I’ve been trying to muster the energy and focus to write a post equating the City of Buffalo’s approach to fighting Article 78 proceedings and other judicial challenges – to Common Council, Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals determinations – with the parking-related sign in front of City Hall:
Or, perhaps, pen something pithy about the city’s efforts to erect “an impenetrable barrier to judicial scrutiny”:
But, blame it on an end-of-summer-malaise, I can’t quite sustain my effort.
Maybe I’ll feel the burn – in a positive or negative fashion – once Justice Mark A. Montour renders his decision in Sack v. City of Buffalo Common Council & TM Montante Development LLC, NYS Supreme Court, Erie County, Index No. I-2019-000073, where, of course, the city joins the developer in asserting the affirmative defense of lack of standing.
[Full disclosure: I represent Elmwood Village resident and activist Daniel Sack, pro bono, in State Supreme Court, asking the court to annul the Buffalo Common Council’s April 16, 2019 creation of the Linwood Lafayette Urban Development Action Area as an unlawful use of Article 16 of the State’s General Municipal Law in order to bail out TM Montante Development LLC.]
Enjoy the long weekend.
With All Due Respect,
Art Giacalone
With All Due Respect 