What's happening
This bill amends the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve law to specify and transfer about 118 acres of former Pilgrim State Hospital land, with certain exceptions, to the preserve.
Why it matters
Clarifies and limits the specific acreage and boundaries. By precisely describing the 118-acre parcel (with detailed metes and bounds) being transferred from former Pilgrim State Hospital land, the bill reduces ambiguity about what land becomes part of the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve. This can prevent future legal disputes or confusion over land use and management.
Protects against unintended land sales or transfers. The new language explicitly prohibits the state from selling, transferring, or conveying these lands to unauthorized parties. This provision safeguards the preserve’s integrity and prevents the land from being diverted to private or commercial uses against legislative intent.
Addresses local infrastructure needs and reversion rights. The bill carves out a small, precisely described parcel (about 1 acre) for the Town of Islip for street or highway purposes, but requires it to revert to the state and the preserve if not used for that purpose. This balances public infrastructure needs with conservation goals and ensures land is not permanently lost to development.
Sets a new, clear timeline for preservation. The legislation establishes a firm deadline (on or before December 1, 2018) for the state to acquire and dedicate the transferred land as part of the state nature and historical preserve. This creates urgency and accountability for the transfer, speeding up conservation efforts.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Transfer Land to State Preserve
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 4
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to tourism, parks, arts and sports development
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 61–0
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.1103
- Print number 5804a
- Amend and recommit to finance
- Referred to finance
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to tourism, parks, arts and sports development
Show 5 earlier actions
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 63–0
- Ordered to third reading cal.2047
- Reported and committed to rules
- Referred to finance
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Transfer Land to Oak Brush Preserve
In Assembly Committee · Tourism, Parks, Arts And Sports Development · Sponsor Philip Ramos
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5804--A
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 1, 2017
Introduced by Sen. BOYLE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance -- recommitted to the Committee on Finance in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend chapter 635 of the laws of 1987, establishing the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve, located on Long Island, in relation to the acquisition of lands previously comprising Pilgrim State Hospital
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Sections 7 and 8 of chapter 635 of the laws of 1987, establishing the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve, located on Long Island, section 8 as amended by chapter 209 of the laws of 1989, are amended to read as follows:
§ 7. (a) The commissioner of the office of general services, the dormitory authority of the state of New York or any other successor in title shall [arrange for the] transfer to the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve such lands now or formerly comprising a portion of the Pilgrim State Hospital [now or hereafter not necessary for use by Pilgrim State Hospital and] where native foliage may reasonably be reestablished.
(b) The lands to be transferred shall be approximately 118 acres, more or less, now or formerly comprising Pilgrim State Hospital and shall not include any land previously transferred to the Power Authority of the state of New York and the Long Island Power Authority and generally described as follows:
ALL that piece or parcel of land situate in the Town of Islip, County of Suffolk, State of New York generally described as follows;
BEGINNING at a point on the boundary line between the Town of Huntington and the Town of Islip at the northwest corner of a parcel of land conveyed to Long Island Power Authority said point also being on the easterly bounds of an 81.4 acre parcel of land transferred from the
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08839-02-8
S. 5804--A 2
Office of Mental Health to the Department of Environmental Conservation on January 13, 1999,
THENCE from said point of beginning along the easterly bounds of said 81.4 acre parcel of land the following two courses and distances:
