New York appeals court holds brownfield cleanup kept Buffalo scrap yard's grandfathered use alive
The Fourth Department upheld a zoning board finding that ongoing state brownfield remediation continued a nonconforming scrap yard use, so a new operator needed no use variance.
Buyers of contaminated industrial sites in western and central New York have a new appellate ruling that a state-supervised cleanup can keep a grandfathered use alive while operations are idle. On October 2, 2026, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, in Niagara Metals, LLC v. City of Buffalo Zoning Bd. of Appeals, No. 607 CA 25-00702, 2026 N.Y. Slip Op. 05636 (App. Div. 4th Dep't Oct. 2, 2026), confirmed a Buffalo zoning board ruling that a nearly century-old scrap yard had not lost its nonconforming status, treating “the ongoing remediation of the scrap yard through the New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program” as “a continuation of the nonconforming junk yard or scrap yard use.”
Niagara Metals, LLC v. City of Buffalo Zoning Bd. of Appeals, No. 607 CA 25-00702, 2026 N.Y. Slip Op. 05636 (App. Div. 4th Dep't Oct. 2, 2026); P.M.S. Assets v. Zoning Bd. of Appeals, 98 N.Y.2d 683 (2002); N.Y. C.P.L.R. 7804(g)