Seidner v. Town of Islip
Seidner v. Town of Islip
Opinion of the Court
OPINION OF THE COURT
Memorandum.
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, with costs.
We agree with both courts below that section 68-59.1 of the Town Code of the Town of Islip (commonly known as the “Dune District” ordinance) is unconstitutional as applied to this plaintiff’s property. The operative provision of the code, applicable to the Dune District in which plaintiff’s lot is located, is the following: “No structure shall be erected or used or occupied by any person except as an elevated pedestrian dune crossing or a fence of a type approved by the Town of Islip which is designed to hold or increase the dune.”
A house had been constructed on plaintiff’s premises in 1958 where it remained until it was washed out to sea by a violent storm on February 6, 1978. When plaintiff applied for a building permit to rebuild her house she was confronted with the Dune District ordinance. Her application was denied and this action ensued.
The issue is not whether the town may constitutionally so restrict plaintiff’s land “to preserve the ecology of the dunes and grasses and by doing so to safeguard life and property”, but whether it can do so without according plaintiff just compensation. We agree that it cannot.
On the record there has been no tender of proof in evidentiary form that there has been a change in the high water mark that would provide a predicate for the town’s jus publicum argument.
Chief Judge Cooke and Judges Jasen, Gabrielli, Jones, Wachtler, Fuchsberg and Meyer concur.
Order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In the Matter of Judith Seidner v. Town of Islip
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published