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Who cares
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Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to cities
- Referred to cities
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the general city law, the town law and the village law, in relation to establishing a temporary moratorium in matters of planning and zoning
Purpose
To provide a comprehensive detailed statutory scheme for municipalities to adopt local laws to enact a temporary moratorium to prohibit the issuance of any or all of the following: building permits, site plan approvals, special use permits and subdivision plats or other land use approvals.
Summary of provisions
This bill would amend the general city law, the town law and the village law with identical provisions authorizing the adoption of a local law for a temporary moratorium on land use approvals. The specific purposes for a moratorium are set forth as follows: emergency conditions affecting public health or safety, prevent a shortage of an adverse impact on public facilities, prevent adverse impacts upon natural resources or conduct land use planning studies or revise or prepare a comprehensive plan. The local law establishing a moratorium must include specific findings, set forth specific boundaries, state the land use approvals impacted and delineate the duration. A moratorium for planning purposes would grandfather the following: lots which have received preliminary plat approval, or conditional final approval of a special use permit, or conditional final approval of it site plan, or conditional final approval of any other land use approval subject to the moratorium. The municipality is authorized to permit other such exceptions pursuant to its local law. A moratorium without a planning study is limited to 180 days, or with a study to one year. An extension of a planning moratorium is limited to a six month period. A moratorium to respond to an emergency because of public health and safety is one year, but may be extended annually until the emergency dissipates. Provision is made for the local legislative body to provide relief due to extraordinary hardship.
Read the full memo (637 words)
Existing law
None specifically in statute. There is case law.
Justification
There is currently no statutory authority for the enactment of a moratorium on land development. Many municipalities throughout the state are enacting moratorium through the use of the Municipal Home Rule Law. This method is not only cumbersome but there are some questions as to whether the state has occupied the field of land use through the applicable municipal statutes which provide very specific timelines for action on land use applications. Enactment of this bill would put to rest any questions surrounding the viability of moratorium. This bill sets forth specific parameters for enactment of a moratorium. It also preserves the rights of land use applicants who have made significant progress in the land use process to ensure that such applicants are not prevented from moving forward because of a moratorium. In addition, there are time limitations applied to moratoriums without a planning study and with a planning study. The municipality has an obligation to complete planning studies within reasonable time limits. Such studies should not be used to forestall development and legitimate land use approvals indefinitely. Comprehensive planning is a necessary mechanism for every municipality and a moratorium enables this process to be implemented. During a moratorium, a process needs to exist for a party to make an application for relief due to extraordinary hardship. There are situations where a land use approval might be required to provide relief from hardship which is not self created. This bill specifically incorporates a hardship application procedure. Rather than leave the issue of moratorium exclusively to the courts, this legislation sets forth a comprehensive and well-balanced outline for a local law on moratorium.
Legislative history
2007/08: S.1130 Passed Senate 2005/06: S.722 Passed Senate; A.7994 Local Governments 2004: S.6692 Passed Senate
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.