Loading...
a. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of environmental protection to proceed immediately and with all reasonable speed, to ascertain what sources exist and are most available, desirable and best for an additional supply of pure and wholesome water for the city. The commissioner shall make such studies, investigations, surveys, maps, plans, profiles, estimates and reports as the commissioner may deem proper in order to ascertain the facts as to such sources and shall report to the board of estimate with recommendations as to what action should in the commissioner's opinion be taken with reference thereto. It shall be lawful for the board of estimate and the commissioner to report upon, consider and determine the project in parts or sections from time to time as they may deem fit, so that the city may be able to obtain an additional supply of water from one or more sources before the whole additional supply contemplated may be obtained.
b. If at any time the board of estimate shall determine it to be advisable that the needs of the city with respect to its water supply or with regard to the delivery of such supply to points convenient for distribution among the several boroughs shall be made the subject of study and investigation, the commissioner of environmental protection shall forthwith proceed with such studies and investigations and, together with his or her recommendations, report to the board of estimate. Upon receipt of any such report the board of estimate may consider and act upon it in the same manner and with the same authority as provided in this section and in any following sections.
a. The board of estimate upon the receipt of such report or reports of the commissioner may adopt, modify or reject the whole or any part of the same, and may cause such studies, investigations, surveys, maps, plans, profiles, estimates and reports to be made, and such further information to be obtained as the commissioner shall deem expedient to enable him or her to act intelligently in the premises. In case of the modification or rejection of the recommendations in such report or reports or any part thereof by the board of estimate, the commissioner in like manner as aforesaid shall prepare and submit to the board of estimate further studies, investigations, surveys, maps, plans, profiles, estimates and reports and make such changes and modifications as shall seem proper to the board of estimate, and shall continue so to do under the direction of the board of estimate, until a map, plan or plans covering the entire work contemplated by this subchapter shall be approved and adopted by such board. The map, plan or plans may be made and adopted in parts or sections from time to time, and may be changed or modified either before or after adoption as the board of estimate may deem necessary for the more efficient carrying out of the provisions of this subchapter.
b. The board of estimate prior to the adoption of such map, plan or plans, or to a modification thereof shall afford to all persons interested a reasonable opportunity to be heard respecting the same, and shall give reasonable public notice of such hearing, at which testimony may be produced by the parties appearing in such manner as the board of estimate may determine, and each member of the board is hereby authorized to administer oaths and issue subpoenas in any proceeding pending before them under this subchapter. Notice of such hearing shall be given, in addition to the above provision, by mailing to the chairperson and clerk of the board of supervisors of the county where the real estate to be acquired is situated a notice of such hearing at least eight days before the time named in the notice.
c. A final map, plan or plans approved and adopted by the board of estimate shall be executed in quadruplicate, one of which shall remain on file with the clerk of the board of estimate, one shall be placed on file in the office of the commissioner of environmental protection, one, or a certified copy thereof, shall be filed in the county clerk's office or register's office of each county in which any of the land affected thereby is situated.
d. Provided, however, that no reservoir or other structure for the storage or impounding of water, shall be constructed, at any time, within the drainage area of the Esopus creek in the county of Ulster, other than that designated in the reports of William H. Burr, Rudolph Hering and John R. Freeman to the Honorable George B. McClellan, mayor, chairman, board of estimate of the city of New York, as to the Ashokan reservoir, the flow line of which shall not exceed elevation six hundred feet coast and geodetic survey datum.
The commissioner of environmental protection, the commissioner's agents, engineers, surveyors and such other persons as may be necessary to enable the commissioner to perform his or her duties under this subchapter are hereby authorized to enter upon any land, or water, for the purpose of making surveys, examinations or investigations and preparing the maps, plans and reports contemplated by this subchapter and for the purpose of posting any notices that may be required to be published in like manner.
After the approval, adoption and filing of a final map, plan or plans described in section 5-377 of this subchapter, the commissioner shall prepare and submit to the board of estimate six similar maps of the real estate to be acquired or affected for the purpose of carrying out the said plan or plans, or any part thereof. Upon those maps there shall be laid out and separately numbered the various parcels of real estate acquisition of which is made necessary for the prosecution of the work authorized by this subchapter, including the lands adjoining the Esopus creek between the point on such creek, in the town of Shandaken, Ulster county, where the Schoharie tunnel empties into such creek, and the Ashokan reservoir of the city, in such county, the owners of which lands shall be entitled to recover the decrease in value of such lands by reason of any acts of the city under the provisions of this subchapter or any previous act, such damages to be determined by a commission in the same manner as damages for the taking of real property are determined. On such maps, the property division lines existing at the time of the survey shall be delineated, and there shall be plainly indicated those parcels of which the fee, and over or through which parcels the right to use and occupy the same temporarily or in perpetuity, is to be acquired. The board of estimate may adopt, modify or reject such maps in whole or in part and require others to be made instead thereof. In case of such rejection, the commissioner of environmental protection shall in like manner, as aforesaid, prepare and submit others, until maps shall be approved by the board of estimate covering the entire area required for the purpose of carrying out the said plan or plans, or any part thereof. Such maps may be made and filed in sections. One or more sections may be determined before the maps of the whole construction are completed. Such sections shall be determined and decided upon previous to the appointment of the commissions as hereinafter provided for, and shall be so determined that one commission shall not be appointed for a section covering more property than can reasonably be passed upon and awards made by such commission within the limits of a year from the time of the filing of the oaths, as hereinafter provided. The proceedings hereinafter authorized may, in like manner, be taken separately in reference to one or more of such sections before the maps of the whole are filed. The work upon one or more of such sections may be begun before the maps of the remaining sections are filed. The maps when adopted by the board of estimate shall be transmitted by such board to the corporation counsel, with a certificate of such adoption written thereon and signed by a majority of the board.
