New York Laws
Title 1 - Agencies, Organization and Powers
854 - Definitions.

(1) "Agency"--shall mean an Industrial Development Agency created
pursuant to this act.
(2) "Bonds"--shall mean the bonds, notes, interim certificates and
other obligations issued by the agency pursuant to this act.
(3) "Municipality"--shall mean any county, city, village, town or
Indian reservation in the state.
(4) "Project" - shall mean any land, any building or other
improvement, and all real and personal properties located within the
state of New York and within or outside or partially within and
partially outside the municipality for whose benefit the agency was
created, including, but not limited to, machinery, equipment and other
facilities deemed necessary or desirable in connection therewith, or
incidental thereto, whether or not now in existence or under
construction, which shall be suitable for manufacturing, warehousing,
research, commercial, renewable energy or industrial purposes or other
economically sound purposes identified and called for to implement a
state designated urban cultural park management plan as provided in
title G of the parks, recreation and historic preservation law and which
may include or mean an industrial pollution control facility, a
recreation facility, educational or cultural facility, a horse racing
facility, a railroad facility, a renewable energy project or an
automobile racing facility, provided, however, no agency shall use its
funds or provide financial assistance in respect of any project wholly
or partially outside the municipality for whose benefit the agency was
created without the prior consent thereto by the governing body or
bodies of all the other municipalities in which a part or parts of the
project is, or is to be, located, and such portion of the project
located outside such municipality for whose benefit the agency was
created shall be contiguous with the portion of the project inside such
municipality.
(5) "Governing body"--shall mean the board or body in which the
general legislative powers of the municipality are vested.
(6) "Mortgage"--shall mean a mortgage or other security device.
(7) "Revenues"--shall mean all rents, revenues, fees, charges and
other sources of income derived by the agency from the leasing, sale or
other disposition of a project or projects.
(8) "Industrial pollution control facility"--shall mean any equipment,
improvement, structure or facility or any land and any building,
structure, facility or other improvement thereon, or any combination
thereof, and all real and personal property deemed necessary therewith,
which if within any city are not of a character or nature then or
formerly furnished or supplied by the city, having to do with or the end
purpose of which is the control, abatement or prevention of land, sewer,
water, air, noise or general environmental pollution deriving from the
operation of industrial, manufacturing, warehousing, commercial,
recreation and research facilities, including, but not limited to any
air pollution control facility, noise abatement facility, water
management facility, waste water collecting system, waste water
treatment works, sewage treatment works system, sewage treatment system
or solid waste disposal facility or site.
(9) "Recreation facility"--shall mean any facility for the use of the
general public as spectators or participants in recreation activities,
including but not limited to skiing, golfing, swimming, tennis, ice
skating or ice hockey facilities, together with all buildings,
structures, machinery, equipment, facilities and appurtenances thereto
which the agency may deem necessary, useful or desirable in connection

