In a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 to review a determination of the Town of Riverhead Planning Board, dated December 15, 2011, adopting Resolution No. 0074, granting the application of Knightland, Inc., for site plan approval, the petitioners appeal, as limited by their brief, from so much of an order and judgment (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (LaSalle, J.), dated April 23, 2012, as granted that branch of the motion of the Town of Riverhead Town Board and the Town of Riverhead Planning Board which was, in effect, to dismiss the proceeding on the ground that the petitioners lacked standing, and dismissed the proceeding.
Ordered that the order and judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
The individual petitioners are Suffolk County residents who are members of the petitioner Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, Inc. The petitioners commenced this proceeding to challenge the proposed construction of a regional shopping mall at the intersection of Route 25A and Sound Avenue in Wading River. The individual petitioners live at distances ranging from approximately 1,300 feet to approximately 2,000 feet away from the site of the proposed mall. They allege that they will be harmed by the construction of the proposed mall primarily because Fairway Drive, the road which provides access to their community, is located directly across from the main entrance to the proposed mall. The Town of Riverhead Town Board and the Town of Riverhead Planning Board moved to dismiss the petition on the ground, inter alia, that the petitioners lacked standing. The Supreme Court granted that branch of the motion which was to dismiss the petition on the ground that the petitioners lacked standing, and dismissed the proceeding.
Contrary to the petitioners’ contention, the Supreme Court properly concluded that they lacked standing. “ ‘[I]n land use matters . . . the plaintiff[s], for standing purposes, must show that [they] would suffer direct harm, injury that is in some way different from that of the public at large’ ” (Matter of Save the
Accordingly, the Supreme Court properly granted that branch of the motion which was, in effect, to dismiss the proceeding, and properly dismissed the proceeding. Eng, EJ., Dickerson, Chambers and Hall, JJ., concur.
