Having successfully pursued approvals from the New York State Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (“OPWDD”) to establish a Padavan community residence in the Town of Mt. Pleasant for six adults with developmental disabilities – which approval followed a full-day evidentiary hearing before an OPWDD administrative hearing officer – David Steinmetz and Jody Cross again prevailed before the Appellate Division in the Town’s Article 78 challenge of that determination. The Second Department reasoned that the determination Jody and David secured from the OPWDD Commissioner, which paved the way for the facility, was supported by substantial evidence, and the Town did not carry its burden of demonstrating that the establishment of the community residence “would create such a concentration of similar facilities in an area that it would substantially alter the nature and character of the area.”
A copy of the Decision affirming the OPWDD Commissioner’s determination can be found at Town of Mt. Pleasant v. Loomis, 218 A.D.3d 779, 194 N.Y.S.3d 48 (2d Dep’t 2023).
