Successful Challenge to Wappinger’s Denial of Variances for Affordable Housing Project

Cuddy & Feder’s litigation team, led by Brendan Goodhouse and Seth Pavsner, secured a major victory for Dakota Partners in an Article 78 proceeding challenging the Town of Wappinger’s denial of variances for a 144-unit affordable housing project. The court’s decision adopted and endorsed our argument that the Town’s Zoning Board of Appeals could not deny the 300% density variance requested on the grounds that the variance was numerically substantial, but, instead, the substantiality analysis needed to be considered within the context of environmental and community impacts, and in this instance, the record reflected that the real world impacts would be minimal.

The decision is an important victory for Dakota and its project, but it is also a victory for Dutchess County as it seeks to address a critical need for affordable housing. The decision will also provide important guidance for future zoning applications, and legal challenges to zoning decisions, regarding how “substantiality” of requested variances should be evaluated.