New York Laws
Article 12-B - County Planning Boards and Regional Planning Councils
239-M - Referral of Certain Proposed City, Town and Village Planning and Zoning Actions to the County Planning Agency or Regional Planning Council; Report The

(a) The term "proposed" as used in subparagraphs (ii) and (iii) of
paragraph (b) of subdivision three of this section shall be deemed to
include only those recreation areas, parkways, thruways, expressways,
roads or highways which are shown on a county comprehensive plan adopted
pursuant to section two hundred thirty-nine-d of this article or adopted
on an official map pursuant to section two hundred thirty-nine-e of this
article.
(b) The term "referring body" shall mean the city, town or village
body responsible for final action on proposed actions subject to this
section.
(c) The term "full statement of such proposed action" shall mean all
materials required by and submitted to the referring body as an
application on a proposed action, including a completed environmental
assessment form and all other materials required by such referring body
in order to make its determination of significance pursuant to the state
environmental quality review act under article eight of the
environmental conservation law and its implementing regulations. When
the proposed action referred is the adoption or amendment of a zoning
ordinance or local law, "full statement of such proposed action" shall
also include the complete text of the proposed ordinance or local law as
well as all existing provisions to be affected thereby, if any, if not
already in the possession of the county planning agency or regional
planning council. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this
paragraph, any referring body may agree with the county planning agency
or regional planning council as to what shall constitute a "full
statement" for any or all of those proposed actions which said referring
body is authorized to act upon.
(d) The term "receipt" shall mean delivery of a full statement of such
proposed action, as defined in this section, in accordance with the
rules and regulations of the county planning agency or regional planning
council with respect to person, place and period of time for submission.
In no event shall such rule or regulation define delivery so as to
require in hand delivery or delivery more than twelve calendar days
prior to the county planning agency's or regional planning council's
meeting date. In the absence of any such rules or regulations, "receipt"
shall mean delivery in hand or by mail to the clerk of the county
planning agency or regional planning council. Where delivery is made in
hand, the date of receipt shall be the date of delivery. Where delivery
is made by mail, the date as postmarked shall be the date of delivery.
The provisions of this section shall not preclude the rules and
regulations of the county planning agency or regional planning council
from providing that the delivery may be a period greater than twelve
days provided the referring body and the county planning agency or
regional planning council agree in writing to such longer period.
2. Referral of proposed planning and zoning actions. In any city, town
or village which is located in a county which has a county planning
agency, or, in the absence of a county planning agency, which is located
within the jurisdiction of a regional planning council duly created
pursuant to the provisions of law, each referring body shall, before
taking final action on proposed actions included in subdivision three of
this section, refer the same to such county planning agency or regional
planning council.
3. Proposed actions subject to referral. (a) The following proposed
actions shall be subject to the referral requirements of this section,

if they apply to real property set forth in paragraph (b) of this
subdivision:
(i) adoption or amendment of a comprehensive plan pursuant to section
two hundred seventy-two-a of the town law, section 7-722 of the village
law or section twenty-eight-a of the general city law;
(ii) adoption or amendment of a zoning ordinance or local law;
(iii) issuance of special use permits;
(iv) approval of site plans;
(v) granting of use or area variances;
(vi) other authorizations which a referring body may issue under the
provisions of any zoning ordinance or local law.
(b) The proposed actions set forth in paragraph (a) of this
subdivision shall be subject to the referral requirements of this
section if they apply to real property within five hundred feet of the
following:
(i) the boundary of any city, village or town; or
(ii) the boundary of any existing or proposed county or state park or
any other recreation area; or
(iii) the right-of-way of any existing or proposed county or state
parkway, thruway, expressway, road or highway; or
(iv) the existing or proposed right-of-way of any stream or drainage
channel owned by the county or for which the county has established
channel lines; or
(v) the existing or proposed boundary of any county or state owned
land on which a public building or institution is situated; or
(vi) the boundary of a farm operation located in an agricultural
district, as defined by article twenty-five-AA of the agriculture and
markets law, except this subparagraph shall not apply to the granting of
area variances.
(c) The county planning agency or regional planning council may enter
into an agreement with the referring body or other duly authorized body
of a city, town or village to provide that certain proposed actions set
forth in this subdivision are of local, rather than inter-community or
county-wide concern, and are not subject to referral under this section.
4. County planning agency or regional planning council review of
proposed actions; recommendation, report.
(a) The county planning
agency or regional planning council shall review any proposed action
referred for inter-community or county-wide considerations, including
but not limited to those considerations identified in section two
hundred thirty-nine-l of this article. Such county planning agency or
regional planning council shall recommend approval, modification, or
disapproval, of the proposed action, or report that the proposed action
has no significant county-wide or inter-community impact.
(b) Such county planning agency or regional planning council, or an
authorized agent of said agency or council, shall have thirty days after
receipt of a full statement of such proposed action, or such longer
period as may have been agreed upon by the county planning agency or
regional planning council and the referring body, to report its
recommendations to the referring body, accompanied by a statement of the
reasons for such recommendations. If such county planning agency or
regional planning council fails to report within such period, the
referring body may take final action on the proposed action without such
report. However, any county planning agency or regional planning
council report received after thirty days or such longer period as may
have been agreed upon, but two or more days prior to final action by the
referring body, shall be subject to the provisions of subdivision five
of this section.

5. Extraordinary vote upon recommendation of modification or
disapproval. If such county planning agency or regional planning council
recommends modification or disapproval of a proposed action, the
referring body shall not act contrary to such recommendation except by a
vote of a majority plus one of all the members thereof.
6. Report of final action. Within thirty days after final action, the
referring body shall file a report of the final action it has taken with
the county planning agency or regional planning council. A referring
body which acts contrary to a recommendation of modification or
disapproval of a proposed action shall set forth the reasons for the
contrary action in such report.