New York Laws
Article 9 - Recording Instruments Affecting Real Property
334-A - Filing of Subdivision Maps in Nassau County; Penalty for Non-Filing.

(a) where real property is subdivided into not more than four lots,
plots, blocks, sites or units that conform to the applicable planning
and zoning regulations or ordinances of the city, town or village, as
the case may be, and such subdivision does not involve the laying out of
a street or the extension of a previously laid out street, the owner or
agent may make written application to the planning commission or
planning authorities having jurisdiction for a waiver of the filing
requirements hereunder upon forms supplied by the appropriate planning
commission. Such a waiver may be granted by such planning commission or
planning authorities after determining that such subdivision plat is in
compliance with this section and with the zoning and planning
regulations of the city, town or village, as the case may be, in which
the property is located. The request for a waiver shall be acted upon
without a public hearing within fifteen days after the filing of the
application unless such period shall have been extended by consent of
the applicant. Where real property is capable of being subdivided into
more than four lots, plots, blocks, sites or units that conform to the
applicable planning and zoning regulations or ordinances of the city,
town or village, as the case may be, and such subdivision does not
involve the laying out of a street or the extension of a previously laid
out street, the planning commission or planning authorities having
jurisdiction may, in the sole discretion of such planning commission or
planning authorities deny such waiver application and require the filing
in the office of the clerk of Nassau county a map or maps of such real
property, subject to appropriate conditions as in the judgment of such
planning commission or planning authorities as are requisite in the
interest of the public health, safety and general welfare; or
(b) where a subdivision map has been filed prior to January twelfth,
nineteen hundred forty-five, and alterations made thereon do not involve
any change, or extensions of previously laid out streets and where the
only alterations are changes in lot boundaries which are made solely for
the purpose of adhering to applicable zoning regulations, it shall not
be necessary to file such altered map or obtain a waiver therefor; or
(c) where there is a conversion of an existing structure into units,
which structure: (1) was in existence and legally occupied prior to
August fifth, nineteen hundred eighty-seven; and (2) where title to said
units is to be held in a condominium, cooperative or mixed form of
ownership; and (3) the use thereof is in compliance with the zoning and
planning regulations of the city, town or village, as the case may be,
in which the structure is located.
As used in this section, the term "units" shall include space used or
to be used for either residential, commercial, mixed or other use
whether title is held in fee simple, a condominium, cooperative, or
mixed form of ownership. It shall be unlawful, after a map or maps of
such property has been filed, to subdivide said property in a manner

other than as shown on said map unless said map has been amended and
approved in accordance with the provisions of subdivision six of this
section.
2. Such map or maps must be thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches or
less in size, drawn with pen and ink upon tracing cloth or printed on
mylar upon a scale of not more than one hundred feet to the inch and
oriented with the north point at the top of the map. At no time shall
the north point vary more than twenty degrees east or west of the
perpendicular border.
3. In case the lands sought to be shown upon the map are too extensive
to be shown upon a map thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches in size,
then a key map thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches in size, drawn
upon a reduced scale, but without detail, showing the entire quantity of
land, subdivided into units embracing the entire map, shall be made and
filed, and each subdivision or unit shall be shown upon a separate map.
4. Said map shall set forth the courses, measurements and adjoining
property owners with sufficient definiteness to determine the location
of said property, and upon each map shall appear the name of the record
owner and the name of the subdivision as stated by the owner and said
name shall be approved by the county clerk as a name not so similar to
the name appearing upon any filed subdivision map as to deceive or
mislead the public as to the identity of such subdivision.
5. Upon each and every of said maps shall appear the name or names of
the town or towns, city or cities, incorporated village or incorporated
villages in which said lands are located wholly or in part, and endorsed
thereon shall be a certificate of the licensed land surveyor who made or
caused the said map to be made, certifying that the map or maps were
made from an actual survey of the property that was performed by or
under the direction of said licensed land surveyor and the date of the
completion of the survey. Said certificate shall state that stone or
concrete monuments have been set at not less than two corners of every
street intersection as indicated on such map or maps and that the lands
shown thereon have been monumented in a manner to indicate the distance
from the nearest established street, avenue, road or highway, provided,
however, that where the planning board or other governmental agency
having jurisdiction over the approval of said maps has required the
subdivider to deposit with the town or local governing body a
performance bond or bonds to secure the installation and completion of
all site improvements, including setting stone or concrete monuments in
the streets as aforesaid, and simultaneously with the filing of said map
the subdivider files with the county clerk a written certification from
the town or local governing body that such bond or bonds have been duly
deposited and accepted by the town or local governing body and that said
bond or bonds expressly include the setting of stone or concrete
monuments as aforesaid, the said surveyor's certificate may state that
stone or concrete monuments will be set at not less than two corners of
every street intersection as indicated on such map upon completion of
the installation of said streets and that the surveyor shall execute and
deliver a further written certification of the completion of such
monumentation to both the county clerk and the town or local governing
body prior to and as a condition for the release of said performance
bond or bonds.
6. Before such filing each and every of said maps shall be approved by
the planning commission or planning commissions having jurisdiction in
the area embraced within said maps in accordance with the regulations of
such planning commission or planning commissions and the approval of
such planning commission or planning commissions shall be endorsed
thereon.

