§ 506 — Acquisition of property

New York § 506

• Jurisdiction: New York
• Law GMU: General Municipal
• Art. 15: Urban Renewal

Text

§ 506. Acquisition of property. 1. (a) A municipality, acting through\nits governing body, may acquire by purchase, gift, devise, lease,\ncondemnation or otherwise, in accordance with the provisions of the\nappropriate general, special or local law applicable to the acquisition\nof real property by such municipality, real property or any interest\ntherein, including but not limited to air rights, and easements or other\nrights of user necessary for the use and development of such air rights,\nto be developed as air rights sites for the elimination of the blighting\ninfluences of an area or areas consisting principally of land in\nstreets, alleys, highways, and other public rights of way, railway or\nsubway tracks, bridge or tunnel approaches or entrances, or other\nsimilar facilities which have a blighting influence on the surrounding\narea, necessary for or incidental to a program of urban renewal for\nresidential, commercial, industrial, public, semi-public, community or\nother uses or combinations of such uses in accordance with an urban\nrenewal plan for a designated area, or for a part or portion of such\narea, provided, however, that the acquisition of any air rights over\nrailroad tracks, rights of way or facilities and easements or other\nrights of user necessary for the use and development of such air rights\nare to be subject to the provision of section fifty-one-a of the\nrailroad law. The acquisition of real property within a designated urban\nrenewal area shall in every case be deemed to be and constitute a\ncontinuous rather than separate takings.\n (b) Property so acquired by a municipality shall be exempt from\ntaxation until sold, leased for a term not exceeding ninety-nine years\nor otherwise disposed of in accordance with the provisions of this\narticle of this chapter; provided however, that any such municipality\nshall have the power and authority, with respect to such property, to\npay or transfer, out of funds available to it for the effectuating of\nsuch urban renewal program, annual sums in lieu of taxes to any taxing\njurisdiction providing services to the urban renewal area, or to the\npart or portion thereof within such taxing jurisdiction, in order that\nno such taxing jurisdiction shall suffer an inequitable loss of revenue\nby virtue of such urban renewal program; provided, further, that the\namount so paid or transferred for any year with respect to any such\nproperty shall not exceed the lesser of (1) the sum last levied for the\nbenefit of such taxing jurisdiction as an annual tax on such property\nprior to the time of its acquisition for urban renewal purposes or (2)\nsuch amount as shall be approved by the commissioner, pursuant to such\nrules, regulations, limitations and conditions as he may prescribe, as\nan eligible and proper charge against such urban renewal program. Upon\nthe sale, lease or disposition of such property to any person, firm or\ncorporation not entitled to an exemption from taxation or entitled to\nonly a partial tax exemption such property shall immediately become\nsubject to taxation in whole or in part, as the case may be, and shall\nbe taxed pro rata for the unexpired portion of the taxable year.\n As used in this paragraph, the term "taxing jurisdiction" means any\nmunicipal corporation or district corporation, including any school\ndistrict or any special district, having the power to levy or collect\ntaxes and benefit assessments upon real property, or in whose behalf\nsuch taxes or benefit assessments may be levied or collected.\n c. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, a\nmunicipality may acquire by purchase, gift, devise, lease, condemnation\nor otherwise, upon recommendation of the agency and in accordance with\nthe appropriate provisions of any general, special or local law or\ncharter applicable to the acquisition of real property by such\nmunicipality, such real property or any interest therein, within an area\ndesignated pursuant to this article as appropriate for urban renewal, as\nit may deem ultimately necessary or proper to effectuate the purposes of\nthis article although temporarily not required for such purposes,\nprovided that the early acquisition of such property is approved as\nfollows:\n (1) In a municipality where there is a planning commission, the agency\nshall submit the proposal for early acquisition to the commission for\nits approval. Such planning commission shall, not later than ten weeks\nfrom the date of the referral of the proposal to it, after a public\nhearing held on due notice, submit its report to the governing body\ncertifying its unqualified consent, its disapproval, or its qualified\nconsent with recommendations for modifications of the proposal.\n After public hearing held on due notice after the report is received\nor due from the planning commission, the governing body may:\n (i) if the commission shall have certified its unqualified consent,\napprove the proposal by a majority vote:\n (ii) if the commission shall have certified its disapproval or shall\nhave failed to make its report within ten weeks from the date such\nproposal was submitted to it by the agency, nevertheless approve the\nproposal, but only by a three-fourths vote:\n (iii) if the commission shall have certified its qualified consent\ntogether with recommendations for modifications of the proposal, approve\nthe proposal together with the modifications recommended by the\ncommission by a majority vote, or approve the proposal without such\nmodifications but only by a three-fourths vote.\n (2) In a municipality where there is no planning commission, the\nagency shall submit the proposal to the governing body which, after\npublic hearing held on due notice, may either approve or disapprove the\nproposal.\n