law And Zoning District “Jurisdictionally Invalid” For Lack Of Compliance With Required County GML Review
Rockland County Supreme Court Justice Hal Greenwald voided a Local Law and called Piermont’s Central Business Multi-Use (CBM) Zoning District “null, void and jurisdictionally invalid” on Friday, months after local residents and neighbors filed suit to stop the Village from approving a 14-unit multi-family residential building on Piermont Avenue.
“We are reviewing the decision and evaluating all legal options including seeking an immediate appeal of what may be reversible errors,” said Desmond Lyons, of Lyons McGovern, LLP, attorney for the Village of Piermont.
The court ruling was based on the “Village of Piermont’s failure to affect the mandatory referral of said legislation to the Rockland County Planning Board as required by General Municipal Law 239-m.” The General Municipal Law (GML) requires a mandatory review by the County Planning Department when villages or towns alter or create new zoning districts. Failure to comply generally renders a zoning change invalid and also prevents the County from issuing any permits or licenses for the unreviewed project.
The Village asserted that it met its obligations by mailing the referral to the County Planning Department.
The County Planning Department says it never received the package and in a series of letters to the Village declined to review the proposed project on Piermont Avenue under the CBM zoning, saying the “failure to refer the local law to the County Planning Department and/or Board is a jurisdictional defect which renders its enactment invalid.” By extension, if the local law was invalid, then so is the CBM zoning it implemented.
A lawsuit filed in April by four Piermont residents, who opposed the proposal to construct a modern multifamily residential building in the Village’s historic downtown, sought to void the Village’s zoning law and to stop the developer’s application before any approvals or permits are issued.
In May, Greenwald halted, at least temporarily, the processing of an application pending before the Village of Piermont for a Special Permit to construct the multi-family dwelling unit at 447-477 Piermont Avenue in Piermont.
The case hinged on whether or not the Village’s “delivery” of the GML package to the County Planning Department was adequate under the law or whether it was the review itself that was required to validate the local law and new zone. The law says: “Where delivery is by mail, the date as postmarked shall be the date of delivery.” The Village did not produce a postmark, but instead provided an affidavit from the Village Clerk attesting to mailing the GML package.
On Friday, Justice Greenwald, without holding a hearing or taking testimony, entered a preliminary injunction, preventing the Village from “processing, or approving, site plan/subdivision, and special permit applications” related to that multifamily development, “unless and until such time as a valid zone change permitting such development has occurred.”
He ordered the Plaintiffs-Neighbors to post a $1,000 bond and required the Village of Piermont to file the appropriate referral of what was Local Law 4 or its updated equivalent in compliance with General Municipal law 239-m with the Rockland County Planning Board within thirty (30) days, and for the Rockland County Planning Board to “exercise its utmost efforts to respond in writing as soon as possible” to the Village’s filing. Greenwald effectively laid out a map forward to solve the jurisdictional defect in the law.
The controversy surrounding the proposed multi-family project on Piermont Avenue prompted an investigation by the Village of Piermont of Trustee Nate Mitchell, stemming from emails and texts he exchanged with residents that RCBJ reviewed. In a letter read aloud at a Piermont’s board meeting in September, Mitchell wrote, “In light of the agenda item for this evening’s meeting discussing initiating an investigation of me, I feel it is in the interest of the Village for me to tender my resignation as Village Trustee, effective immediately.” Mitchell has been a Village of Piermont Trustee since 2018.
The next steps for the Village include the possibility of an appeal, compliance with the Court order including sending a complete package to the County Planning Department for review, or abandoning the CBM Zone as written and starting from scratch with a new zoning district for the Village’s downtown.