1) N. 0° 36' 52" W. a distance of 156.10 feet to a point; and
2) N. 0° 59' 13" E. a distance of 1063.76 feet to a point;
THENCE through the lands now or formerly of the People of the State of New York, Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, the following 11 courses and distances:
1) N. 89° 41' 36" E. a distance of 788.41 feet to a point;
2) S. 44° 44' 39" E. a distance of 42.80 feet to a point;
3) N. 67° 37' 46" E. a distance of 174.25 feet to a point;
4) S. 22° 59' 01" E. a distance of 360.19 feet to a point;
5) N. 67° 09' 21" E. a distance of 405.98 feet to a point;
6) S. 22° 51' 14" E. a distance of 638.85 feet to a point;
7) S. 63° 51' 55" E. a distance of 1,224.63 feet to a point;
8) N. 68° 02' 05" E. a distance of 143.78 feet to a point;
9) S. 21° 57' 55" E. a distance of 253.50 feet to a point;
10) S. 45° 11' 47" E. a distance of 774.45 feet to a point;
11) S. 0° 34' 26" E. a distance of 340.00 feet to a point on the southerly bounds of said lands of Pilgrim Psychiatric Center;
THENCE along said southerly boundary the following two courses and distances:
1) S. 89° 25' 34" W. a distance of 100.00 feet to a point; and
2) S. 89° 29' 29" W. a distance of 2,987.71 feet to a point;
THENCE N. 0° 26' 29" E. a distance of 486.53 feet to a point at the southwest corner of lands conveyed to Long Island Power Authority;
THENCE along the southerly, easterly and northerly bounds of said lands of Long Island Power Authority the following three courses and distances:
1) S. 89° 33' 31" E. a distance of 287.46 feet to a point;
2) N. 0° 26' 29" E. a distance of 790.75 feet to a point; and
3) S. 67° l2' 38" W. a distance of 312.83 feet to a point at the northeast corner of lands conveyed to the Power Authority of the State of New York;
THENCE along the northerly bounds of said lands to and along the easterly and northerly bounds of other lands conveyed to Long Island Power Authority the following three courses and distances:
1) S. 67° 12' 38" W. a distance of 152.50 feet to a point;
2) N. 23° 53' 06" W. a distance of 201.65 feet to a point; and
3) S. 67° 12' 38" W. a distance of 367.44 feet to the point or place of beginning; containing 117.7 acres of land, more or less.
Subject to easement rights of others as they may exist.
EXCEPTING THEREFROM, all that certain plot, piece or parcel of land situate, lying and being at Brentwood, Town of Islip, County of Suffolk and State of New York, being bounded and described as follows:
BEGINNING at a point on the division line between the property now or formerly of the People of the State of New York, Pilgrim Psychiatric Center on the north and land now or formerly of the Long Island State Park Commission Sagtikos State Parkway (Map 23R-I821, Parcel IV dated January 20, 1940) on the south, distant 624.61 feet westerly from the intersection of said division line with the westerly side of Sagtikos Parkway, said point being the northeasterly corner of land now or formerly of Town of Islip Industrial Development Agency;
S. 5804--A 3
RUNNING THENCE South 89 degrees 29 minutes 29 seconds West, along land now or formerly of Town of Islip Industrial Development Agency 110.00 feet
THENCE North 00 degrees 34 minutes 26 seconds West, 15.71 feet;
THENCE North 15 degrees 48 minutes 56 seconds East, 431.19 feet;
THENCE South 45 degrees 11 minutes 47 seconds East, 125.75 feet;
THENCE South 15 degrees 48 minutes 56 seconds West, 354.40 feet to the northerly side of land now or formerly of the Long Island State Park Commission Sagtikos State Parkway (Map 23R-I821, Parcel IV dated January 20, 1940) and the POINT OR PLACE OF BEGINNING.
Containing: 44,072 square feet or 1.0117 acres of land, more or less.
(c) The description of the lands to be transferred pursuant to subdivision (b) of this section is not intended to be a legal description, but is intended only to identify the premises to be transferred. The office of general services may prepare an accurate survey and description of such lands which may be used in the transfer thereof.
(d) The commissioner of the office of general services, the dormitory authority of the state of New York or any other successor in interest at the time of the transfer of the lands into the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve shall also convey the excepted parcel of land specifically described in subdivision (b) of this section to the Town of Islip for street or highway purposes for the consideration of one dollar; provided, however, that such excepted parcel shall revert and be conveyed to the state of New York for inclusion in the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve if the Town of Islip shall at any time cease to use the excepted parcel for town street or highway purposes.
