Most municipal ordinances allow for an “aggrieved party” to appeal local administrative decisions. To be “aggrieved,” a party must show that he or she participated throughout the administrative process, and that the decision causes him or her to suffer a particularized injury or harm. Participation generally requires the party to have attended the relevant meetings (whether in person or through written comments) and raised any issues he or she may have. When the appellant is an individual, participation is usually easy to demonstrate through examination of the meeting record. However, as discussed in the Our Town case, it can be more complicated when a group or coalition is appearing as an appellant.
In Our Town, a group of affected individuals presented an appeal of a site plan approval issued by the Damariscotta Planning Board. When the Board of Appeals considered whether the group had standing, it noted that one of the members had appeared at a pre-application workshop, that none of the members had appeared at the Planning Board meetings on the application, and that one of the members had submitted written comments after the close of the hearing. Accordingly, it found that Our Town did not have standing because its members had not continuously participated in the review process. The Court agreed, holding that because it was the group that was asserting standing, the individual members had to have identified themselves as members of the group when they appeared. The Court also held that participation before and after, but not during the hearing, was not sufficient to demonstrate continuous participation.
Appeals boards should, as a preliminary matter, evaluate both prongs of the standing test before proceeding to the merits of an appeal. If, on review of the record, it is clear that the appellant did not sufficiently participate in the review process, the Board is free to deny the appeal, and a court is likely to give that decision a good degree of deference.
