"Home Rule" Rules!
NY Appellate Court Upholds Towns' Powers to Regulate Land Use
Today
the New York Appellate Court issued its ruling in the Anschutz v.
Dryden and Cooperstown Holstein v. Middlefield cases, and in both
instances upheld the constitutional right of towns to determine what
land use activities are best for their communities.
The decision, which you can read here and
on Otsego 2000's website, is a unanimous and unequivocal decision; the
Towns won on all points. This decision upholds the power of local town
boards which have already acted to protect their communities with a ban
against fracking and gives courage to those that are still considering
such steps. The Appellate Division found that there was neither express
preemption nor implied preemption of local zoning powers. Notably, the
Court discussed the industry's argument that statutory provisions
fostering energy development and prohibiting "waste" required a finding
of preemption. The Court stated there was no support of this
interpretation:
"...this
does not equate to an intention to require oil and gas drilling
operations to occur in each and every location where such resource is
present, regardless of the land uses existing in that locale. Indeed,
the policy of the OGSML explicitly seeks to protect the rights of "all
persons including landowners and the general public" - not just the
owners of oil and gas properties, such as petitioner ...,
a goal which is realized when individual municipalities can determine
whether drilling activities are appropriate for their respective
communities." (Decision, p. 15.)
We
all owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Town Boards of Middlefield
and Dryden for having the courage to take the necessary steps to defend
their right to protect their communities, as well as to the
citizens, Middlefield Neighbors, Dryden Resources Awareness Coalition,
Brewery Ommegang and other businesses, and the many other activist
groups who supported these towns in the face of sometimes intense
pressure from this industry. Next, we must thank the excellent lawyers
in our community who contributed their skills because this cause is
right. We thank Michelle Kennedy, Douglas Zamelis, Helen and David
Slottje, Mary Ann Long, Deborah Goldberg of Earthjustice, Kate Sinding
of NRDC, Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, and the firms that
prepared the many amicus briefs.
We are indeed fortunate to have such a strong community committed to protecting our region's singularly beautiful resources.
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PO Box 1130, Cooperstown, NY 13326
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Otsego 2000 is a not-for-profit organization founded
in 1981 to protect the environmental, scenic, cultural
and historic resources of the Otsego Lake region
and northern Otsego County
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