Appellate Division Grants Zarin & Steinmetz Client Leave to File Amicus Brief We are pleased to report that the Appellate Division, Third Department has granted Z&S’s motion for leave to file an amici curiae brief on behalf of a coalition of local businesses and property owners in the Town of Pound Ridge in Matter of...

Preexisting Nonconforming Uses: Protecting “Grandfathered” Rights and Avoiding Abandonment By: Lee Lefkowitz A “Preexisting Nonconforming Right” is an owner’s lawful ability to use real property in a manner that later zoning regulations no longer permit. The use was permitted when it began, then the rules changed and it no longer is. New York law generally...

Lee Lefkowitz and Aaron Warner secured a significant litigation victory on behalf of a large property owner in ​Armonk. Lee and Aaron brought the federal lawsuit, Colabella v. Cronus, No. 25–cv–4448, arising from an allegedly defective property inspection that induced Z&S’s client to purchase the property. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York...

Z&S Partners David Cooper and Jody Cross secured three decisions from the Appellate Division, Second Department in the Hampshire Recreation, LLC v. Village of Mamaroneck litigation stemming from the Planning Board’s denial of Hampshire’s residential subdivision application in 2020. In three decisions issued together on September 2, 2026, the Second Department upheld the Supreme Court’s...

Zarin & Steinmetz attorney David S. Steinmetz appeared before the White Plains Planning Board in connection with Whitmore Estates’ preliminary subdivision application for the former Windward School property in White Plains. The proposal seeks a 13-lot subdivision of the 5.355-acre site at 5 and 15 Windward Avenue, allowing 14 single-family homes to be built following...

David S. Steinmetz led the firm and the Ridgewood Elmwood Development Team in a multi-year planning, engineering and environmental review that culminated in one of the largest recent residential subdivision approvals in Westchester County. Z&S secured subdivision, steep slopes and wetlands approval for a 113 lot development on the former Elmwood Country Club site located...