Environmental Planning and Sustainability

Our Environmental Planning and Sustainability team utilizes our attorneys’ skills and knowledge concerning environmental advocacy, land use and municipal law to provide passionate representation in achieving advantageous outcomes for our clients. We ensure nonprofits, businesses, municipalities, and individuals benefit from innovative solutions to address a continually changing landscape.

Our legal team combines diverse backgrounds with a wealth of experience in serving our clients’ needs regarding environmental litigation, administrative law, as well as transactional affairs.

The practice group’s success in advocating for the environmental and real property interests of our clients is demonstrated through prior cases of significance. In the Court of Appeals ruling of Matter of Wallach v. Town of Dryden, 23 NY3d 728 (2014), our attorneys successfully argued on behalf of various prominent businesses (amicus party) for the home rule land use and zoning rights of towns prohibiting hydraulic fracturing activities in New York. In a separate administrative appeal before the NYSDEC, In the Matter of Finger Lakes LPG Storage, LLC, Decision of the Commissioner (2018), we successfully represented the wine and restaurant industries citing community character concerns for the denial of an LPG storage facility proposed for Seneca Lake. Our legal team regularly handles high-profile or politically charged matters that demand meticulous attention to detail and forethought.

Our attorneys have a successful track record representing neighborhood associations, nonprofits or landowners through proceedings involving the State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”), Article 78 challenges and real property litigation.

The practice group also provides a variety of legal services related to transactional matters. Our team represents clients in real estate transactions and other contractual matters, regularly utilizing our business and environmental knowledge to advance complex transactions. Certain tasks that our team handles include assessing environmental due diligence, analyzing title and reviewing easements, as well as providing businesses guidance with environmental compliance, real estate closings and various commercial matters.

The Environmental Planning and Sustainability team concentrates in these areas:

• Administrative Law
• Appellate Practice
• Article 78
• Compliance and Permit Review
• Contracts
• Community Representation (Associations / Citizen Groups)
• Environmental Advocacy
• Environmental Assessment, Liability and Review
• Land Use, Planning and Zoning
• Litigation
• Municipal Law and Support
• Property Tax Assessment Review
• Public and Recreational Access
• Real Estate Transactions
• Real Property Disputes
• SEQRA
• Telecommunications
• Water Quality & Wetlands