N.Y. General Municipal Law § 239-m: Referral of certain proposed city, town and village planning and zoning actions to the county planning agency or regional planning counci...

§ 239-m. Referral of certain proposed city, town and village planning

and zoning actions to the county planning agency or regional planning

council; report thereon; final action. 1. Definitions. As used herein:

(a) The term "proposed" as used in subparagraphs (ii) and (iii) of

paragraph (b) of subdivision three of this section shall be deemed to

include only those recreation areas, parkways, thruways, expressways,

roads or highways which are shown on a county comprehensive plan adopted

pursuant to section two hundred thirty-nine-d of this article or adopted

on an official map pursuant to section two hundred thirty-nine-e of this

article.

(b) The term "referring body" shall mean the city, town or village

body responsible for final action on proposed actions subject to this

section.

(c) The term "full statement of such proposed action" shall mean all

materials required by and submitted to the referring body as an

application on a proposed action, including a completed environmental

assessment form and all other materials required by such referring body

in order to make its determination of significance pursuant to the state

environmental quality review act under article eight of the

environmental conservation law and its implementing regulations. When

the proposed action referred is the adoption or amendment of a zoning

ordinance or local law, "full statement of such proposed action" shall

also include the complete text of the proposed ordinance or local law as

well as all existing provisions to be affected thereby, if any, if not

already in the possession of the county planning agency or regional

planning council. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this

paragraph, any referring body may agree with the county planning agency

or regional planning council as to what shall constitute a "full

statement" for any or all of those proposed actions which said referring

body is authorized to act upon.

(d) The term "receipt" shall mean delivery of a full statement of such

proposed action, as defined in this section, in accordance with the

rules and regulations of the county planning agency or regional planning

council with respect to person, place and period of time for submission.

In no event shall such rule or regulation define delivery so as to

require in hand delivery or delivery more than twelve calendar days

prior to the county planning agency's or regional planning council's

meeting date. In the absence of any such rules or regulations, "receipt"

shall mean delivery in hand or by mail to the clerk of the county

planning agency or regional planning council. Where delivery is made in

hand, the date of receipt shall be the date of delivery. Where delivery

is made by mail, the date as postmarked shall be the date of delivery.

The provisions of this section shall not preclude the rules and

regulations of the county planning agency or regional planning council

from providing that the delivery may be a period greater than twelve

days provided the referring body and the county planning agency or

regional planning council agree in writing to such longer period.

2. Referral of proposed planning and zoning actions. In any city, town

or village which is located in a county which has a county planning

agency, or, in the absence of a county planning agency, which is located

within the jurisdiction of a regional planning council duly created

pursuant to the provisions of law, each referring body shall, before

taking final action on proposed actions included in subdivision three of

this section, refer the same to such county planning agency or regional

planning council.

3. Proposed actions subject to referral. (a) The following proposed

actions shall be subject to the referral requirements of this section,

if they apply to real property set forth in paragraph (b) of this

subdivision:

(i) adoption or amendment of a comprehensive plan pursuant to section

two hundred seventy-two-a of the town law, section 7-722 of the village

law or section twenty-eight-a of the general city law;

(ii) adoption or amendment of a zoning ordinance or local law;

(iii) issuance of special use permits;

(iv) approval of site plans;

(v) granting of use or area variances;

(vi) other authorizations which a referring body may issue under the

provisions of any zoning ordinance or local law.

(b) The proposed actions set forth in paragraph (a) of this

subdivision shall be subject to the referral requirements of this

section if they apply to real property within five hundred feet of the

following:

(i) the boundary of any city, village or town; or

(ii) the boundary of any existing or proposed county or state park or

any other recreation area; or

(iii) the right-of-way of any existing or proposed county or state

parkway, thruway, expressway, road or highway; or

(iv) the existing or proposed right-of-way of any stream or drainage

channel owned by the county or for which the county has established

channel lines; or

(v) the existing or proposed boundary of any county or state owned

land on which a public building or institution is situated; or

(vi) the boundary of a farm operation located in an agricultural

district, as defined by article twenty-five-AA of the agriculture and

markets law, except this subparagraph shall not apply to the granting of

area variances.

(c) The county planning agency or regional planning council may enter

into an agreement with the referring body or other duly authorized body

of a city, town or village to provide that certain proposed actions set

forth in this subdivision are of local, rather than inter-community or

county-wide concern, and are not subject to referral under this section.

4. County planning agency or regional planning council review of

proposed actions; recommendation, report. (a) The county planning

agency or regional planning council shall review any proposed action

referred for inter-community or county-wide considerations, including

but not limited to those considerations identified in section two

hundred thirty-nine-l of this article. Such county planning agency or

regional planning council shall recommend approval, modification, or

disapproval, of the proposed action, or report that the proposed action

has no significant county-wide or inter-community impact.

(b) Such county planning agency or regional planning council, or an

authorized agent of said agency or council, shall have thirty days after

receipt of a full statement of such proposed action, or such longer

period as may have been agreed upon by the county planning agency or

regional planning council and the referring body, to report its

recommendations to the referring body, accompanied by a statement of the

reasons for such recommendations. If such county planning agency or

regional planning council fails to report within such period, the

referring body may take final action on the proposed action without such

report. However, any county planning agency or regional planning

council report received after thirty days or such longer period as may

have been agreed upon, but two or more days prior to final action by the

referring body, shall be subject to the provisions of subdivision five

of this section.

5. Extraordinary vote upon recommendation of modification or

disapproval. If such county planning agency or regional planning council

recommends modification or disapproval of a proposed action, the

referring body shall not act contrary to such recommendation except by a

vote of a majority plus one of all the members thereof.

6. Report of final action. Within thirty days after final action, the

referring body shall file a report of the final action it has taken with

the county planning agency or regional planning council. A referring

body which acts contrary to a recommendation of modification or

disapproval of a proposed action shall set forth the reasons for the

contrary action in such report.