The corporation counsel shall cause one of the maps described in section 5-379 of this subchapter, or a certified copy thereof, to be filed in the office of the clerk of each county in which any real estate laid out on such map shall be located except that in any county in which there is a register's office, such map shall be filed therein instead of in the office of the county clerk. The other maps described in section 5-379 of this subchapter shall be disposed of in the manner indicated in succeeding sections of this subchapter.
After such maps shall have been filed as provided for in the preceding section of this subchapter, the corporation counsel, for and on behalf of the city, upon first giving the notice required in the next section of this subchapter, shall apply to the supreme court at any special term thereof to be held in the judicial district in which the lands or some part thereof shown on such maps, and the title to which it is proposed to acquire in the proceeding thus instituted, is situated, for the appointment of commissioners of appraisal. Upon such application the corporation counsel shall present to the court a petition signed and verified by the commissioner of environmental protection, according to the practice of the court, setting forth the action theretofore taken by the commissioner and by the board of estimate and the filing of such maps, and praying for the appointment of commissioners of appraisal. Such petition shall contain a general description of all the real estate to, in, or over which any title, interest, right or easement is sought to be acquired for the city for the purpose of this subchapter, each parcel being more particularly described by a reference to the number of such parcel as given on such maps, and the title, interest or easement sought to be acquired to, in or over such parcel, whether a fee or otherwise, shall be stated in the petition.
The corporation counsel shall give notice in the City Record, and in two public newspapers published in the city of New York and in two public newspapers published in each other county in which any real estate laid out on such maps may be located, and which it is proposed to acquire in the proceeding, of the corporation counsel's intention to make application to such court for the appointment of commissioners of appraisal which notice shall specify the time and place of such application, shall briefly state the object of the applications and shall describe the real estate sought to be taken or affected. A statement of the real estate to be acquired or affected for the purpose of carrying out the said plan or plans or in any part thereof with separate enumerations of the numbers of the parcels to be taken in fee, and of the numbers of the parcels in which an easement is to be acquired, together with the route of the tunnels and aqueducts by courses and distances and of the greatest and least width of its required easement or parcel of land with a reference to the dates and places of filing such maps, shall be sufficient description of the real estate sought to be so taken or affected. Such notice shall be so published, once in each week, in each of such newspapers, for six weeks immediately previous to the presentation of such petition; and the corporation counsel shall in addition to such advertisement cause copies of the same in hand bills to be posted up, for the same space of time in at least twenty conspicuous places on the line of the aqueduct or in the vicinity of the real estate so to be taken or affected and shall cause a copy of such notice to be mailed to the owners of such real estate whose names and addresses are known or are readily ascertainable. After the original appointment of commissioners of appraisal pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter, the corporation counsel may apply at a special term of the supreme court in the same judicial district where application for such original commission was made for the appointment of a successor commission, upon first giving ten days' notice by advertisement in the newspapers hereinabove described of his or her intention to make such application.
At the time and place mentioned in such notice, unless such court shall adjourn such application to a subsequent day and in that event at the time to which the same may be adjourned, such court, upon due proof to its satisfaction of the required publication and posting aforesaid, and upon filing such petition, shall make an order for the appointment of three disinterested and competent freeholders, at least one of whom shall reside in the city and at least one of whom shall reside in the county or one of the counties in which such real estate shall be situated, as commissioner of appraisal to ascertain and appraise the compensation to be made to the owners and all persons interested in the real estate laid down on such maps as proposed to be taken or affected for the purpose indicated in this subchapter. Such order shall fix the time and place for the first meeting of such commissioners.
Such commissioners shall take and subscribe the oath or affirmation required by article thirteen of the constitution and shall forthwith file the same or a certified copy thereof in the office of the clerk of the county in which the land or any part thereof is situated, and shall forthwith file certified copies of such oaths in the office of the clerk of the county of New York, and in the register's office in any county in which there is a register's office and in which is situated any of the real estate sought to be taken or affected by the proceeding.
Loading...