What are the best activities to do while in NY city?

New York City Watershed Regulations -

• The New York City Department of Environmental Protection issued Final Watershed Rules and Regulations (Chapter 18) effective May l, 1997. These Rules list activities which are prohibited, or require Permit approval from DEP, or which are exempt from the Rules. The website which contains the Rules is: www/ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dep/html/ruleregs/finalrandr.html Section 18-39 (b)(3)(ii) requires DEP review/permit of stormwater pollution prevention plans during "construction of a subdivision." A "Subdivision" from Section 18-16 Definitions Section 18-16 (102) Subdivision means any tract of land which is divided into five or more parcels of five acres or less, along an existing or proposed street, highway, easement or right-of-way, for sale or for rent as residential lots. A tract of land shall constitute a subdivision upon the sale, rental or offer for sale or lease of the fifth residential lot therefrom within any consecutive three year period. I am subdividing one 5 acre parcel into 5 one acre parcels. According to this test, my action would qualify as a 'subdivision.' However, I have stipulated that I will not sell, rent or offer for sale or lease the fifth residential lot within any consecutive three year period. By this test, I am not a subdivision. My lawyer says the Legal Department at DEP claims to be unable to clarify whether the action described in the preceding paragraph is a Subdivision or not under their rules. Have there been any Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) or NYS Judicial rulings in which this matter has been clarified?

• Answer:

  Mark, Thanks for getting back to me on this. I've included below a few things relevant to our discussions: 1. The AG ruling on subdivisions which bears on both the 5-plots and 3-years issues; there is only this one ruling that I found. 2. Links to NYC administrative cases from OATH, the Environmental Control Board, and a number of other agencies, in case you want to do some in-depth searching of your own. 3. Additional information about having the Attorney General weigh in with an opinion on your case, in the event that you want to explore that option. If anything here is unclear -- or if you simply need additional information -- just post a Request for Clarification to let me know, and I'll be happy to assist you further. pafalafa-ga ================= OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Informal Opinion No. 93-15 January 15, 1993 CORE TERMS: parcel, developer, sewage disposal, water, acres, real property, water supply, subdivide, residential lot, tract of land, common scheme, three-year, furnishing, submittal, lease, tract, map SYLLABUS: [*1] ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION LAW § 17-1501; PUBLIC HEALTH LAW §§ 1115, 1116. A proposal to subdivide real property which constitutes a "subdivision" within the meaning of the Public Health Law and the Environmental Conservation Law requires the submittal and approval of plans for providing water and sewage disposal facilities. REQUEST BY: JAMES D. COLE, Assistant Attorney General in Charge of Opinions OPINION: Alan O. Minsker, Esq. County Attorney County of Cattaraugus 303 Court Street Little Valley, NY 14755 You have asked that we construe provisions of the Public Health Law and the Environmental Conservation Law requiring the filing of plans by developers for the provision of water and sewage disposal in the subdivision. You have explained that a developer who owns real property has proposed to sell portions of this property to various buyers. He has proposed to sell four parcels, each of which is less than five acres in size and other parcels in acreage blocks varying in size from 5 1/2 to 8 acres. You have explained that some of the grantees of the larger parcels are family members who intend to subdivide their respective parcels into units of not more than five lots, some of which will be [*2] five acres or less in size. The developer will hold a mortgage interest in the parcels conveyed to family members. Under section 1116(1) of the Public Health Law, no subdivision may be sold, offered for sale, leased or rented and no permanent building may be erected thereon until a water supply plan or map for the subdivision is filed with and approved by the State Department of Health or city, county, or part-county department of health having jurisdiction. The plan or map must show methods for obtaining and furnishing an adequate and satisfactory water supply to the subdivision. Id., § 1116(2). For purposes of this provision, "subdivision", in relevant part, means a tract of land divided into five or more parcels for sale or for rent as residential lots. Id., § 1115(1). A "residential lot" is a parcel of land of five acres or less. Id., § 1115(3). A tract of land constitutes a subdivision for purposes of these provisions upon the sale, rental or offer for sale or lease of the fifth residential lot or residential building plot within any consecutive three-year period. Id., § 1115(1). The word "tract" as used in the definition of "subdivision" means "any [*3] body of land, including contiguous parcels of land, under one ownership or under common control of any group of persons acting in concert as part of a common scheme or plan". Id., § 1115(2). The provisions of Title 15, Article 17 of the Environmental Conservation Law requiring plans by subdivision developers for the furnishing of adequate sewage facilities are substantively the same as the above provisions governing water supply. From the facts that you have provided, it appears that any "lots" offered for sale or lease by relatives within the three-year period would constitute a subdivision when added to the developer's four lots, requiring compliance with section 1115(2) of the Public Health Law and section 17-1501(2) of the Environmental Conservation Law. The developer and his relatives would be in common control of the parcels to be sold to the relatives and they would be acting in concert as part of a common scheme or plan. In total, there would be five or more parcels of five acres or less in size. This construction fulfills the apparent statutory purpose to ensure provision of adequate water and sewage disposal to residents of subdivisions. The definition of "tract" [*4] encompasses the subject proposal to achieve these goals. I have also enclosed a copy of Informal Opinion No. 89-41 which concludes that a local government may have more stringent local provisions requiring the submission and approval of plans for provision of water and sewage disposal facilities for subdivisions. We conclude that a proposal to subdivide real property which constitutes a "subdivision" within the meaning of the Public Health Law and Environmental Conservation Law requires the submittal and approval of plans for providing water and sewage disposal facilities. The Attorney General renders formal opinions only to officers and departments of State government. This perforce is an informal and unofficial expression of the views of this office. ================== At this link from FindLaw.com: http://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/ny/laws.html you will find an extensive list of links to sites that cover laws and legal cases in New York State and New York City. Of particular interest here is the link to "New York City Administrative Decisions": http://www.citylaw.org/decisions/index.phtml At this site, you can conduct extensive searches for decisions pertaining to subdivisions. My own search strategy focused on many combinations of the terms [subdivision, "tract of land", "five or more parcels", "offer for sale or lease"] and other terms as well. As I said, there appear to be no cases directly relevant your particular set of circumstances. I also conducted a similar search at Lexis-Nexis: http://www.lexis.com/ which, again, did not uncover any relevant cases, but did yield the AG opinion that I posted above. ================= There is also a page on the NYS Office of the Attorney General's website, where you can conduct searches of AG opinions: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/lawyers/opinions/opinion.html [Note: The opinion I posted above does not appear on the website, as it is too old]. The site explains the nature of formal and informal opinions from the AG's office: "...opinions fall into two broad categories, formal and informal opinions. Formal opinions are those issued to State agencies. They are denominated "formal" because the Attorney General signs them as chief legal officer of the State. Informal opinions are issued to local government attorneys. In contrast with the formal opinions, the local government attorney is the chief legal officer of the local government. They are denominated "informal" because it is ultimately the responsibility of the local government attorney to provide advice to the local government." Here, then, is the opportunity for you to solicit an opinion from the AG's office on the matter at hand. You can request that the DEP in NYC, as a local government agency (and one that, apparently, is having a hard time understanding your particular issue), request an informal opinion from the AG's office on this matter. Certainly, check with your lawyer before going ahead with this option, but I think he or she would likely agree it is a good move, regardless of whether the DEP agrees to ask for the opinion or not. There is no indication as to the timing on these requests, in terms of receiving a response from the AG's office. =================== I hope this information serves you well, and I wish you the best of luck in your efforts. And again, if you need any additional clarification, just let me know, and I'm at your service.