Opinion ID: 2560274
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Subparcels 28A/28B, 29A/29B, 30A/30B and 31-33 (the roadway parcels):

Text: Highway Law § 205 (1), in pertinent part, states that if a highway has not been traveled or used as a highway for six years [it] shall cease to be a highway. These subparcels are small dead end streets that abut property controlled by BCS's predecessors since at least 1967. The Appellate Division found no evidence that these thoroughfares have been used for a period of six years. However, the issue is whether they were left abandoned at least six years prior to the 1969 zoning ordinance so that BCS may demonstrate that it controlled these areas and had an ability to quarry there before the adoption of the ordinance. It is unclear from the record whether these areas were either abandoned or in use prior to 1969. If the Town abandoned these thoroughfares for six years preceding the zoning ordinance, then BCS would be entitled to prior nonconforming use of these areas, since deeming them abandoned does not curtail any long-standing right of enjoyment that the public may have to these areas, but rather creates a property right for the abutting owners, here BCS, in the form of an easement of access to the abutting streets. In addition, we note that for at least 40 years quarrying has occurred on the property abutting the roadways.