Matter of Village of Westbury v. Department of Transp

In Matter of Village of Westbury v. Department of Transp. (75 NY2d 62 [1989]), the Court found that a project involving widening of a State parkway was complementary to a separate interchange reconstruction project. Therefore, the combined effects of the two projects should have been considered in the DOT environmental review, the Court found, even though the two projects were not part of a single formalized plan. The Court concluded that the two projects shared a common purpose, shared an integrated schedule for consecutive construction, and that the design of each was dependent on the other. "The interchange project had no independent utility without the subsequent widening of the ... parkway to the east. That being so, the regulations require the consideration of their combined effects" (Matter of Village of Westbury v. Department of Transp., supra, at 69). The Court also rejected DOT's efforts to claim the interchange construction was undertaken with a separate distinguishable purpose: "it appears that the purpose for the improvements was more broadly related to traffic congestion" (Matter of Village of Westbury v. Department of Transp., supra, at 69). The Court also noted DOT's Informational Bulletins responding to the public which linked the projects and other reports "identif[ying] the interchange and widening as 'complement[ary]' projects designed to improve the over-all traffic flow on the ... parkway" (Matter of Village of Westbury v. Department of Transp., supra, at 70). The Court concluded "DOT may not avoid consideration of their combined environmental effects simply by moving the limit line of the construction further west" (Matter of Village of Westbury v. Department of Transp., supra, at 71).