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Property Keyed to Merrill
Harbison v. City of Buffalo
Citation:
152 N.E.2d 42 (N.Y. 1958)Facts
In 1924, Harbison started a cooperage with his son in the city of Buffalo in an area that was undeveloped. The city operated a dump in the area, and there was a glue factory in the vicinity. In 1926, the City of Buffalo enacted a zoning regulation that zoned the area for residential use. While there was a brief period where the area was zoned for businesses, between 1949 to 1953, the land returned under zoning for residential use afterwards. Clearly, by the time the first zoning ordinance affecting the business was enacted, Harbison had an existing nonconforming use, since he was operating a business in an area that subsequently became subject to a zoning scheme prohibiting the operation of businesses. The City of Buffalo amendment its ordinances in 1953 to prohibit any nonconforming use of any property in residential districts that fell under the definition of “junk yard.” Harbison’s cooperage fell under the definition of “junk dealers” by a 1936 ordinance. Therefore, in November 1956, the director of licenses of the City of Buffalo sent Harbison a letter to cease operation of his cooperage immediately. Harbison sued, challenging the validity of the ordinance prohibiting his nonconforming use of the property.
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