On June 9, 2025, Michael Zarin and Lee Lefkowitz filed their brief in Hudson View Park Company v. Town of Fishkill before the New York State Court of Appeals—New York’s highest court. Z&S’s appeal arrives at a pivotal moment in the state’s intensifying housing crisis and poses key questions about a builder’s pursuit of residential development.
The Court of Appeals accepts only a limited number of cases each year, reserved for legal issues of exceptional public importance. Its decision to hear this case signals the potentially far-reaching consequences for land use law, municipal accountability, and housing production across the state.
The dispute centers on the Town of Fishkill’s refusal to honor a memorandum of understanding it entered into with Zarin & Steinmetz’s client. That agreement laid out the process for reviewing a rezoning application to permit a village-style townhouse community with retail, walking trails, and open space. Instead, the Town elected a new administration that reversed course and refused to even continue review of the application—despite years of collaborative planning pursuant to the memorandum. The case raises significant questions regarding whether the memorandum can set forth process in a land use application, and whether a subsequent administration must honor it.
To prepare the appeal, Zarin & Steinmetz partnered with the Columbia Law School Appellate Litigation Clinic, a collaboration that brought together leading practitioners with top faculty advisors, professors, and law students.
A decision from the Court of Appeals is expected following oral argument later this year or in early 2026.
