NY Not for Profit Corp L § 1506 (2021)
2021 New York Laws NPC - Not-For-Profit Corporation Article 15 - Public Cemetery Corporations 1506 - Cemetery Lands.

§ 1506. Cemetery lands.  (a)  Purchase  of  land;  notice  to  cemetery  board. (1) No cemetery corporation, in purchasing real property hereafter, shall pay  or  agree to pay more than the fair and reasonable market value thereof. The terms of  the  purchase,  including  the  price  to  be paid and the method of payment, shall be subject to notice and approval of the cemetery  board. In  determining the fair and reasonable market value, the cemetery board may take into consideration the method by which the purchase price is to be paid.  (2) Notwithstanding the restrictions set forth in  subparagraph  three of  paragraph  (h)  of this section, a cemetery corporation may purchase real property for cemetery purposes that is  not  adjacent  to  existing cemetery  property  or  that  would  result  in the cemetery corporation owning more than two hundred acres of land in the aggregate upon proving to the satisfaction of the cemetery board:   i. that the proposed purchase will benefit  the  cemetery  corporation and the owners of plots and graves in the cemetery;   ii.  that  the cemetery has sufficient funds and sufficient ability to take on any debt required by the proposed terms of purchase;   iii. that the cemetery corporation fully investigated  available  land in  reasonable  proximity to its existing cemetery and that the proposed purchase is prudent, taking into consideration the proximity of the land to the existing cemetery, the quantity of land,  the  proposed  purchase price, and if applicable, the number of lot sales and income the land is reasonably  expected  to generate, and the future needs of the cemetery; and   iv. that the municipalities that would be required to assume the  care and control of any part of the cemetery if the cemetery corporation were to be abandoned have been notified of the proposed purchase.  (b)  Consent  of local authorities. (1) No cemetery shall hereafter be located in any  city  or  village  without  the  consent  of  the  local legislative body of such city, or the board of trustees of such village. (2)  No  cemetery  shall hereafter be located in any town, outside of an incorporated village in Suffolk county, without the consent of the  town board of such town.  (c)  Cemeteries  in  Kings,  Queens,  Rockland,  Westchester,  Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam and Erie counties. A cemetery corporation shall not take by deed, devise, merger or otherwise any land in the counties of  Kings, Queens,  Rockland,  Westchester,  Nassau,  Suffolk,  Putnam  or Erie for cemetery purposes, or set apart any  ground  therefor  in  any  of  such counties,  unless the consent of the board of supervisors or legislative body thereof, or of the city council of the city of New York, in respect to Kings or Queens county,  be  first  obtained.  Such  consent  may  be granted upon such conditions and under such regulations and restrictions as  the public health and welfare may require. Notice of application for such consent shall be published, once a  week  for  six  weeks,  in  the newspapers  designated  to  publish  the  session laws and in such other newspapers published in the county as such board  or  body  may  direct, stating  the time when the application will be made, a brief description of the lands proposed to  be  acquired,  their  location  and  the  area thereof.   Any   person   interested   therein  may  be  heard  on  such presentation. If such consent is granted the corporation  may  take  and hold  the lands designated therein.  The consent shall not authorize any one corporation to take or hold more than two  hundred  fifty  acres  of land  unless  the  acquisition  is by an abandonment pursuant to section fifteen hundred six-c of this article or a merger  or  consolidation  of cemetery  corporations  pursuant  to  article  nine of this chapter that complies with the additional  requirement  of  section  fifteen  hundred  six-d  of  this  article, except that such limitation shall not apply to paragraph (n) of this section and the provisions of subparagraph two  of paragraph  (a)  of  this  section. Nothing contained in this subdivision shall prevent any religious corporation in existence on April fifteenth, eighteen  hundred  fifty-four,  in  any  of  said counties from using as heretofore any burial ground then belonging to it  within  such  county. Such  board  or  body, from time to time, may make such regulation as to burials in any cemetery in the county as the public health may require.  (d)  Limitation  on  the  acquisition  of  land  by   rural   cemetery corporations.  