Mr. Toronto said a revised zoning ordinance, adopted in 1993, makes a chemical plant a nonconforming use.

But that acreage includes the tower, which is a nonconforming use.

Accordingly, the city's 1961 zoning regulations specify that when a nonconforming use is abandoned for two or more years, the right to it is forfeited forever.

Thus, when Toys "R" Us acquired the warehouse in 1994, after a foreclosure, it could not operate under the old nonconforming use.

Implied intent exists if the landowner fails to exercise the nonconforming use.

If the structure exercising the nonconforming use is destroyed beyond a certain percentage (usually 50%) it cannot be rebuilt or repaired.

A reasonable exercise of an amortization end of the nonconforming use allows for a complete return on the investment.

But Justice Saxe ruled that even those minimal warehouse operations qualified as "a continuation of the nonconforming uses."

But the landfill on Route 7 existed prior to the regulations and it thus became a "permitted nonconforming use," the court decisions have noted.

But at the time, Roosevelt Field was already built to a 0.529 ratio, making it a nonconforming use.