Children's Village v. Holbrook

In Children's Village v. Holbrook, 171 A.D.2d 298 (3d Dept. 1991) the Court held that an ordinance defining "family" as "any number of individuals related by blood, marriage or adoption or not more than five (5) individuals who are not so related, living together as a single housekeeping unit" was found invalid because it restricts the number of persons living as a "functionally equivalent family" but not restrict the size of a traditional family. The court found that a proposed group home for juveniles supervised by a rotating professional staff constitutes a family and that, therefore, it was an authorized use which did not require a special use permit.