Residents appeal court decision allowing Dewittville condos

Residents of the Point Chautauqua area are appealing a July state Supreme Court ruling denying the residents’ attempt to stop a new condominium project near Dewittville.

The notice of appeal was filed in the state Supreme Court on August 4. The case will now proceed to the Fourth Department Appellate Division in Rochester. And, it comes as the town of Chautauqua’s attorney has filed a motion to dismiss a third lawsuit filed by the residents that argues state Supreme Court Justice Grace Hanlon already decided the issues in the third lawsuit with her July 15 ruling that allowed the condominium project to continue.

At issue is a $70 million development that will include condominiums, townhouses, single family homes, and a restaurant/tap house. The development now calls for 174 residential units among the condos, townhouses and single houses. The restaurant/tap house would be open to the general public. New roads would be constructed. There would be walking trails, tennis courts, and 40 seasonal boat docks open to the public.

MAY LAWSUIT

A third lawsuit is still active in the state Supreme Court as of Wednesday morning.

Filed in May by Attorney Stephen Daly, who is representing the residents in all three cases, Chautauqua Protects alleges that the Chautauqua town Zoning Board acted in violation of lawful procedure with the way it handled its April 21, 2026, decisions regarding the maximum density requirement for Planned Unit Developments, that the zoning code’s subdivision regulations were not applied to Sunset View and the board's ruling concerning Sunset View's public dock and the anti-funneling requirements included in Hanlon's second ruling.

The board issued one bulk determination, while Daly argues the Zoning Board of Appeals should have issued three separate and distinct decisions on each of the challenges Chautauqua Protect raised during the April 26 meeting.

Chautauqua Protect is asking the state Supreme Court to vacate the April 21 decision denying Chautauqua Protect’s interpretive appeal, declare the three Zoning Board interpretations as unlawful and to send the decisions back to the Zoning Board of Appeals for further proceedings; and to direct the Zoning Board to issue specific decisions of each interpretive ruling or render determinations supported by reasoned elaborations.

Oral arguments had been scheduled for Monday, Aug. 11, but Daly sent a letter to Hanlon on Aug. 4 saying he was waiving oral argument and asking Hanlon to decide the case based on memorandums that had been submitted by Daly and Joel Seachrist, the town’s attorney, because Hanlon was familiar with all of the issues raised in the May lawsuit.

JULY DECISION

In the first of three challenges filed by the residents - Point Chautauqua Association Inc. and Chautauqua Protect v. Town Board of the Town of Chautauqua and 1200 Group LLC - the residents asked state Supreme Court Justice Grace Hanlon to annul Local Law 2 and the State Environmental Quality Review Act that supported the law as well as to require any future State Environmental Quality Review act for Local Law 2 consider the environmental impacts of the project. That motion is referred to in the online court docket information as Motion 1.

Hanlon also ruled in a second legal challenge filed by Chautauqua Protects that had been filed in February.

Among the issues Chautauqua Protect raised in its filing is that the project exceeds the maximum density requirement under town laws by including 20 more dwelling units than the minimum lot size under town codes allow; that the subdivision style housing is subject to the town’s standard zoning rules and can’t be part of a Planned Unit Development; and that the development violates “anti-funneling” regulations intended to prevent developments with small areas of Chautauqua Lake frontage to offer lake access to a large number of people. The project has 190 feet of lake frontage but would offer lake access on a first-come, first-serve basis to more than 170 residential units, their guests and the general public.

The lawsuit also argues that town’s approval relies on incorrect legal conclusions, that the project has the potential to create financial burdens on the community and that it will create adverse impacts on adjacent property owners – particularly while Sunset View is under construction – and from part of the project’s use as an AirBnB.

Hanlon ruled against Chautauqua Protects on all fronts.

On Aug. 6, Joel Seachrist, the town’s attorney, filed a motion to dismiss the May lawsuit based on those same prior cases.

“Prior to the issuance of those decisions, petitioner had filed the present petition challenging the ZBA’s April 21, 2026, decision that affirmed the three interpretations by Code Enforcement Officer Frank Watson on December 4, 2025, that were then validated by this court …” Seachrist wrote in his Memorandum of Law on the motion to dismiss the third lawsuit. “The ZBA’s determinations are entitled to great deference, are fully consistent with this court’s previous holdings, and are free of any error of law or procedural infirmity. The petition should be dismissed in its entirety with prejudice.”