What is a vested right?
Under certain conditions, state law affords a permit applicant a “vested right” to have an application reviewed under older regulations that are no longer in effect. Vested rights, sometimes referred to as “grandfathering,” apply only to a project, not to a property. Vested rights claims are generally based on one or more prior applications that provided fair notice of a continuing development project that began before the adoption of current regulations.