Country Pointe Plainview 150-acre Development, Oyster Bay, N.Y.
(Organized and led legal-opposition to sprawling gated-community/commercial development which destroyed 100 acres of park-like woodlands enjoyed for decades by a middle-class suburban community)
Prepared legal “paper trail” by quietly filing extensive and novel critique of environmental review;
Took sole leadership of the matter after large civic-group refused to mount a legal challenge after years of opposing the project and leading fight;
(I discovered the group’s head was a paid charity-fundraiser dependent on good relations with the local political establishment, which approved the massive development — and employment — project);
Organized three neighboring families to put names on Article 78 lawsuit;
Marshaled financial support from the community;
Filed massive legal papers with an extensive critique of the environmental review;
Judge obliged developers not to damage lands at issue in lieu of issuing TRO;
When judge dismissed case and litigants accepted token concession in lieu of the appeal, recruited a new neighbor to intervene and file an appeal;
Filed a motion to intervene and appeal on own behalf;
Aggressively appealed judge’s refusal to permit intervention;
Aggressively opposed and appealed judge’s granting of an injunction to stymie intervention and appeal;
Forced judge’s recusal; Judge reversed his position on intervention in his Decision;
With a new judge, succeeded in having injunctions vacated and obtaining dismissal by ‘summary judgment’ of the “shell-case” under which injunctions were issued.