6-a. Before such filing each and every of said maps shall have
endorsed thereon the consent to such filing of the mortgagees of such
real property.
7. The planning commission or planning authorities having jurisdiction
shall not approve any such map until the commissioner of public works of
Nassau county has endorsed thereon a statement that he has approved
plans for grades of the streets, avenues, roads or highways shown on
such map, and the drainage thereof. The commissioner of public works may
require that separate and distinct plans for the grading and drainage be
prepared. Such plans shall show sufficient data to enable the
commissioner of public works to determine the adequacy thereof. He may
require any changes in grades or plans which he deems necessary to make
such grades or plans conform with any general or comprehensive plan
adopted for the county, or to serve the best interests of the county as
a whole. Upon his approval of plans for the grades and drainage for the
streets, avenues, roads or highways shown on said map he shall endorse
such approval on the plans submitted to him, or as they shall have been
revised, and shall file same in his office, and shall file a print
thereof in the office of each planning authority having jurisdiction. He
shall further endorse on the map submitted to the planning authority for
approval a statement that he has approved grades and drainage for the
streets, avenues, roads or highways shown thereon, in accordance with
detailed plans on file in his office.
8. At the time of filing such map with the county clerk an abstract of
title and tax search of all of the property shown on said map together
with a certificate of title, certifying to the county of Nassau the name
or names of the owner or owners of said property together with all liens
thereon, shall be delivered to the county clerk and filed in his office.
Such abstract and search shall cover a period of not less than the
twenty years immediately preceding the date of the certificate and such
certificate shall be made by a title company duly incorporated and
authorized to transact business in the state of New York or a person
duly authorized to certify titles under the laws of the state of New
York. In the event the title to said property has been duly registered
pursuant to the provisions of the real property law for the registration
of titles to real property, that fact shall be set forth upon the
original map together with the number of the certificate of the title so
registered and an index of such abstracts and registrations made to
clearly indicate the maps to which they refer and the abstract of title
and certificate of title above referred to shall not be required. In the
case of a tax title, the fee title for a period of at least twenty years
prior to the date of the tax sale under which tax title is claimed must
be submitted as a part of the abstract.
9. Every such map, whether intended as an original subdivision or as
an alteration of a prior subdivision in such county, shall have endorsed
thereon at the time such map is offered to be filed the certificates of
the county treasurer and the receiver of taxes of each town and city and
the tax collecting officer of each incorporated village within which any
part of the tract of land shown on said map or maps is located, or of a
title company authorized to transact business in the state of New York
stating that all taxes and assessments which are liens prior to the time
such original or subsequent map is offered to be filed, whether assessed
against the entire tract of land or against any lot or other part of
said land, shown on the tax search required to be filed with the county
clerk, have been paid.
10. At the time of the filing of such map there shall also be
furnished to the county clerk a copy of such map, prepared upon tracing
cloth by such process as he shall prescribe, which shall be duly

