Rappl & Hoenig Co. v. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Petitioner is the owner of a 39-acre parcel of land located in the Town of Gates. In August of 1975 petitioner entered into a $550,000 contract to sell the land for a bottling plant. However, on September 1, 1975, article 24 of the Environmental Conservation Law, entitled Freshwater Wetlands, went into effect, and in November of 1975 petitioner was informed that approximately one half of his property might be declared a wetland and hence subject to statutory regulation.

Without conceding that the subject property was a wetland within the meaning of the act, petitioner applied for an interim…