N.Y. Town Law § 194: Establishment or extension of districts

§ 194. Establishment or extension of districts. 1. After a hearing

held upon notice as hereinbefore provided and upon the evidence given

thereat, the town board shall determine by resolution: (a) whether the

petition is signed, and acknowledged or proved, or authenticated, as

required by law and is otherwise sufficient;

(b) whether all the property and property owners within the proposed

district or extension are benefited thereby;

(c) whether all the property and property owners benefited are

included within the limits of the proposed district or extension;

(d) whether it is in the public interest to grant in whole or in part

the relief sought.

2. (a) If the town board shall determine that the petition is not

signed, and acknowledged or proved, or authenticated, as required by law

or that it is otherwise insufficient, or if it is determined that it be

not in the public interest to grant in whole or in part the relief

sought, the town board shall deny the petition.

(b) If the town board shall determine that the petition is signed, and

acknowledged or proved, or authenticated, as required by law and is

otherwise sufficient and that it is in the public interest to grant the

relief sought, either in whole or in part, but shall find that any part

or portion of the property or property owners within the proposed

district or extension are not benefited thereby or that certain property

or property owners benefited thereby have not been included therein, the

town board shall specify the necessary changes of the boundaries of the

proposed district or extension to be made in order that all of the

property and property owners and only such property and property owners

as are benefited shall be included within such proposed district or

extension, and the board shall call a further hearing at a definite

place and time not less than fifteen nor more than twenty-five days

after such determination. Notice of such further hearing shall be posted

and published in the manner provided in section one hundred ninety-three

hereof except that such notice shall also specify the manner in which it

is proposed to alter the boundaries of the proposed district or

extension. Such further hearing shall be conducted in the same manner as

an original hearing upon a petition. If and when the town board shall

determine in the affirmative all of the questions set forth in

subdivision one of this section, the board may adopt a resolution

approving the establishment or extension of the district as the

boundaries shall be finally determined and the construction of the

improvement or providing of the service therein, but no such resolution

so approving shall be adopted unless the petition shall comply with the

requirements of section one hundred ninety-one as to sufficiency of

signers as the boundaries of the proposed district or extension shall be

finally determined.

3. (a) Within ten days after the adoption of a resolution by a town

board approving the establishment or extension of a district and the

construction of an improvement or the providing of a service therein,

the town clerk of the town shall file a certified copy of such

resolution, in duplicate, in the office of the state department of audit

and control at Albany, New York, together with an application, in

duplicate, for permission to create or extend such district as the case

may be. Such application shall be executed and verified by the

supervisor, or such other officer of the town as the town board shall

determine, and shall include the following:

(1) A certified copy of the petition (omitting, however, the

signatures, and acknowledgments or proofs, or authentications) and in

the instance of a sewer, drainage or water district, of the map and plan

accompanying the same;

(2) An itemized statement of the then outstanding indebtedness of the

town for all purposes, as evidenced by bonds, bond anticipation notes,

capital notes and budget notes; the amount of joint indebtedness

contracted or incurred for a joint service or a joint water, sewage or

drainage project and the amount of such indebtedness allocated and

apportioned to the town, as defined in title one-a of the local finance

law; the amount of the indebtedness proposed to be contracted for the

improvement; the amount of budgetary appropriations for the payment of

any such indebtedness, whether or not such appropriations have been

realized as cash, and the amounts, purposes and probable dates of

issuance of any bonds, bond anticipation notes, capital notes and budget

notes which the town has authorized to be issued but which in fact have

not been issued on the date of such application;

(3) A statement of the aggregate assessed valuation of the real

property situated in the proposed district or extension thereof, as such

assessed valuations are shown on the last completed assessment roll of

the town prior to the date of such application;

(4) A statement of the average full valuation of the taxable real

property of the town. Such average full valuation shall be determined in

accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of subdivision

seven-a of section 2.00 of the local finance law;

(5) A statement as to the manner in which it is proposed to finance

the cost of the improvement.

(b) Whenever such an application shall be filed in the office of the

department of audit and control, the state comptroller shall within five

days thereafter give notice thereof to the board of supervisors of the

county in which such proposed district or extension is located by filing

with the clerk of such board of supervisors one copy of such

application. At any time within fifteen days of the filing of the

application, the board of supervisors may file an objection, in writing,

in the office of the department of audit and control. In addition, the

state comptroller shall determine whether the public interest will be

served by the creation or extension of the district and also whether the

cost thereof will be an undue burden upon the property of the proposed

district or extension. The state comptroller may make such

determinations upon the original or any amended application, or in his

discretion may require the submission of additional information or data

in such form and detail as he shall deem sufficient, or may cause an

investigation to be made, to aid him in making the determinations above

mentioned.

4. Upon the expiration of fifteen days from the date of the filing of

such application with the clerk of the board of supervisors and upon

reaching a determination, the comptroller shall make an order, in

duplicate, granting or denying permission for the creation or extension

of the district and shall file one copy of such order in the office of

the state department of audit and control at Albany, New York, and the

other in the office of the town clerk of the town in which the proposed

district or extension is located. The town clerk shall present such

order to the town board of the town at the next meeting thereof.

5. If the state comptroller shall deny permission for the creation or

extension of the district, the town board shall forthwith adopt an order

denying the petition. If the state comptroller shall grant permission

therefor, the town board may adopt an order establishing the district or

extension as the boundaries shall be finally determined.

6. Except as otherwise provided by section two hundred two-b of this

article, the permission of the state comptroller shall not be required

for the establishment or extension of a district and the construction of

an improvement or the providing of a service therein, including an

increase in the maximum amount proposed to be expended for the

improvement in a district, unless it is proposed or required that the

town in which such district or extension is located shall finance the

cost thereof by the issuance of the bonds, notes, certificates or other

evidences of indebtedness of the town therefor or it is proposed that

debt service on obligations issued to finance the costs of facilities

acquired be assumed, pursuant to subdivision twelve of section one

hundred ninety-eight of this article, and, if the state comptroller

shall have computed average estimated costs for similar types of

districts, the cost of the district or extension to the typical property

or, if different, the costs of the district or extension to the typical

one or two family home, as stated in the notice of hearing, is above the

average estimated cost to typical properties or homes for the

establishment or extension of similar types of districts as may be

annually computed by the state comptroller. The state comptroller

annually shall provide to towns notice of the average cost thresholds as

may be computed in accordance with this section.