While a wildlife expert hired by the developer of the hotel project, the Tharaldson Development Co. of North Dakota, concluded as part of the SEQRA process that no Karner Blue butterflies live on the 3.6 acres of property to be used for the hotel, the expert did not consider the project's effects on other threatened plant and animal species in the area, the court ruled. Those include the Frosted Elfin butterfly, the Hognosed snake, the Worm snake and the Eastern Spadefoot toad. Justices Robert S. Rose and Leslie E. Stein joined in Justice Kavanagh's decision. The two dissenters complained that neither Save the Pine Bush nor the nine individual members who joined as petitioners in an amended petition have standing to challenge the city's SEQRA review under the "well-established" principles in Society of Plastics Indus. v....
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