N.Y. Highway Law § 21: Restoration, preservation and enhancement of natural or scenic beauty

§ 21. Restoration, preservation and enhancement of natural or scenic

beauty. The commissioner of transportation is hereby authorized and

empowered to acquire property for the restoration, preservation and

enhancement of natural or scenic beauty of areas traversed by state

highways, in order for the state to comply with any federal aid highway

acts. Acquisition of property for the purposes of this section shall be

in the manner provided by section thirty of this chapter, except that

any property in the city of New York, which is deemed by the

commissioner of transportation and the city of New York to be necessary

for the purposes of this section, shall be acquired by the city of New

York in the same manner as provided in section three hundred

forty-nine-c of this chapter relating to the acquisition of property for

the state arterial system in the city of New York. However, any property

located more than six hundred sixty feet from the nearest edge of the

right of way of any state highway, as shown on the final construction

plans for such highway on file in the department of transportation,

shall be acquired for the purposes of this section only by grant or

purchase. The term "property" as used in this section is defined to

include lands, waters, rights in lands or waters, structures,

franchises, and interest in land, including lands under water and

riparian rights and any and all other things and rights usually included

within the said term and includes also any and all interests in such

property less than full title, such as easements, permanent or

temporary, rights-of-way, uses, leases, licenses and all other

incorporeal hereditaments and every estate, interest or right, legal or

equitable. Notwithstanding any provision of this section, no property

may be appropriated for the purposes of this section which is in areas

zoned industrial or commercial under authority of state law or areas

which are used predominantly for industrial or commercial activities.