| Matter of Long Is. Pine Barrens Socy., Inc. v County of Suffolk |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 07667 [55 AD3d 610] |
| October 7, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| In the Matter of Long Island Pine Barrens Society, Inc., et al.,Appellants, v County of Suffolk et al., Respondents. |
—[*1] Christine Malafi, County Attorney, Hauppauge, N.Y. (Adriana Lopez of counsel), for respondentCounty of Suffolk. Andrew L. Crabtree, Melville, N.Y., for respondent Hunter Sports Shooting Grounds, Inc. Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, New York, N.Y. (Benjamin N. Gutman, Monica Wagner,Norman Spiegel, and Gregory J. Nolan of counsel), for respondent Central Pine Barrens Joint Planningand Policy Commission.
In a proceeding, inter alia, pursuant to CPLR article 78 to review Resolution No. 1268-2005 ofthe Suffolk County Legislature, which authorized the Suffolk County Department of Parks, Recreationand Conservation to enter into a license agreement with Hunter Sports Shooting Grounds, Inc., for therenovation and operation of a trap and skeet shooting range at Southaven County Park, and to annulthe license agreement that arose therefrom, the petitioners appeal from an order and judgment (onepaper) of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Weber, J.), dated May 2, 2007, which, in effect,granted those branches of the respective motions of the County of Suffolk, Hunter Sports ShootingGrounds, Inc., and Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission which were to dismissthe petition insofar as asserted against each of them pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7) for failure to state acause of action, and dismissed the proceeding.[*2]
Ordered that the order and judgment is affirmed, with one billof costs to the respondents appearing separately and filing separate briefs.
From 1963 until 2001 the County of Suffolk operated, or leased out the operation of, a trap-andskeet-shooting range (hereinafter the Range) at Southaven County Park. According to the petitioners,the Range is located within the statutorily-designated "core preservation area" of the Long Island PineBarrens (ECL 57-0107 [11]), an area in which land use is governed, inter alia, by article 57 of theEnvironmental Conservation Law. In the summer of 2001, the Suffolk County Department of Parks,Recreation and Conservation (hereinafter the Parks Department) shut down the Range because ofhealth, noise, and safety violations.
Beginning in April 2002 the Suffolk County Legislature (hereinafter the County Legislature)adopted a series of resolutions concerning the Range which, among other things, appropriated funds forenvironmental restoration and construction at that location and directed the Parks Department toconduct a Request for Proposal (hereinafter RFP) process to retain a vendor to manage the Range. ByResolution No. 1268-2005, adopted on December 6, 2005, the County Legislature authorized theParks Department to enter into a license agreement with Hunter Sports Shooting Grounds, Inc.(hereinafter Hunter Sports), for renovation and operation of the Range. The license agreementauthorized by that resolution (hereinafter the license agreement) was executed by County officials andHunter Sports in April 2006. On July 15, 2006 the Range reopened.
The petitioners commenced this proceeding on or about August 10, 2006. The respondentsseparately moved to dismiss the petition insofar as asserted against each of them on a variety ofgrounds, including the statute of limitations. The Supreme Court, in effect, granted those branches oftheir respective motions which were to dismiss the petition for failure to state a cause of action, anddismissed the proceeding. We affirm, albeit on a different ground.
The petitioners' challenge to the County Legislature's authorization of the license agreement wasbarred by the four-month statute of limitations applicable to proceedings commenced pursuant toCPLR article 78 (see CPLR 217 [1]; Matter of Platt v Town of Southampton, 46 AD3d 907, 908 [2007]; Matter of Simon v New York City Tr.Auth., 34 AD3d 823 [2006]). The period of limitations set forth in CPLR 217 began to runon December 6, 2005 the date the County Legislature adopted the resolution authorizing the ParksDepartment to enter into a license agreement with Hunter Sports to operate of the Range (seeMatter of Gach v City of Long Beach, 218 AD2d 801 [1995]). Since this proceeding was notcommenced until more than four months after the resolution was adopted, the petitioners' challenge wasuntimely (see CPLR 217 [1]; Matter of Gach v City of Long Beach, 218 AD2d at802).
The petitioners' remaining contentions either are without merit or need not be reached in light of ourdetermination. Skelos, J.P., Covello, Balkin and Dickerson, JJ., concur. [See 2007 NY SlipOp 31055(U).]