What's happening
This bill adds an additional disputed land parcel in township 40 and establishes a process for resolving its title claims.
Why it matters
Addresses long-standing ownership uncertainties. By creating a formal process for resolving title disputes over the newly identified parcel, the bill aims to provide legal clarity for current land users and resolve potentially decades-old conflicts that can impact property value, usage, and inheritance.
Ties state and local interests together. The process involves coordination between the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Attorney General, and the town, ensuring that both environmental oversight and local interests are considered in resolving land claims.
Financial implications for claimants and prior owners. The bill sets a specific formula and timeline for claimants to pay the town certain amounts, including a flat fee and a proportionate value assessment, which are then distributed to prior grantors, ensuring compensation and cost sharing for disputed land resolution.
Finalizes state relinquishment of claims. Once all requirements are met, the state must formally release and extinguish its interest in the parcel, preventing future state ownership claims based on historic or outdated documents—bringing certainty and marketability to the land’s title for private parties.
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Who cares
Claimants to parcel 52.006-2.2.110
The bill would offer a process to clear the state's title claim through a notarized filing, payment and compliance with applicable conditions.
Department of Environmental Conservation
The department would have to arrange a survey, record boundaries and release the state's interest once the claimant satisfies the requirements.
Town of Long Lake and its assessor
The town would value the parcel and any donated land or conservation easement, collect the required payment and forward it to the grantor identified in the bill.
Grantor of land conveyed to the state under the 2016 settlement law
The grantor would receive the claimant's payment through the town.
Headline styles
Resolve Long Lake Land Dispute
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to environmental conservation
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to environmental conservation
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 62–0
- Ordered to third reading cal.1825
- Committee discharged and committed to rules
- Referred to environmental conservation
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5856
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 15, 2019
Introduced by Sen. LITTLE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to the additional parcel in township 40
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The environmental conservation law is amended by adding two new sections 9-1906 and 9-1908 to read as follows: § 9-1906. Additional disputed parcel.
The following parcel of land, identified by the county's two thousand twelve assessment rolls and the county's online mapping system as of October, two thousand twelve, and any subsequent conveyances therefrom, constitutes an additional disputed parcel that is subject to the provisions of this title:
52.006-2.2.110
The disputed parcel identified in this section is not intended to be a legal description, but is intended to identify the disputed parcel by tax lot number only. § 9-1908. Process for clearing title of additional disputed parcel.
1. On or before August first, two thousand nineteen a person claiming title to the additional disputed parcel identified in section 9-1906 of this title shall provide to the department, with copies to the office of the attorney general and the town, a notarized statement as set forth in section 9-1915 of this title which complies with the requirements of subdivision 2 of section 9-1907 of this title.
2. Within sixty days of the department's receipt of the statement required by subdivision one of this section, the commissioner shall cause to be prepared an accurate survey of the additional disputed parcel, including the boundaries of any portion thereof which the person claiming title intends to convey in fee to the state or convey by conservation easement to the town.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11748-01-9
S. 5856 2
3. Within thirty days of the town's receipt of the notarized statement required by subdivision one of this section, the town assessor shall provide to the department and any person claiming title to the additional disputed parcel the assessed value of the parcel as determined in two thousand eighteen, provided that if the person claiming title decided pursuant to subdivision two of section 9-1907 of this title to convey a portion of the parcel as a gift to the state in fee simple without reservations for inclusion in the forest preserve, or a conservation easement to the town restricting development over all or a specified portion of the parcel, the town assessor shall provide the department and the person claiming title to the additional disputed parcel with an assessed value of that portion of the parcel to be retained by the person and an assessed value of such gift or easement.
4. Within sixty days of receipt of the assessed value, the person claiming title to the additional disputed parcel shall pay the town the sum of: (a) a flat rate of two thousand dollars; and (b) an amount equal to the total assessed value of the parcel as of two thousand eighteen, including structures and improvements situated thereon, as determined by the town assessor pursuant to subdivision three of this section, less the assessed value of any portion of such parcel conveyed to the state in fee or any conservation easement conveyed to the town, divided by the total two thousand eighteen assessed value of all disputed parcels as listed in section 9-1905 of this title, including structures and improvements situated thereon multiplied by two hundred thousand dollars.
5. Within twenty days after the town's receipt of the payment requirement by subdivision four of this section, the town shall make payment of such funds to the grantor who conveyed the property described by chapter two hundred thirty-one of the laws of two thousand sixteen relating to approving land transactions relating to implementation of the settlement of property disputes in township 40, in the town of Long Lake, to the state.