certified by him to be a true copy of the original and which shall be
forwarded by him to the board of assessors of the county.
11. The clerk of the county of Nassau upon receiving such maps shall
file them by some suitable method in consecutive order and they shall be
consecutively numbered in the order of filing and indexed under the
initial letters of all substantives in the titles.
12. The fee of the county clerk for receiving and filing each of said
separate maps or sheets and indexing the same shall be five dollars, and
an additional fee for every block created, which fee shall be the same
as the additional fee provided for block indexing by the Nassau county
administrative code.
13. Failure to file said map or maps as required by the provisions of
this section, shall subject the owner of such lands shown upon such
maps, or of unsold lots, plots or units thereon, to a penalty to the
people of the state of New York of five hundred dollars for each and
every lot, plot or unit thereon subdivided, sold or conveyed by or for
such owner prior to the due filing of such map or maps.
14. Whenever at least two years have elapsed since the filing of a map
of the subdivision of any tract of land into lots, plots, blocks or
sites, with or without opened or proposed roads, the owner of such
tract, or of any part thereof having an area equivalent to that of any
two or more contiguous lots or an area of not less than one-half acre,
may abandon and cancel the subdivision of the property so owned by
recording in the office of the county clerk a written certificate of
abandonment, duly executed and acknowledged, which shall contain a
description of the property to be abandoned, the complete title or name
of the map, the filing date and file number thereof, except that no
opened or proposed streets, other than those entirely within the bounds
of the property to be abandoned, or the area within such bounds of
streets which as laid out on said map come to a dead-end within such
bounds, shall be abandoned unless each owner of a lot or interest in the
subdivision consents to the abandonment thereof by instrument in writing
duly executed, acknowledged and recorded with the certificate of
abandonment; provided, however, that whenever at least twenty years have
elapsed since the filing of said map, the owner of the property to be
abandoned may, without such consent, abandon any streets or portions
thereof shown on said map and which are within the bounds of the
property to be abandoned if such streets or portions thereof are neither
opened, nor public highways, nor used by the public, nor necessary for
the use of owners, occupants or any other persons having an interest in
any part of the subdivision; but nothing herein shall prevent an owner
using or a seller of land from conveying part of a lot, plot or site
separately or together with an adjoining lot, plot or site, subject to
the provisions of local zoning ordinances. Whenever there is on file
more than one map of the property to be abandoned, such property must be
abandoned in the manner herein provided as to each of such maps. A copy
of each certificate of abandonment must be filed with the assessor
and/or board of assessors of each town and village wherein any portion
of the property to be abandoned is situated, and the endorsement of
approval by each such assessor and/or board of assessors must be
endorsed on the original of each certificate presented to the county
clerk for recording. An abstract of title to the property to be
abandoned covering a period of at least twenty years last past, and a
certificate of the county treasurer of Nassau county to the effect that
there are no unpaid tax liens against such property, must be submitted
to the county clerk and be approved by him at the time the certificate
of abandonment and cancellation is offered for recording. Said
certificates and abstracts shall be filed in the county clerk's office,

a suitable index shall be kept of the same, and notice thereof shall be
endorsed by the recording officer upon the map therein referred to at
the time of recording the certificate of abandonment. Where the
endorsement of approval of the town or village assessor above referred
to includes a recitation to the effect that the municipality has duly
adopted an urban renewal plan pursuant to article fifteen of the general
municipal law which plan provides for adequate street access to all
properties within and adjacent to the planning area, and further that
the property to be abandoned is subject to said plan, and its
abandonment is required thereunder, the clerk shall accept and record
the certificate of abandonment tendered therefor regardless of the area
thereof, and notwithstanding that the property to be abandoned is a
portion of an opened or proposed street for which the consent to the
abandonment thereof required in this subdivision has not been obtained.
Upon the abandonment of subdivided property as herein provided such
property shall, for all purposes, be regarded as a single tract of land.
No abandonment of lot divisions shall be made under this section for the
purpose of reviving or making effective any other subdivision of the
same tract of land and no map may be reinstated as it was prior to the
filing of any abandonment certificate. The fee of the county clerk for
such filing and indexing each certificate and abstract therewith shall
be ten dollars and shall be paid by the party presenting them for
filing. Provided, however, that the Nassau county board of supervisors
shall have full authority to abandon any subdivision of property or any
portion thereof which the county of Nassau now owns or may hereafter
acquire through the sale of tax liens, by causing to be filed with the
county clerk of Nassau county, a certificate of abandonment, duly
executed by the said county board, without regard to any of the other
foregoing requirements of this section. Nothing contained in this
section shall be construed to prevent the filing of a new map and
certificate of a subdivision of real property in the manner prescribed
herein, after, and in the area of, a subdivision or portion thereof
abandoned in accordance with the provisions of this section.

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