New York Laws
Article 20 - New York State Cultural Resources Act
20.13 - Special Powers of a Trust.

§ 20.13. Special powers of a trust. 1. A trust shall have such
special powers with respect to assisting participating cultural
institutions or other not-for-profit cultural organizations as are
provided by special law; provided, that a trust may not develop or cause
to be developed a combined-use facility for use or occupancy by a
participating cultural institution unless (i) in a municipality such
institution shall have had average annual admissions of at least five
hundred thousand persons as shown on the records of such institution for
a period of at least five years prior to either the effective date of
this article or the date on which a trust first enters into an agreement
for the development of a combined-use facility for the use or occupancy
by such institution, (ii) in a city having a population of one hundred
twenty-five thousand or more, such institution shall have had average
annual admissions of at least fifty thousand persons as shown on the
records of such institution for such period and (iii) in any other city,
such institution shall have such minimum average annual admissions as
are set forth in the special law creating a trust; provided, however,
with respect to a participating cultural institution that is a public
television station with respect to which a trust entered an agreement
prior to January first, nineteen hundred ninety the foregoing shall not
apply and provided further that the decision of the trust in determining
such average annual admissions shall be final.

2. A trust may not acquire real property by condemnation, unless
otherwise provided by special law.

3. For so long as any real property, consisting of all or any part of
the non-institutional portion of a combined-use facility or in or on
which all or any part of such portion prior to completion is designed to
be and upon completion is developed shall be exempt from real property
taxation pursuant to section 20.33 of this article, the owners from time
to time of such real property shall pay to the trust which has developed
or approved the developer of such facility, annual or other periodic
amounts, as tax-equivalency payments, at least equal to the real
property taxes that would have otherwise been paid or payable in respect
of such real property; provided, however, that the special law creating
a trust may provide a method for calculating such real property taxes
for purposes of determining the amount of such tax-equivalency payments;
and provided further that the special law creating a trust shall specify
the purposes for which the trust shall use or expend such
tax-equivalency payments, the means for enforcing such payments and the
priorities in favor of a trust in connection with such enforcement.

4. A trust and the participating cultural institution with which the
trust has entered into an agreement for the development of a
combined-use facility, any facility for a not-for-profit cultural
organization or a public television facility prior to January first,
nineteen hundred ninety shall each have all rights provided by law, as
if each were the owner of such facility and the real property in or on
which such facility is or is designed to be developed, to contest in
whole or in part any assessment or revised assessment of the value of
such facility and property, or any portion thereof, by appropriate legal
proceedings, and for purposes of this subdivision four, each shall be
deemed to be a person aggrieved. Each owner required to make
tax-equivalency payments to a trust shall have all rights provided by
law, as if he were the owner of the real property with respect to which
he is required to make such payments, to contest in whole or in part any
assessment or revised assessment of the value of such real property, and
each such owner shall be deemed to be a person aggrieved for purposes of
this subdivision.

5. Subject to any agreement with holders of its notes or bonds, a
trust may enter into an agreement to pay or cause to be paid, by means
which may include an agreement with a participating cultural institution
in a municipality or a not-for-profit cultural institution in a county,
a developer or an owner, annual sums in lieu of taxes to any
municipality or political subdivision of the state, in respect of any
real property which is exempt from taxation pursuant to section 20.33 of
this article and is located in such municipality or political
subdivision, or the special law creating a trust may provide for such
payments in lieu of taxes.