N.Y. General Municipal Law § 239-n: Referral of certain proposed subdivision plats to the county planning agency or regional planning council; report thereon; final action

* § 239-n. Referral of certain proposed subdivision plats 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 (a) 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 subdivision seven of section two hundred

thirty-nine-d of this article, or shown on an official map adopted

pursuant to section two hundred thirty-nine-e of this article.

(b) The term "undeveloped plat" shall mean those plats already filed

in the office of the clerk of the county in which such plat is located

where twenty percent or more of the lots within the plat are unimproved

unless existing conditions, such as poor drainage, have prevented their

development.

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

body authorized by a municipal legislative body to approve preliminary

or final plats or to approve the development of undeveloped plats and/or

plats already filed in the office of the county clerk.

2. Referral of proposed plats. In any city, town or village which is

located in a county which has a county planning agency authorized by the

county legislative body to review preliminary or final plats or to

approve the development of undeveloped plats, the clerk of the municipal

planning agency, upon receipt of application for preliminary and/or

final approval of a subdivision plat or proposal to develop an

undeveloped plat and/or plats already filed in the office of the county

clerk, shall refer certain of such plats to the county planning agency.

In the absence of a county planning agency, the county legislative body

may authorize a regional planning council whose geographic area includes

the county, to perform the review functions prescribed herein.

3. Plats subject to referral. (a) The following applications for

approval of preliminary or final plats and undeveloped plats shall be

subject to the referral requirements of this section, if the application

applies 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

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.

(b) 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 plats 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 plats; recommendation, report. (a) The county planning agency

or regional planning council, when authorized by the county legislative

body, shall review any referred plat 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. The

county planning agency or regional planning council may adopt such rules

and regulations as are necessary to perform such function. Such county

planning agency or regional planning council shall recommend approval,

modification, or disapproval, of such plat, or report that such plat 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 preliminary or final plat or proposal to develop an

undeveloped plat, 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

referred plat 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 referred plat, 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.

* NB There are 2 § 239-n's