An obscure western New York property owners association has appealed a court order that annulled the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s wetlands rules.
The Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association filed one of four lawsuits in April 2025 challenging the DEC’s wetlands rulemaking on constitutional grounds. Last month, an Albany Supreme Court judge issued a decision that consolidated all four lawsuits, annulling the rules on procedural grounds.
The DEC didn’t appeal. But the Chautauqua Lake group is appealing the decision despite the court’s decision to toss the rules.
The property owners challenged the rules on constitutional grounds, but the court dismissed their claims. Their lawsuit was consolidated with three other legal challenges to the rules, and a court tossed the wetlands rules based on procedural rather than constitutional grounds.
