The courts decided 47 cases under the New York State
Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in 2020. Of these, in the
great majority— 31— the courts upheld, or at least left
alone, agencies' decisions that a particular action did not
require the preparation of a full environmental impact statement
(EIS); in seven the courts rejected such decisions; and in eight
the courts upheld EISs that had been prepared. (One case was
unclassifiable.) The Court of Appeals issued no SEQRA decisions in
2020.
This article marks the 30th anniversary of this column's
first annual SEQRA review. As usual, all the cases will be included
in this year's update to Environmental Impact Review in New
York (Gerrard, Ruzow & Weinberg). The 2020 cases continued the
familiar pattern that the safest way for a controversial project to
withstand attack in court is to prepare a full EIS.
