Opinion
July 29, 1985
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Coppola, J.).
Order reversed, with costs, and application granted.
Plaintiff's zoning ordinance prohibits the keeping of pigeons in residential districts. Prior to 1981, defendant applied for a variance to keep homing or racing pigeons on her property. The denial of her application was subsequently upheld in a CPLR article 78 proceeding. In 1983, defendant's father-in-law fell gravely ill and his homing pigeons were brought to defendant's residence. Defendant was prosecuted for violating the zoning ordinance and defended on the ground the ordinance was unconstitutional. She was found guilty in December 1983 and her conviction was thereafter affirmed by the Appellate Term. Leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals was denied ( People v. Crea, 64 N.Y.2d 758) and an appeal to the United States Supreme Court was dismissed for want of a substantial Federal question ( Crea v. New York, ___ US ___, 105 S Ct 2009). In our view, plaintiff village is entitled to a preliminary injunction against defendant's harboring of homing pigeons in light of its successful prosecution of the defendant and previous determinations of our Court of Appeals upholding the validity of ordinances such as that at bar against similar challenges ( People v. Miller, 304 N.Y. 105; Barkmann v. Town of Hempstead, 294 N.Y. 805).
We note that Village Law § 20-2006, like Town Law § 268, authorizes injunctive relief against violations of a zoning ordinance without proof of any injury to the public ( see, Town of Islip v. Clark, 90 A.D.2d 500). Therefore, plaintiff was not required to come forward with proof of irreparable injury. Thompson, J.P., Bracken, Weinstein and Niehoff, JJ., concur.