Partner
Victoria L. Polidoro is a partner in the firm and concentrates her practice in environmental, land use and municipal law. Ms. Polidoro represents private developers, municipalities, homeowners, not-for-profit entities and public agencies.
She currently serves as planning board attorney or zoning board attorney, or both, for the Towns of Dover and Hyde Park and the Villages of Fishkill and Red Hook. She has experience representing public and private clients in connection with a wide variety of matters including planning and zoning matters, contracts and grant agreements, environmental compliance, drafting and preparation of local laws, special district proceedings, intermunicipal agreements, easement and real estate matters, and historic preservation issues.
Ms. Polidoro was of counsel in Cooperstown Holstein Corp. v. Town of Middlefield, one of the first two decisions in the state defending the right of the Town to ban fracking for natural gas through the use of its zoning law, ultimately affirmed by the Court of Appeals. She was also of counsel in Gabrielli v. Town of New Paltz, which successfully defended the right of the Town of New Paltz to regulate its wetlands and vernal pools in the face of a constitutional and SEQRA challenge. This decision established that towns do not have to accurately map each wetland before enacting a wetlands law, nor do they have to forego regulating vernal pools, though they may exist for only two months a year.
Ms. Polidoro studied at the Pace Land Use Law Center throughout law school and was a senior associate on the Pace Environmental Law Review. With Pace Law School Professor John Nolon, Victoria coauthored "Hydrofracking: Disturbances Both Geological and Political: Who Decides?" published in the Urban Lawyer. She has participated in the Land Use Law Center's Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program as a facilitator and lecturer during its training programs for local officials. Ms. Polidoro has also lectured on the topic of land use law at a continuing legal education course for attorneys.
Ms. Polidoro was selected for the Upstate New York Super Lawyers Rising Star list in 2014 through 2018. Ms. Polidoro received the Distinguished Young Attorney award from Pace’s Land Use Law Center in 2019.
Ms. Polidoro is a member of the Mid-Hudson Women's Bar Association and the New York Bar Association (Environmental and Municipal Law Sections).
Her publications on the topic of land use and municipal law include:
"Hydrofracking: Disturbances Both Geological and Political: Who Decides?" John R. Nolon and Victoria L. Polidoro, 44 Urb. Law. 507 (2012)
"Examining TDR in New York: Why Isn't It Working? What are the Obstacles? Can They be Overcome?" John R. Nolon and Victoria L. Polidoro, N.Y. Zoning Law and Practice Report (2006)
"The Planning and Zoning Clerk Municipal Planning Primer," Edward Buroughs & Victoria Polidoro, editors, Westchester County Department of Planning (2006)
BAR ADMISSION
Ms. Polidoro was admitted to the bar in New York in 2007.
EDUCATION
Ms. Polidoro received her J.D. magna cum laude from Pace University School of Law in 2007 and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona in 2003.