Gellert v. Town of Livingston Planning Board, et al., Sup Ct, Columbia County, 2013

The firm represented Plaintiffs-Petitioners Anthony Gellert and Alexander Gellert in a combined proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR Article 78 and CPLR §3001 seeking relief annulling and setting aside a May 2013 resolution of the Town of Livingston Planning Board extending a conditional plat approval for a residential subdivision known as the Manor of Livingston and declaring that the conditional plat approval expired by operation of law 180-days after it was issued pursuant to N.Y. Town Law § 276. The Planning Board granted conditional plat approval for the project in August 2007, but the Defendant never satisfied the conditions of that approval and did not request an extension from the Planning Board until sometime in late 2012. The Supreme Court, Columbia County granted the Gellerts’ motion for summary judgment and declared the 2007 conditional plat approval expired by operation of law in January 2008 and was no longer operative. The Court rejected Defendants argument that the expired plat approval was “revived” by a 2010 amendment to N.Y. Town Law § 276 which was adopted after the 2008 financial crisis to give planning board’s the discretion to grant an unlimited number of 90 day extensions.