Group House of Port Washington, Inc. v. Board of Zoning & Appeals

Chief Judge Breitel

(dissenting). The Appellate Division held, quite correctly in my view, that the proposed group home does not qualify as a "family”, even as that term was liberally expanded in City of White Plains v Ferraioli (34 NY2d 300). The Appellate Division also held, however, that by enacting legislation authorizing group .homes the State had pre-empted the right of local governments to make zoning laws precluding group homes. That holding is erroneous and involves reasoning avoided as a ratio decidendi in the White Plains case.

The arrangement of the Port Washington facility does not…