(e) On or after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of 2018 which added this subdivision, the commissioner of the office of general services, the dormitory authority of the state of New York or any successor in interest shall not sell, transfer or convey any of the land in this act to a party not authorized to have such lands sold, transferred or conveyed to it pursuant to this act.
§ 8. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 45-0113 of the environmental conservation law or any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary, the lands constituting the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve shall be acquired by the state nature and historical preserve on January 1, 1991 and shall be dedicated for the purposes of article [forty-five] 45 of such law; provided, however, that the lands transferred to the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve pursuant to section seven of this act shall be acquired by the state nature and historical preserve on or before December 1, 2018 and shall be dedicated for the purposes of such article 45.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend chapter 635 of the laws of 1987, establishing the Oak Brush Plain State Preserve, located on Long Island, in relation to the acquisition of lands previously comprising Pilgrim State Hospital
Purpose
This bill requires the state of New York to transfer certain lands to the Oak Brush Plains State Preserve by December 1, 2018.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of the bill amends sections 7 and 8 of Chapter 635 of the Laws of 1987 by requiring the commissioner of general services, or any other successor in title, to transfer certain lands now or formerly within the Pilgrim State Hospital site on Long Island into the Oak Brush Plains State Preserve, and to further require the transfer of the same lands into the State Nature and Historical Preserve, by December 1, 2012. The bill also reserves a small parcel for use by the Town of Islip for a town street or highway.
Read the full memo (662 words)
Section 2 provides the effective date.
Existing law
Chapter 635 of the Laws of 1987 established the Oak Brush Plains State Preserve on Long Island. Section 7 of Chapter 635 required the office of general services to transfer to the Oak Brush Plains State Preserve the lands comprising the Pilgrim State Hospital that were not necessary for hospital use and where native foliage could reasonably be reestablished.
Justification
Chapter 635 of the Laws of 1987 established the Oak Brush' Plains State Preserve on Long Island in the Towns of Babylon and Huntington. The Preserve represented the last vestiges of a transitional forest between the historical grassy plains of central Nassau County and the pine lands of central and eastern Long Island. Its creation was recommended in 1984 by the Citizens Task Force on the Pilgrim Edgewood State Properties. The Task Force also recommended that certain lands contained within the Pilgrim State Hospital grounds be transferred into the Preserve. Due to this recommendation, section 7 of Chapter 635 required the Commissioner of oas to arrange for the transfer to the Preserve "such lands now comprising Pilgrim State Hospital now or hereafter not necessary for use by Pilgrim State Hospital..."
More than twenty years have elapsed since Chapter 635 of the Laws of 1987 was enacted and the Pilgrim State Hospital land has not been annexed to the Preserve. In recent years, however, the Pilgrim State Hospital land had been considered as a possible site for the New York State Department of Transportation to construct a large commercial multi-modal project known as the Long Island Truck & Rail Inter Modal (LITRIM) Facility. The Region 10 Staff of the New York State Department of Transportation dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy into the planning of the LITRIM project with the goal of reducing long haul truck traffic on the roads of Long Island. While the sponsors recognize and support the need for the development of alternative methods of freight movement on and off Long Island in order to reduce the burden of long haul trucking on the highways of Long Island, the Pilgrim State Hospital location, due to recent substantial commercial development in the surrounding areas, is unsuitable for a multi-modal facility. Today, the area immediately surrounding the land is so vastly different than it was just a few years ago when the LITRIM project was first proposed. The recent approval of three major construction projects by town officials has so overburdened this area with traffic congestion that the State should not support yet another project that would further exacerbate the traffic congestion problem in this area. Consequently, this area should not undergo further development and the subject land should be trans- ferred to the Edgewood Preserve as originally called for in 1987, thus ensuring more green space and mitigating future traffic congestion.
Legislative history
2008: S.6728-A/A.9870-A passed both Houses; Veto 73
Fiscal implications
Minimal transactional costs.
Local 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.