Eugene Tutora, president of the Chester Civic Improvement Association, which represents homeowners in the Pelham Gardens area, said he welcomed the new development.

One group, the Citizens' Road Home Action Team, is calling for an independent oversight board to represent homeowners.

He represented builders, speculators and homeowners.

"Our group is split right down the middle," said Steve Pouyant, president of the South of Sunrise Civic Association, which represents homeowners.

LaDuca was co-lead counsel the Entran II litigation, in which he represented homeowners whose radiant heating systems allegedly contained defective pipes.

As a lawyer, Mr. Ireland represents oceanfront homeowners who are suing Suffolk County over worsening beach erosion that threatens to topple their multimillion-dollar houses.

Eugene T. Cullen, a Great Neck lawyer who represents adjoining homeowners, likened the proposed project to a "200-foot-long Chinese Wall."

"There is great anger among residents, who feel bullied by this agency," said Mr. Like, a lawyer representing several oceanfront homeowners in their complaints against the environmental department.

At last count, she had a list of 325 potential new clients on deck, and Robertson has stopped representing individual homeowners in favor of cases that "really prove a point."

The Village is served by a residents' group representing both renters and homeowners, which was incorporated in mid-2006.