Albany Country Club v. State

37 Misc. 2d 134, 235 N.Y.S.2d 684, 1962 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2264
CourtNew York Court of Claims
DecidedNovember 21, 1962
DocketClaim No. 39433
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 37 Misc. 2d 134 (Albany Country Club v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Albany Country Club v. State, 37 Misc. 2d 134, 235 N.Y.S.2d 684, 1962 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2264 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1962).

Opinion

Paul C. Reuss, J.

The claimant herein is a nonprofit membership corporation organized under the laws of the State of New York. On January 3, 1961 and for many years prior thereto it operated a country club located on a tract of land comprising approximately 301 acres, situated partly in the City of Albany and partly in the Town of Guilderland, New York. On the aforesaid date the State of New York appropriated in fee for educational purposes pursuant to the Education Law (§§ 307, 355) two parcels of the claimant’s land situated partly in the Town of Guilderland, County of Albany, and partly in the City of Albany, County of Albany, New York, comprising 220.4 acres, by filing a copy of Map No. 14, Parcels 1 and 2 with a description of the property appropriated, in the office of the County Clerk [135]*135of Albany County. On the same date the State of New York, pursuant to chapter 572 of the Laws of 1947, appropriated in fee for the purposes of a State building site an additional portion of the claimant’s land situated in the City and County of Albany comprising 80.6 acres, by filing Map No. 211, Parcel No. 300 with a description of the property so appropriated, in the office of the County Clerk of Albany County. On the trial it was established that 8.5 acres of the land appropriated pursuant to Map No. 14, Parcels 1 and 2, comprised a paper street, the title to which was not in the claimant.

The both parties have agreed that the entire appropriation comprised 292.5 acres of the claimant’s land. The several takings will be considered as one. A single award shall be made herein which will be apportioned upon stipulation of counsel on our approval.

The court adopts the descriptions of the appropriated property shown and set forth on the aforesaid maps and reference is made thereto for such descriptions without further repetition thereof.

The claim herein was filed in the office of the Clerk of the Court of Claims and served upon the Attorney-General on July 26,1961, and has not been assigned.

The court has viewed the subject premises.

On the date of the appropriation the claimant’s property fronted on Western Avenue in the City of Albany for 349.87 feet and in the Town of Guilderland for 493.97 feet, on Fuller Road 300.30 feet in the City of Albany and 597.8 feet in the Town of Guilderland, and 2,354.8 feet on Washington Avenue in the City of Albany. Some 186.5 acres were located within the City of Albany and 106 acres were located in the Town of Guilderland. The Western Avenue frontage located in the City of Albany was zoned for business for a depth slightly over 100 feet. The portion of the club land located within the City of Albany was zoned either A or B Residential, and all of the property situated within the Town of Guilderland was zoned Residential R-12 which restricts the use to one-family dwellings.

The premises were improved by an 18-hole golf course and a group of buildings and other structures devoted to the activities of the club. The main building was the clubhouse, a large two-story structure part of which was built sometime in the nineteenth century; however, this building had been substantially improved and was in very good physical condition, although the general layout had some features of obsolescence. The other major structure was an Olympic-size swimming pool constructed in 1959. In addition thereto there was a golf shop, a building [136]*136which served as the golf professional’s house, the superintendent’s house, a barn, a bathhouse, four clay tennis courts, a parking lot and various other structures used in the club’s activities. Entrance to the premises was by means of a two-lane concrete road, leading from Western Avenue. The structures were generally in good condition although one or two of them were quite old and in need of some repair; however, all were well adapted to the purposes of the club. The golf course was equipped with an excellent irrigation system, service roads, rain shelters and other necessary structures and improvements. A lake located on the premises supplied necessary water for the golf course and the pool. The lake site was improved by a dam and pumping station with equipment and controls. The golf course was also enhanced by the existence of a large number of trees which not only provided an aesthetic setting but also had practical value as hazards which added to the challenge afforded by the course, served as screens and wind breaks, and helped to reduce erosion. There is no doubt that the premises were ideally adapted to the use to which they were put at the time of the appropriation.

The golf course itself and its adjacent areas comprised approximately 170 acres including the clubhouse complex. The remaining lands were not used by the club; however, shortly before the appropriation the claimant initiated steps to determine the best use for the surplus land around the perimeter of its property, but had actually done little else to utilize such property.

The State’s experts valued the claimant’s property as slightly more than $2,000,000 while the claimant’s experts placed a value on the premises in excess of $5,000,000.

Upon the trial the appraisers split up the property and valued the several segments of the tract according to the best available use for each such segment. We will also use the same approach herein.

We find that 300 feet to a depth of approximately 150 feet of the claimant’s Western Avenue frontage in Albany was available for commercial development, and that the fair market value of this frontage was $300 per front foot, for a total of $90,000.

That 275 feet of the Western Avenue frontage to a depth of approximately 150 feet in the Town of Guilderland was available for commercial development, and the fair market value was $275 per front foot, for a total of $75,625.

There was not too much diversity between the experts with respect to the front-foot value of the Western Avenue frontage. They relied primarily on sales adjacent to the claimant’s Western Avenue frontage. One occurring December 13, 1961 involved a corner property which was quite deep. The selling [137]*137price of such parcel indicated a value of $378 per front foot. We regard this tract as somewhat superior to the claimant’s Western Avenue property, particularly because of the corner influence. The other three sales took place on February 26,1957, May 15,1958 and August 30,1960 respectively. The selling price of each indicated a front-foot value of $250. These sales involved property which we regard as somewhat inferior to that of the claimant, because of size or restrictions. However, we have considered such sales in arriving at our determination, giving weight to them based upon their similarity to the subject property, and on the proximity of their occurrence to the date of the subject appropriation.

The frontage in the Town of Guilderland was, at the time of the appropriation, zoned residential. All parties agree that there is no question but that the probabilities for a zoning change to commercial were excellent at the time of the appropriation, and we therefore have added a considerable increment to the value of the residential frontage, based upon the probability of the rezoning. But, no matter how probable a change may seem, an element of uncertainty remains and it has its impact upon the selling price (Masten v. State of New York, 11 A D 2d 370, affd. 9 NY 2d 796) and therefore we have placed a somewhat lower valuation upon the frontage in the Town of Guilderland.

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Bluebook (online)
37 Misc. 2d 134, 235 N.Y.S.2d 684, 1962 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/albany-country-club-v-state-nyclaimsct-1962.