The Orangetown ZBA unanimously overturned the Town’s Code officer’s interpretation that a warehouse required a use variance.

WPT Acquisitions has proposed a 175,000+ square foot warehouse at its site having frontage on Mountainview Avenue and Route 303 in Orangeburg. The Code officer interpreted a provision of the applicable overlay zone to limit warehouses in that location to 65,000sf, and further determined that a use variance was needed to build a larger warehouse.

We appealed on behalf of WPT, citing the fact that (a) the use was permitted as of right in the underlying LI district and (b) the size restriction applied only to “retail warehouses” (e.g., Costco, Home Depot, etc.). In the alternative, we said that, if the restriction applied, then only an area variance, not a use variance, was needed.

At its October 6, 2021 meeting, the ZBA unanimously held that a use variance was not needed. It referred the project back to the Planning Board for site plan review.