with the construction, improvement or operation of any such facility,
including overnight accommodations and other facilities incidental
thereto and facilities that may permit the use of recreation facilities
by the general public as participants in recreation activities, but
shall not include facilities for automobile or horse racing or other
similar activities.
(10) "Horse racing facility"--shall mean any facility for the use of
the general public for purpose of conducting pari-mutuel wagering,
licensed by the state gaming commission, as of January first, nineteen
hundred seventy-seven, except non-profit racing associations, including
buildings, structures, machinery, equipments, facilities and
appurtenances thereto, the construction, reconstruction, acquisition
and/or improvement of which shall have been approved by the state gaming
commission, and that the agency may deem necessary, useful or desirable
in connection with the construction, improvement or operation of such
racing facility.
(11) "Railroad facility"--shall mean, but shall not be limited to,
railroad rights-of-way, beds, bridges, viaducts, tracks, switches and
rolling stock and any other attendant structure, equipment, facility or
property necessary or appropriate to railroading conducted in
conjunction with industrial, commerical, manufacturing, recreational or
warehousing operations; provided, however, that (i) no agency shall
itself operate a railroad facility for freight or passenger service, but
may lease or otherwise make such facility available to an operator,
subject to an agreement for the maintenance and operation of such
facility for freight or passenger service, provided that passenger
service does not constitute the primary purpose of the railroad
facility; (ii) prior to undertaking any project involving acquisition,
construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance, equipping or
furnishing of a railroad facility, an agency shall submit its plans for
the proposed project to the commissioner of transportation; the
commissioner shall, within sixty days of his receipt of the proposal,
submit an analysis of the financial and operational feasibility of the
proposed project, along with any recommendations for modification for
improving the project's viability, to the agency, the governor, the
commissioner of commerce, the temporary president of the senate, the
speaker of the assembly and the governing body of the municipality in
which the agency is located; and (iii) no agency shall enter into any
contract for the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, improvement,
maintenance, equipping or furnishing of a railroad facility until
fifteen days after the submission of the analysis and recommendations of
the commissioner of transportation, or seventy-five days after
submission of the agency's plan to the commissioner, whichever is
earlier.
(12) "Educational or cultural facility"--shall mean any facility
identified and called for to implement a state designated heritage area
management plan as provided in title G of the parks, recreation and
historic preservation law that is open to the public at large as
participants in educational and cultural activities including but not
limited to theaters, museums, exhibitions and festival and interpretive
facilities, together with buildings, structures, machinery, equipment,
facilities and appurtenances thereto which the agency may deem
necessary, useful or desirable in connection with the construction,
improvement or operation of any such facility, including overnight
accommodations and other facilities incidental thereto and facilities
that may permit the use of educational or cultural facilities by the
general public.
(14) "Financial assistance" - shall mean the proceeds of bonds issued
by an agency, straight-leases, or exemptions from taxation claimed by a
project occupant as a result of an agency taking title, possession or
control (by lease, license or otherwise) to the property or equipment of
such project occupant or of such project occupant acting as an agent of
an agency.
(15) "Straight-lease transaction" - shall mean a transaction in which
an agency takes title, possession or control (by lease, license or
otherwise) to the property or equipment of a project occupant, entitling
such property or equipment to be exempt from taxation according to the
provisions of section eight hundred seventy-four of this article, and no
financial assistance in the form of the proceeds of bonds issued by the
agency is provided to the project occupant.
(16) "Affected tax jurisdiction" - shall mean any municipality or
school district, in which a project is located, which will fail to
receive real property tax payments, or other tax payments which would
otherwise be due, except for the tax exempt status of an agency involved
in a project.
(17) "Payments in lieu of taxes" - shall mean any payment made to an
agency, or affected tax jurisdiction equal to the amount, or a portion
of, real property taxes, or other taxes, which would have been levied by
or on behalf of an affected tax jurisdiction if the project was not tax
exempt by reason of agency involvement.
(18) "Highly distressed area" - shall mean (a) a census tract or
tracts or block numbering areas or areas or such census tract or block
numbering area contiguous thereto which, according to the most recent
census data available, has:
(i) a poverty rate of at least twenty percent for the year to which
the data relates or at least twenty percent of households receiving
public assistance; and
(ii) an unemployment rate of at least 1.25 times the statewide
unemployment rate for the year to which the data relates; or
(b) a city, town, village or county within a city with a population of
one million or more for which: (i) the ratio of the full value property
wealth, as determined by the comptroller for the year nineteen hundred
ninety, per resident to the statewide average full value property wealth
per resident; and (ii) the ratio of the income per resident; as shown in
the nineteen hundred ninety census to the statewide average income per
resident; are each fifty-five percent or less of the statewide average;
or
(c) an area which was designated an empire zone pursuant to article
eighteen-B of this chapter.
(19) "Continuing care retirement community" - shall mean any facility
that has been granted a certificate of authority pursuant to article
forty-six or forty-six-A of the public health law and is established to
provide, pursuant to continuing care retirement contracts approved
pursuant to article forty-six of the public health law, or
fee-for-service continuing care contracts approved pursuant to article
forty-six-A of the public health law, a comprehensive, cohesive living
arrangement for the elderly, and certified by the commissioner of
health, that (i) has been approved for the issuance of industrial
development agency bonds by the continuing care retirement community
council pursuant to section forty-six hundred four-a of the public
health law except that paragraphs b and g of subdivision two of section
forty-six hundred four-a of the public health law shall not apply to a
continuing care retirement community granted a certificate of authority
pursuant to article forty-six-A of the public health law and (ii) is a
not-for-profit corporation as defined in section one hundred two of the

not-for-profit corporation law that is (a) eligible for tax-exempt
financing under section forty-six hundred four-a of the public health
law and this chapter and (b) is exempt from taxation pursuant to section
501(c)(3) of the federal internal revenue code; except that "continuing
care retirement community" shall not include a facility granted a
certificate of authority upon application of a state or local government
applicant.
(20) "Automobile racing facility" shall mean any closed-course
motorsports complex and its ancillary grounds that has at least fifty
thousand fixed seats for race patrons and hosts at least one NASCAR
Sprint Cup series race and at least two other nationally recognized
racing events each calendar year.
(21) "Renewable energy project" shall mean any project and associated
real property on which the project is situated, that utilizes any system
or equipment as set forth in section four hundred eighty-seven of the
real property tax law or as defined pursuant to paragraph b of
subdivision one of section sixty-six-p of the public service law as
added by chapter one hundred six of the laws of two thousand nineteen.