By Decision and Order, dated May 31, 2017, the Honorable Judge Sherri L. Eisenpress denied and dismissed a challenge to the conditional final subdivision approval granted by the Town of Ramapo Planning Board to enable Zarin & Steinmetz’s client to subdivide its property.

The Court first concurred that the Petitioner was time barred in its challenge to the environmental review conducted for the subdivision under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).  Judge Eisenpress held that a challenge to the subdivision’s SEQRA review should have occurred within 30 days of the Planning Board’s Sketch Plat Approval Project, and “that a challenge to the project based on SEQRA grounds [could] not be postponed until after final subdivision approval.”

Accordingly, Judge Eisenpress held that the “Court’s review is limited to discerning whether the Planning Board’s grant of final subdivision approval is supported by substantial evidence and is rational.”  Upon a thorough review of the record, the Court concurred that the final subdivision approval was “rational and based upon substantial evidence.”

The case is captioned Halpern v. Planning Board of Ramapo, et al., Index No. 001599/2016 (Sup. Ct. Rockland Cnty) (Eisenpress, J.). A copy of the Decision & Order can be downloaded here.