It shall not be lawful for any rural cemetery corporation hereafter to acquire or take by deed, devise or otherwise, any  land  in any  county within the state of New York, having a population of between one hundred seventy-five thousand and two hundred thousand, according to the federal census of nineteen hundred, or  set  apart  any  ground  for cemetery purposes therein, where there has already been set apart in any such county, five hundred acres of land for rural cemetery purposes, and the  consent of the board of supervisors of any such county shall not be granted where there has already been granted five hundred acres of land, or upwards, within such county, to rural  cemetery  corporations  unless the acquisition is by an abandonment pursuant to section fifteen hundred six-c  of  this  article  or  a  merger  or  consolidation  of  cemetery corporations pursuant to article nine of this chapter that complies with the additional requirements of section fifteen  hundred  six-d  of  this article.  Nothing  herein  contained  shall affect any lawful consent or grant hitherto made by the board of supervisors of any such county.  (e)  Limitations on the acquisition of land for cemetery  purposes  in certain  counties.  (1)  It  shall  not be lawful for any corporation, association or person  hereafter  to  set  aside  or  use  for  cemetery purposes  any  lands in any county within the state erected on and after January first, eighteen hundred ninety, adjoining a city  of  the  first class and having a population of between eighty thousand and eighty-five thousand  according  to  the federal census of nineteen hundred ten; but nothing herein contained  shall  prevent  cemetery  corporations  formed prior  to  January  first, nineteen hundred seventeen, which own in such county a cemetery in which burials have been made prior  to  such  date, from  setting apart and using for burial purposes lands lying contiguous or adjacent to such cemetery which lands have been  heretofore  acquired by  a  recorded  deed  of conveyance made to such a cemetery corporation either for burial purposes,  or  for  the  purposes  of  the  convenient transaction  of  its  general  business,  which  lands  shall  have been acquired with the consent of the board of supervisors; nor  to  prohibit the  dedication  or use of land within such county for a family cemetery as provided in paragraph (c) of section fourteen  hundred  one  of  this chapter.  Nothing herein contained shall prohibit a cemetery corporation from assuming  management  and  maintenance  of  an  abandoned  cemetery pursuant to section fifteen hundred six-c of this article or a merger or consolidation  of cemetery corporations pursuant to article nine of this chapter that  complies  with  the  additional  requirements  of  section fifteen hundred six-d of this article.  (2)  The provisions of this paragraph shall not operate to prevent any such cemetery corporation located in Nassau county from using for burial purposes contiguous or adjacent land acquired by it provided  that  such use shall be consented to by the Nassau county legislature.  (f)   Conveyance by religious corporations or by trustees.  A cemetery corporation may accept a conveyance of real property held by a religious corporation for burial purposes, or by trustees for such purposes if all such trustees living and residing in this state unite in the conveyance, subject to all trusts, restrictions and conditions  upon  the  title  or  use.    Lots previously sold and grants for burial purposes shall not be affected by any such conveyance; nor shall any grave, monument or  other erection, or any remains, be disturbed or removed without the consent of the  lot owner, or if there be no such owner, without the consent of the heirs of the persons whose remains are buried in such grave.  (g)  Certain conveyances to cemetery corporations  authorized.    Upon approval  of  the  cemetery board first having been obtained, a cemetery corporation which  maintains  and  operates  a  cemetery  may  accept  a conveyance  of  title  to the fee of or to burial rights in lands within the confines of said cemetery and it shall be lawful for any cemetery or business corporation to make such conveyances.  Lots previously sold and grants previously made for burial purposes shall not be affected by such conveyance.    The  cemetery  corporation,  in  consideration   of   the conveyance  to  it of burial rights in lands within the confines of said cemetery,  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  cemetery   board,   issue participating  certificates  of  the  kind  and  nature  provided for in paragraph three of subdivision (e) of section fifteen hundred eleven  of this  article.    In  making  its determination the cemetery board shall consider and may condition its approval on the purposes of this section.  (h) Acquisition of property by condemnation or otherwise. (1)  If  the certificate of incorporation or by-laws of a cemetery corporation do not exclude  any  person,  on  equal  terms  with  other  persons,  from the privilege of purchasing a  lot  or  of  burial  in  its  cemetery,  such corporation may, from time to time, acquire by condemnation, exclusively for  the purposes of a cemetery, not more than two hundred acres of land in the aggregate, forming one continuous tract, wholly or partly  within the  county  in  which  its  certificate  of  incorporation  is filed or recorded, except as  in  this  section  otherwise  provided  as  to  the counties  of  Erie, Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Kings, Queens, Rockland and Westchester.  (2) A cemetery corporation may acquire  by  condemnation,  exclusively for  the  purposes  of  a  cemetery,  any  real property or any interest therein necessary to supply water for the uses of such cemetery, and the right to lay, relay, repair and maintain conduits and water  pipes  with connections  and  fixtures,  in, through or over the lands of others and the right to intercept and divert the flow of waters from the  lands  of riparian  owners,  and  from persons owning or interested in any waters. But no such cemetery corporation shall have power to take or  use  water from  any  of  the  canals  of  this  state,  or any canal reservoirs as feeders, or any streams which have been  taken  by  the  state  for  the purpose of supplying the canals with water.  (3)   A   cemetery   corporation   may   acquire,  otherwise  than  by condemnation, real property exclusively for the purposes of  a  cemetery as  aforesaid  in  subparagraph  1 of this paragraph and additional real property  for  the  purposes  of  the  convenient  transactions  of  its business,  no  portion  of  which  shall  be  used for the purposes of a cemetery. Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other provision of law to the contrary, a  cemetery  corporation  that  holds  real  property  for cemetery  purposes  that  exceeds  two hundred acres in the aggregate or that does not form one continuous tract as a result of  acquisitions  of real  property  that occurred prior to the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand twenty which amended this paragraph and  for which  all  approvals  and consents required at the time to acquire such real property were obtained, may continue to use such real property  for cemetery purposes.  (i) Sale or disposition of cemetery lands. (1) No cemetery corporation may sell or dispose of the fee of all or any part of its lands dedicated to  cemetery  use,  unless  it  shall  prove  to the satisfaction of the  supreme court in the district where any portion of the cemetery lands is located or the cemetery board, that either: (A)  all  bodies  have  been removed  from  each and every part of the cemetery, that all the lots in the  entire cemetery have been reconveyed to the corporation and are not used for burial purposes, and that it has no debts and  liabilities,  or (B)  the land to be sold or disposed of is not used or is not physically adaptable for burial purposes and that  the  sale  or  disposition  will benefit  the  cemetery corporation and the owners of plots and graves in the cemetery, and (C) the sale or disposition is not to a funeral entity as defined in paragraph (c) of section fifteen  hundred  six-a  of  this article. (2) If the sale or disposition is made pursuant to subparagraph (A) of subdivision one of this paragraph, the cemetery shall satisfy the court or the cemetery board that it is in the public interest to dispose of  such  cemetery land in the manner proposed; that the subject land is not suitable for cemetery  purposes  or  is  no  longer  needed  by  the community  for such cemetery uses or purposes; and that the subject land is being sold  for  its  current  market  value.  (3)  If  the  sale  or disposition  of  the  land  is  made  pursuant  to  subparagraph  (B) of subdivision one of this paragraph, the court  or  cemetery  board  shall order  that the consideration received by the cemetery corporation, less the necessary expenses incurred, shall be deposited into  the  permanent maintenance  fund  established  by  the cemetery corporation pursuant to paragraph (a) of section fifteen hundred  seven  of  this  article.  (4) Notice  of  any  application hereunder shall be given in addition to the cemetery board, to the holders of certificates of indebtedness and  land shares  of  the  cemetery corporation, to any person having informed the cemetery board by petition or notice of interest in the  proceeding  and to  any  person  interested  in  the proceeding pursuant to section five hundred eleven of this chapter (Petition for leave of court).  (j)   Conveyance by cemetery  corporation  to  city  or  village.    A cemetery  corporation may convey and transfer its real property held for burial purposes, together with its other assets,  to  a  city  having  a population  of  less  than  one  million  inhabitants in which such real property is located, or to a village, provided  such  real  property  is located  within  such  village  or  wholly  within  three  miles  of the boundaries thereof, or to  a  town,  in  which  such  real  property  is located,  if all the directors and trustees of such cemetery corporation living and residing in the state of New York unite in the conveyance and transfer.  