NEW YORK CITY-US District Court Judge Denise Cote turned aside Westchester County's request for a restraining order to prevent the US Department of Housing and Urban Development from redistributing $7.4 million in federal housing funds over terms of a 2009 fair housing case settlement.

HUD has maintained that Westchester County has not complied with terms of the settlement in regards to support of anti-discrimination housing legislation called “Source of Income” and the mandated analysis of exclusionary zoning in the county.

Cote said the county's request for a restraining order was premature because she said there is still time for the county to receive the 2011 Community Development Block Grant funds HUD has frozen, according to the Journal News.

Westchester County submitted a new analysis of zoning in the county on Wednesday. James Castro-Blanco, the chief deputy county attorney for Westchester, says, “We are very confident that what we've submitted to HUD already is going to meet the requirements and that the county will in fact receive the money that HUD has withheld from us for a couple of years now.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kennedy, who argued in federal court against the restraining order request, says the county had more than two years to comply with the terms of the settlement. See story in the Journal News.