2023 New York Laws › TWN - Town › Article 16 - Zoning and Planning › 261-A - Transfer of Development Rights; Definitions; Conditions; Procedures.

§  261-a.  Transfer  of  development  rights; definitions; conditions;
  procedures. 1. As used in this section:
a. "Development rights" shall mean the  rights  permitted  to  a  lot,
  parcel, or area of land under a zoning ordinance or local law respecting
  permissible  use, area, density, bulk or height of improvements executed
  thereon.  Development  rights  may  be  calculated  and   allocated   in
  accordance  with  such  factors  as area, floor area, floor area ratios,
  density, height limitations, or any other criteria that will effectively
  quantify a value for the development right in a reasonable  and  uniform
  manner that will carry out the objectives of this section.
b. "Receiving district" shall mean one or more designated districts or
  areas  of  land  to  which development rights generated from one or more
  sending districts may be transferred and in which increased  development
  is permitted to occur by reason of such transfer.
c.  "Sending  district" shall mean one or more designated districts or
  areas of land in which development rights are designated for use in  one
  or more receiving districts.
d.  "Transfer  of  development rights" shall mean the process by which
  development rights are transferred from one lot, parcel, or area of land
  in any sending district to another lot, parcel, or area of land  in  one
  or more receiving districts.
2.  In  addition  to  existing  powers  and authorities to regulate by
  planning or zoning, including authorization to provide for  transfer  of
  development  rights  pursuant  to  other  enabling  law, a town board is
  hereby empowered to provide for transfer of development  rights  subject
  to the conditions hereinafter set forth and such other conditions as the
  town  board deems necessary and appropriate that are consistent with the
  purposes of this section. The  purpose  of  providing  for  transfer  of
  development   rights   shall  be  to  protect  the  natural,  scenic  or
  agricultural qualities of open lands, to  enhance  sites  and  areas  of
  special character or special historical, cultural, aesthetic or economic
  interest  or  value, to protect lands at risk from sea level rise, storm
  surge or flooding and to enable and encourage flexibility of design  and
  careful  management  of  land  in  recognition  of  land  as a basic and
  valuable natural resource. The conditions hereinabove referred to are as
  follows:
a. That transfer of development rights, and the sending and  receiving
  districts,  shall be established in accordance with a comprehensive plan
  within the meaning of section two hundred sixty-three of  this  article.
  The  sending  district  from which transfer of development rights may be
  authorized shall consist of natural, scenic, recreational, agricultural,
  forest, or open land or sites of special historical, cultural, aesthetic
  or economic values sought to be protected or  lands  at  risk  from  sea
  level  rise,  storm surge or flooding. Every receiving district to which
  transfer of development rights may be authorized, shall have been  found
  by  the  town board, after evaluating the effects of potential increased
  development which is possible under the transfer of  development  rights
  provisions,  to  contain  adequate  resources, environmental quality and
  public facilities,  including  adequate  transportation,  water  supply,
  waste   disposal  and  fire  protection,  and  that  there  will  be  no
  significant environmentally damaging  consequences  and  such  increased
  development  is  compatible  with the development otherwise permitted by
  the  town  and  by  the  federal,  state,  and  county  agencies  having
  jurisdiction  to  approve permissible development within the district. A
  generic environmental impact statement pursuant  to  the  provisions  of
  article eight of the environmental conservation law shall be prepared by
  the  town  board for the receiving district before any such district, or
  any sending district, is designated, and such statement shall be amended

  from time to time by the town board if there  are  material  changes  in
  circumstances.  Where a transfer of development rights affects districts
  in two or more school, special assessment or tax districts, it  may  not
  unreasonably  transfer  the  tax  burden  between  the taxpayers of such
  districts. The receiving and sending districts need not  be  coterminous
  with zoning districts.
b.  That sending and receiving districts be designated and mapped with
  specificity and the procedure for  transfer  of  development  rights  be
  specified.  Notwithstanding  any other provision of law to the contrary,
  environmental  quality  review  pursuant  to  article   eight   of   the
  environmental  conservation  law  for any action in a receiving district
  that utilizes development rights shall only require information specific
  to the project and site where the action will occur and shall be limited
  to review of the environmental  impacts  of  the  action,  if  any,  not
  adequately reviewed in the generic environmental impact statement.
c.  That  the  burden  upon  land within a sending district from which
  development rights have been  transferred  shall  be  documented  by  an
  instrument  duly  executed  by the grantor in the form of a conservation
  easement, as defined  in  title  three  of  article  forty-nine  of  the
  environmental  conservation  law,  which  burden upon such land shall be
  enforceable by the appropriate town in addition to any other  person  or
  entity  granted  enforcement  rights by the terms of the instrument. All
  provisions of law applicable to such conservation easements pursuant  to
  such title shall apply with respect to conservation easements hereunder,
  except  that  the  town  board  may  adopt  standards  pertaining to the
  duration of such easements that are more stringent than  such  standards
  promulgated  by the department of environmental conservation pursuant to
  such title. Upon the designation of any sending district, the town board
  shall adopt  regulations  establishing  uniform  minimum  standards  for
  instruments  creating  such  easements  within  the  district.   No such
  modification or extinguishment of an easement shall diminish  or  impair
  development  rights within any receiving district. Any development right
  which has been transferred by conservation easement shall  be  evidenced
  by  a certificate of development right which shall be issued by the town
  to the transferee in a form suitable for recording in  the  registry  of
  deeds  for  the  county  where the receiving district is situated in the
  manner of other conveyances of interests in land affecting its title.
d. That within one year after a development right is transferred,  the
  assessed  valuation  placed on the affected properties for real property
  tax purposes shall be adjusted to reflect the  transfer.  A  development
  right  which  is  transferred  shall be deemed to be an interest in real
  property and the rights evidenced thereby shall inure to the benefit  of
  the transferee, and his heirs, successors and assigns.
e.  That development rights shall be transferred reflecting the normal
  market in land, including sales between owners of  property  in  sending
  and  receiving districts, a town may establish a development rights bank
  or such other account in which development rights may  be  retained  and
  sold  in  the  best  interest  of the town. Towns shall be authorized to
  accept for deposit within the bank gifts, donations, bequests  or  other
  development  rights. All receipts and proceeds from sales of development
  rights sold by the town  shall  be  deposited  in  a  special  municipal
  account to be applied against expenditures necessitated by the municipal
  development rights program.
f.  That  prior  to designation of sending or receiving districts, the
  legislative body of the town shall evaluate the impact  of  transfer  of
  development  rights  upon  the  potential development of low or moderate
  income housing  lost  in  sending  districts  and  gained  in  receiving
  districts and shall find either there is approximate equivalence between

  potential  low  and  moderate housing units lost in the sending district
  and gained in the receiving districts or that the town has or will  take
  reasonable  action  to  compensate  for  any  negative  impact  upon the
  availability  or potential development of low or moderate income housing
  caused by the transfer of development rights.
3. The town board adopting or  amending  procedures  for  transfer  of
  development  rights  pursuant to this section shall follow the procedure
  for adopting and amending its zoning ordinance or local law, as the case
  may be, including all provisions for notice applicable  for  changes  or
  amendments to a zoning ordinance or local law.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to invalidate any provision
  for  transfer  of  development rights heretofore or hereafter adopted by
  any local legislative body.