Such  conveyance  and  transfer  shall  be  subject  to   all agreements  as  to lots sold and all trusts, restrictions and conditions upon the title or use of such real property and assets.  Lots previously sold and grants  previously  made  for  burial  purposes  shall  not  be affected  by  such  conveyance,  nor  shall any grave, monument or other erection be disturbed or removed except in accordance with law.  No such conveyance shall be effective unless and until the legislative  body  of such  city,  town or village shall by ordinance or resolution accept the same subject to the conditions  and  restrictions  hereinabove  imposed, which ordinance or resolution said legislative body is hereby authorized and  empowered  to  adopt  by  a majority vote of such body.   Upon such conveyance and transfer such property shall be and  become  a  municipal cemetery  of  such city, town or village and such property and assets so conveyed and transferred shall be administered as  any  other  municipal cemetery of such city, town or village and the said cemetery corporation shall be dissolved by the recording of such conveyance and transfer.  (k)    Streets or highways not to be laid out through certain cemetery lands. So long as the lands of a rural  cemetery  corporation  organized under  the  act  entitled "An act authorizing the incorporation of rural cemetery associations," constituting chapter one hundred thirty-three of  the laws of  eighteen  hundred  forty-seven,  and  the  acts  amendatory thereof, shall remain dedicated to the purpose of a cemetery, no street, road,  avenue  or  public  thoroughfare  shall  be laid out through such cemetery,  or  any  part  of  the lands held by such association for the purposes  aforesaid,  without  the  consent  of  the  trustees  of  such association and the cemetery board.  (l)  Exclusive  right  of  cemetery corporation to provide annual care services. Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary, it shall be the right of each cemetery corporation, at  its  option,  to exclusively  provide  all  annual  care  services  to  be  performed for consideration on all or any part of its lands at rates to be reviewed by the cemetery board. In the event that the cemetery board determines that an excessive, unauthorized or improper charge has  been  made  for  such services  or  that  the services have not been properly performed, he or she may direct the cemetery corporation to pay to the person  from  whom such  charge was collected a sum equivalent to three times the excess as determined by the cemetery board, or in the case of  work  not  properly performed,  it  may  direct the cemetery corporation to perform the work properly. Every cemetery corporation that  chooses  to  provide,  on  an exclusive basis, such annual care services shall include in any contract for  the sale of any part of its lands the following notice, in at least ten point bold type:                                   Notice   The                name of  cemetery  corporation),  pursuant  to state  law,  provides  annual  care  services  on  an  exclusive  basis. Therefore, the purchaser of the plot or lot being  transferred  by  this agreement  may  not contract with any outside party for such annual care services. For purposes of this paragraph, the term "annual  care"  shall mean  the  maintenance  of  a lot, plot or part thereof, and may include care of lawns, trees, shrubs, monuments and markers within the plot. The provisions of this paragraph shall not be construed to  prohibit  a  lot owner   from   placing,   or  arranging  to  place,  floral  or  similar arrangements on such cemetery lots or plots.  (m)  Prohibition  of  stand-alone  mausoleum   and   columbarium.   No application  for  the  construction  of a mausoleum or columbarium to be located in any city, town or village shall be approved by  the  cemetery board  when  such  mausoleum  or  columbarium  shall be the only form of interment  offered  by  a  cemetery  corporation,  unless  a  management contract  has  been  entered  into with an existing cemetery corporation regulated under this article, that will provide  operational  management of  the  mausoleum  or  columbarium,  and  the owner of the mausoleum or columbarium has reserved interment space and secured interment  services in a cemetery regulated under this article, in order to assure continued perpetual  care of the remains contained in the mausoleum or columbarium should such mausoleum or columbarium become abandoned or choose to cease operations.  (n) The provisions of this section shall not operate  to  prevent  any two  cemeteries  located  in  Suffolk county with contiguous or adjacent land dedicated for cemetery purposes and previously operating as  public cemetery  corporations,  from  effectuating  a merger of such cemeteries where their total acreage does  not  exceed  three  hundred  twenty-five acres.