N.Y. General Municipal Law § 854: Definitions

§ 854. Definitions. As used in this act, unless the context otherwise

requires:

(1) "Agency"--shall mean an Industrial Development Agency created

pursuant to this act.

(2) "Bonds"--shall mean the bonds, notes, interim certificates and

other obligations issued by the agency pursuant to this act.

(3) "Municipality"--shall mean any county, city, village, town or

Indian reservation in the state.

(4) "Project" - shall mean any land, any building or other

improvement, and all real and personal properties located within the

state of New York and within or outside or partially within and

partially outside the municipality for whose benefit the agency was

created, including, but not limited to, machinery, equipment and other

facilities deemed necessary or desirable in connection therewith, or

incidental thereto, whether or not now in existence or under

construction, which shall be suitable for manufacturing, warehousing,

research, commercial, renewable energy or industrial purposes or other

economically sound purposes identified and called for to implement a

state designated urban cultural park management plan as provided in

title G of the parks, recreation and historic preservation law and which

may include or mean an industrial pollution control facility, a

recreation facility, educational or cultural facility, a horse racing

facility, a railroad facility, a renewable energy project or an

automobile racing facility, provided, however, no agency shall use its

funds or provide financial assistance in respect of any project wholly

or partially outside the municipality for whose benefit the agency was

created without the prior consent thereto by the governing body or

bodies of all the other municipalities in which a part or parts of the

project is, or is to be, located, and such portion of the project

located outside such municipality for whose benefit the agency was

created shall be contiguous with the portion of the project inside such

municipality.

(5) "Governing body"--shall mean the board or body in which the

general legislative powers of the municipality are vested.

(6) "Mortgage"--shall mean a mortgage or other security device.

(7) "Revenues"--shall mean all rents, revenues, fees, charges and

other sources of income derived by the agency from the leasing, sale or

other disposition of a project or projects.

(8) "Industrial pollution control facility"--shall mean any equipment,

improvement, structure or facility or any land and any building,

structure, facility or other improvement thereon, or any combination

thereof, and all real and personal property deemed necessary therewith,

which if within any city are not of a character or nature then or

formerly furnished or supplied by the city, having to do with or the end

purpose of which is the control, abatement or prevention of land, sewer,

water, air, noise or general environmental pollution deriving from the

operation of industrial, manufacturing, warehousing, commercial,

recreation and research facilities, including, but not limited to any

air pollution control facility, noise abatement facility, water

management facility, waste water collecting system, waste water

treatment works, sewage treatment works system, sewage treatment system

or solid waste disposal facility or site.

(9) "Recreation facility"--shall mean any facility for the use of the

general public as spectators or participants in recreation activities,

including but not limited to skiing, golfing, swimming, tennis, ice

skating or ice hockey facilities, together with all buildings,

structures, machinery, equipment, facilities and appurtenances thereto

which the agency may deem necessary, useful or desirable in connection

with the construction, improvement or operation of any such facility,

including overnight accommodations and other facilities incidental

thereto and facilities that may permit the use of recreation facilities

by the general public as participants in recreation activities, but

shall not include facilities for automobile or horse racing or other

similar activities.

(10) "Horse racing facility"--shall mean any facility for the use of

the general public for purpose of conducting pari-mutuel wagering,

licensed by the state gaming commission, as of January first, nineteen

hundred seventy-seven, except non-profit racing associations, including

buildings, structures, machinery, equipments, facilities and

appurtenances thereto, the construction, reconstruction, acquisition

and/or improvement of which shall have been approved by the state gaming

commission, and that the agency may deem necessary, useful or desirable

in connection with the construction, improvement or operation of such

racing facility.

(11) "Railroad facility"--shall mean, but shall not be limited to,

railroad rights-of-way, beds, bridges, viaducts, tracks, switches and

rolling stock and any other attendant structure, equipment, facility or

property necessary or appropriate to railroading conducted in

conjunction with industrial, commerical, manufacturing, recreational or

warehousing operations; provided, however, that (i) no agency shall

itself operate a railroad facility for freight or passenger service, but

may lease or otherwise make such facility available to an operator,

subject to an agreement for the maintenance and operation of such

facility for freight or passenger service, provided that passenger

service does not constitute the primary purpose of the railroad

facility; (ii) prior to undertaking any project involving acquisition,

construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance, equipping or

furnishing of a railroad facility, an agency shall submit its plans for

the proposed project to the commissioner of transportation; the

commissioner shall, within sixty days of his receipt of the proposal,

submit an analysis of the financial and operational feasibility of the

proposed project, along with any recommendations for modification for

improving the project's viability, to the agency, the governor, the

commissioner of commerce, the temporary president of the senate, the

speaker of the assembly and the governing body of the municipality in

which the agency is located; and (iii) no agency shall enter into any

contract for the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, improvement,

maintenance, equipping or furnishing of a railroad facility until

fifteen days after the submission of the analysis and recommendations of

the commissioner of transportation, or seventy-five days after

submission of the agency's plan to the commissioner, whichever is

earlier.

