Opinion ID: 778066
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The RECAP Project

Text: 2 Because the plaintiffs appeal from the grant of a summary judgment against them, we recite the relevant facts in the light most favorable to them. See Holtz v. Rockefeller & Co., 258 F.3d 62, 69 (2d Cir.2001). 3 RECAP, a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1965, provides education, housing, social services, and other forms of assistance to low income individuals in Orange County, New York. In 1994, RECAP sought to create a family support community in the City by consolidating the operation of several proposed and existing assistance programs on two parcels of land near its existing outpatient clinic for recovering alcoholics. RECAP's plan involved three properties: (1) its existing facility located at 40 Smith Street; (2) a parcel of land directly across the street owned by Gary Formisano (the Formisano property); and (3) the lot adjacent and to the north of the Formisano property, owned by Richard Rowley (the Rowley property). 4 A railroad track once owned by the Ontario & Western Railroad (O & W) runs along the eastern borders of both the Rowley and Formisano properties. A rail spur on the Rowley property connects it to the O & W track. RECAP intended to use the Rowley property for Head Start classes, daycare for infants, and pediatric medical and dental services. It planned to convert an existing building on the Formisano property into a halfway house for twenty-four men recovering from alcoholism. Finally, RECAP's plan contemplated the construction of a new building located partly on the Rowley property and partly on the Formisano property to house twenty recovering alcoholic mothers and their children. Full-time staff would supervise both halfway houses twenty-four hours a day. 5 In 1994, Middletown's zoning ordinances applicable to these properties authorized cumulative zoning, which allows both residential and commercial uses in an industrial zone. The Rowley property was zoned I-2, or heavy industrial; the Formisano property was zoned I-1, or light industrial. Both the childcare facility proposed for the Rowley property and the halfway houses proposed for the Formisano and Rowley properties were permitted uses under these zoning ordinances, but each required a special-use permit from the Planning Board. All zones, both residential and industrial, require special-use permits for the construction of multi-family housing units. The purpose of a special-use permit is to allow the Planning Board to determine whether a proposed project will have an unduly adverse effect on the neighborhood. See Pacer, Inc. v. Planning Bd., 217 A.D.2d 47, 50-51, 635 N.Y.S.2d 704, 705-06 (3d Dep't 1995). 6 Although both properties were part of a single project, RECAP had to apply to the Planning Board separately for a special-use permit for each property. The Planning Board considered RECAP's application regarding the Rowley property, where RECAP planned to establish the childcare center, during two hearings held in August and September 1994. It unanimously approved the special-use permit for that property at the September hearing, subject to negotiation of a specific agreement for the payment of taxes and confirmation that the project would not adversely affect the environment. 7 The Planning Board first considered RECAP's application for a special-use permit for the Formisano property — the parcel where RECAP intended to establish one halfway house for recovering alcoholics, and part of the home for recovering alcoholic mothers and their children — at the August 1994 hearing. This and subsequent hearings about the Formisano property became, unlike the discussions about the Rowley property, contentious. The Planning Board debated RECAP's application at four hearings held between August 1994 and December 1994. At the final meeting in December, the members of the Planning Board denied RECAP's application by a vote of four to two. 8 Shortly thereafter, RECAP requested that the Planning Board reconvene to consider providing a reasonable accommodation for RECAP's clients' disabilities and to reconsider its decision to deny RECAP a special-use permit for the halfway houses that it proposed to establish on the Formisano property. The City did not respond to that request until June 1995. By then, RECAP, having lost a prospective grant, could no longer finance the project. Further details with respect to the Planning Board's deliberations on whether to issue the special-use permit for the Formisano property are set forth below in the Discussion section of this opinion. 9