6. Within thirty days after the town's payment required by subdivision five of this section or within thirty days of any conveyance of any fee lands to the state or conservation easements to the town, whichever is later, the commissioner shall record in the Hamilton county clerk's office the survey map prepared pursuant to subdivision two of this section, showing the boundaries of the additional disputed parcel to which the state will be releasing and extinguishing its right, title and interest. The commissioner shall also cause legal descriptions of such boundaries to be prepared from the map. Upon certification by the commissioner that the person claiming title to the additional disputed parcel has complied with all applicable terms and conditions of this title, and notwithstanding the provisions of the public lands law, the commissioner shall be authorized to release and extinguish all right, title and interest of the state in the additional disputed parcel, without reservation and exception. The legal descriptions shall be approved by the commissioner and incorporated into the release and extinguishment document. The commissioner shall send notice of the state's release and extinguishment of rights to the additional disputed parcel by letter to the person claiming title to such parcel, and upon release and extinguishment of rights, the state shall be estopped from asserting any claim of title to the parcel based upon (a) facts or actions that occurred prior to the effective date of this title, and (b) deeds, tax sales or other documents that predate the effective date of this amendment.
S. 5856 3
§ 2. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the legislature that this act would have been enacted even if such invalid provisions had not been included herein.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to the additional parcel in township 40
Purpose
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Township Forty Settlement Act, Title 19 of Article 9 of the Environmental Conservation Law ("ECL"), authorizing resolution of one additional competing claim of title between the State and a private party in Township Forty, Totten and Crossfield Purchase (Raquette Lake), in the Town of Long Lake, Hamilton County (Township Forty).
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of this bill would amend Title 19 of Article 9 of the ECL, titled Township Forty Settlement Act to add an additional disputed parcel and to specify a process for clearing title to the additional disputed parcel. The occupant of the additional contested parcel would be required to make payment to the Town of Long Lake (the Town), which would apply such payments towards the acquisition of land acquired under the Township 40 Settlement Act. The occupant of the additional contested parcel would be permitted to convey land in fee to the state or an ease- ment to the Town, the value of which would reduce the payment due for the contested parcel. The State would relinquish its claim to the contested parcel once the occupant makes the payment to the Town and the Town makes the payment to the grantor who conveyed the parcel to the State as described in chapter 231 of the Laws of 2016.
Read the full memo (830 words)
Section 2 of the bill provides for severability.
Section 3 of the bill provides that the act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it becomes law.
Justification
In 2013, the voters approved an amendment to Article XIV, Section I of the New York State Constitution, authorizing the State to resolve competing claims of title between the State and private individuals in Township Forty, Totten and Crossfield purchase in the Town of Long Lake, Hamilton County, more commonly known as the Hamlet of Raquette Lake. Legislation implementing the constitutional amendment was also passed in 2013 and is found at Title 19 of Article 9 of ECL.
Currently, ECL § 9-1905 lists 216 specific disputed parcels that would be eligible for participation in the Township 40 settlement and ECL. 9-1907 set forth a process through which the State would relinquish its claim of title on those parcels. Each of those claiming title to the 216 disputed parcels participated in the settlement and made the requisite payments to the Town of Long Lake. Certain lands along the Marion River were identified as potentially satisfying the "net benefit" requirement and the legislature approved the acquisition of those lands in 2016 (Chapter 231 of the laws of 2016). The State then acquired title to the land and, in the summer of 2017, relinquished its claim to the 216 disputed parcels.
Due to an earlier court decision, when the implementing legislation was enacted into law in 2013, it was believed that the parcel that is the subject of this bill was not disputed. However, a court decision in the spring of 2017 vacated the earlier decision, meaning that the parcel is, in fact, disputed and should therefore have been included in the list of disputed parcels contained in ECL § 9-1905.
Moreover, equitable considerations require that the instant parcel be included in the settlement. More than twenty years ago those claiming title to the additional disputed parcel subdivided the land they claimed. They kept a subdivided parcel for themselves, and sold six subdivided parcels to other parties. Each of these seven parcels has exactly the same chain of title. The six parcels sold to third parties all were allowed to participate in the settlement, but the parcel retained by the claimants of the additional dispute parcel was kept out of the settlement. Equity mandates that those claiming title to the additional disputed parcel be treated the same way as those claiming title to the other six subdivided parcels.
This proposal will allow those claiming title to the additional disputed parcel to participate in the settlement on the same terms and conditions as those who claimed title to the 216 parcels that were listed in ECL§ 9-1905. These new claimants will be required to make a payment to the Town of Long Lake, using the formula set forth in law, which the Town will then pay to the grantor who conveyed title to the Marion River property to the People of the State of New York for inclusion in the Forest Preserve. Such payment would be in recognition that the grantor took a considerable loss in conveying title to the Marion River parcel to the State. After such payment is complete, DEC will relinquish its claim to the additional disputed parcel by filing a survey map relin- quishing the claim in the Hamilton County Clerk's office.
Legislative history
2019 - S.7939 - Passed Senate
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Thirtieth day after the act shall become law.
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