(12) "Educational or cultural facility"--shall mean any facility

identified and called for to implement a state designated heritage area

management plan as provided in title G of the parks, recreation and

historic preservation law that is open to the public at large as

participants in educational and cultural activities including but not

limited to theaters, museums, exhibitions and festival and interpretive

facilities, together with buildings, structures, machinery, equipment,

facilities and appurtenances thereto which the agency may deem

necessary, useful or desirable in connection with the construction,

improvement or operation of any such facility, including overnight

accommodations and other facilities incidental thereto and facilities

that may permit the use of educational or cultural facilities by the

general public.

(14) "Financial assistance" - shall mean the proceeds of bonds issued

by an agency, straight-leases, or exemptions from taxation claimed by a

project occupant as a result of an agency taking title, possession or

control (by lease, license or otherwise) to the property or equipment of

such project occupant or of such project occupant acting as an agent of

an agency.

(15) "Straight-lease transaction" - shall mean a transaction in which

an agency takes title, possession or control (by lease, license or

otherwise) to the property or equipment of a project occupant, entitling

such property or equipment to be exempt from taxation according to the

provisions of section eight hundred seventy-four of this article, and no

financial assistance in the form of the proceeds of bonds issued by the

agency is provided to the project occupant.

(16) "Affected tax jurisdiction" - shall mean any municipality or

school district, in which a project is located, which will fail to

receive real property tax payments, or other tax payments which would

otherwise be due, except for the tax exempt status of an agency involved

in a project.

(17) "Payments in lieu of taxes" - shall mean any payment made to an

agency, or affected tax jurisdiction equal to the amount, or a portion

of, real property taxes, or other taxes, which would have been levied by

or on behalf of an affected tax jurisdiction if the project was not tax

exempt by reason of agency involvement.

(18) "Highly distressed area" - shall mean (a) a census tract or

tracts or block numbering areas or areas or such census tract or block

numbering area contiguous thereto which, according to the most recent

census data available, has:

(i) a poverty rate of at least twenty percent for the year to which

the data relates or at least twenty percent of households receiving

public assistance; and

(ii) an unemployment rate of at least 1.25 times the statewide

unemployment rate for the year to which the data relates; or

(b) a city, town, village or county within a city with a population of

one million or more for which: (i) the ratio of the full value property

wealth, as determined by the comptroller for the year nineteen hundred

ninety, per resident to the statewide average full value property wealth

per resident; and (ii) the ratio of the income per resident; as shown in

the nineteen hundred ninety census to the statewide average income per

resident; are each fifty-five percent or less of the statewide average;

or

(c) an area which was designated an empire zone pursuant to article

eighteen-B of this chapter.

(19) "Continuing care retirement community" - shall mean any facility

that has been granted a certificate of authority pursuant to article

forty-six or forty-six-A of the public health law and is established to

provide, pursuant to continuing care retirement contracts approved

pursuant to article forty-six of the public health law, or

fee-for-service continuing care contracts approved pursuant to article

forty-six-A of the public health law, a comprehensive, cohesive living

arrangement for the elderly, and certified by the commissioner of

health, that (i) has been approved for the issuance of industrial

development agency bonds by the continuing care retirement community

council pursuant to section forty-six hundred four-a of the public

health law except that paragraphs b and g of subdivision two of section

forty-six hundred four-a of the public health law shall not apply to a

continuing care retirement community granted a certificate of authority

pursuant to article forty-six-A of the public health law and (ii) is a

not-for-profit corporation as defined in section one hundred two of the

not-for-profit corporation law that is (a) eligible for tax-exempt

financing under section forty-six hundred four-a of the public health

law and this chapter and (b) is exempt from taxation pursuant to section

501(c)(3) of the federal internal revenue code; except that "continuing

care retirement community" shall not include a facility granted a

certificate of authority upon application of a state or local government

applicant.

(20) "Automobile racing facility" shall mean any closed-course

motorsports complex and its ancillary grounds that has at least fifty

thousand fixed seats for race patrons and hosts at least one NASCAR

Sprint Cup series race and at least two other nationally recognized

racing events each calendar year.

(21) "Renewable energy project" shall mean any project and associated

real property on which the project is situated, that utilizes any system

or equipment as set forth in section four hundred eighty-seven of the

real property tax law or as defined pursuant to paragraph b of

subdivision one of section sixty-six-p of the public service law as

added by chapter one hundred six of the laws of two thousand nineteen.