2023 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.