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The commissioner of environmental protection, subject to the approval of the board of estimate, may agree with the owners and persons interested in any real estate laid down on such maps as to the amount of compensation to be paid to such owners or persons interested for the taking or using and occupying such real estate. In case any such real estate shall be owned, occupied or enjoyed by the people of this state or by any county, town or school district within this state, such rights, titles, interests or properties may be paid for upon agreement respectively with the office of general services, who shall act for the people of the state, with a chairman and a majority in numbers of the board of supervisors of any county who shall act for such county, and with the supervisors and commissioner of highways, of any town who shall all act for such town, and with the trustees of any school district who shall act for such district. The office of general services shall have power to grant to the city any real estate belonging to the people of this state, which may be required for the purposes indicated in this subchapter, on such terms as may be agreed on between it and the commissioner of environmental protection, always, however, reserving and maintaining the rights of the people and riparian owners to go to the water at any point to which the same may be drawn. If any real estate of any county, town or school district is required by the city for the purposes of this subchapter the majority of the board of supervisors acting for such county, or the supervisors of any such town, with the commissioners of highway therein acting for such town, or the trustees of any school district acting for such district, may grant or surrender such real estate for such compensation as may be agreed upon between such officers respectively and the commissioner of environmental protection.
The term real estate as used in this subchapter shall be construed to signify and embrace all uplands, lands under water, the waters of any lake, pond or stream, all water rights or privileges, and any and all easements and incorporated hereditaments and every estate, interest and right, legal and equitable, in land or water, including terms for years, and liens thereon by way of judgment, mortgages or otherwise, and also all claims for damage to such real estate. It shall also be construed to include all real estate (as the term is above defined) heretofore or hereafter required or used for railroad, highway or other public purposes, providing the persons or corporations owning such real estate or claiming interest therein, shall be allowed the perpetual use for such purposes of the same or of such other real estate to be acquired for the purposes of this subchapter as will afford practicable route or location for such railroad, highway or other public purpose, and in the case of a railroad, commensurate with and adapted to its needs; and provided also that such persons or corporations shall not directly or indirectly be subject to expense, loss or damage by reason of changing such route or location, but that such expense, loss or damage shall be borne by the city. In case any real estate so acquired, or used for public purposes, is sought to be taken or affected for the purposes of this subchapter there shall be designated upon the maps referred to in the previous sections of this subchapter, and there shall be described in the petition, hereinbefore referred to, such portion of the other real estate shown on such maps and described in such petition, as it is proposed to substitute in place of the real estate then used for such railroad, highway or other public purposes. Provided, that wherever the commissioner of environmental protection has heretofore located on any map filed in the office of the commissioners of appraisal, a substituted route for any railroad, the same shall not be subsequently changed without the assent of such company. The supreme court at the special term to which the petition is presented or at such other special term as the consideration thereof may be adjourned to, shall either approve the substituted route or refer the same back to the commissioner of environmental protection for alteration or amendment and may refer the same back, with such directions or suggestions as such court may deem advisable, and as often as necessary and until such commissioners shall determine such substituted route as may be approved by the court. An appeal from any order made by such court at special term, under the provisions of this section, may be taken by any person or corporation interested in and aggrieved thereby to the appellate division and court of appeals, and shall be heard as a non-enumerated motion. The commissioners of appraisal, hereinbefore referred to, in determining the compensation to be made to the persons or corporations owning such real estate, or claiming interest therein, shall include in the amount of such compensation such sum as shall be sufficient to defray the expenses of making such change of route and location and of building such railroad or highway. Such commissioners of appraisal shall suggest in their report, and the court in the order confirming such report shall determine, subject to review by the appellate division, what reasonable time after payment of the awards to such persons or corporations shall be sufficient within which to complete the work of making such change. Neither the city, nor the commissioner of environmental protection shall be entitled to take possession or interfere with the use of such real estate for the enumerated purposes, before the expiration of such time. Such time may be subsequently extended by the court (subject to review as aforesaid) upon a sufficient cause shown. After the expiration of this time so determined or extended no use shall be made of such real estate which shall cause pollution to the water in such reservoir or interfere with its flow.
The commissioners of appraisal appointed in pursuance of this subchapter shall receive as compensation such fees and expenses as may be taxed by the court upon notice to the corporation counsel who shall also furnish them with the necessary clerks, stenographers, surveyors and other employees. The corporation counsel shall, either in person, or by such assistants or other counsel as he or she shall designate for the purpose, appear for and protect the interests of the city in all proceedings in court under this subchapter including the taxation of fees, compensation and expenses and proceedings before the commissioners. The fees of the commissioners and the salaries and compensation of their employees, and their necessary traveling expenses, and all other necessary expenses, in and about the special proceedings provided by this subchapter to be had for acquiring title or extinguishing claims for damages to real estate, and such allowances for counsel fees as may be made by order of the court shall be paid by the comptroller out of the funds provided therefor. Such fees and expenses shall not be paid until they have been taxed before a justice of the supreme court in the judicial district in which the lands or some part thereof are situated upon eight days' notice to the corporation counsel. Such allowances shall in no case exceed the limits prescribed by section eight thousand three hundred three of the civil practice law and rules. The salaries and compensation of the persons employed, as provided for in this subchapter, to prepare the necessary surveys, plans and estimates and for other purposes and to direct, supervise and inspect the work required to be done under the provisions of this subchapter, and such other expenses in and about the same as are not herein required to be under contracts let after completion, shall be paid by the comptroller on the certification of the commissioner of environmental protection or of such person or persons as the commissioner may designate. The compensation and expenses of such of the corporation counsel's assistants or other counsel as the corporation counsel may designate to represent and aid the commissioner in the performance of his or her duties under this subchapter shall also be paid out of the funds provided therefor, and upon the certificate of the corporation counsel who shall have power to appoint such assistants or other counsel, and to fix their compensation. The various sums of money growing due from time to time, under the terms of the several contracts, made for the doing of the work and furnishing the material required by this subchapter, shall be paid by the comptroller on the certification of the commissioner of environmental protection or such person or persons as the commissioner may from time to time designate.
a. The owner of any real estate not taken by virtue of this subchapter and article fifteen of the environmental conservation law or of any established business on the first day of June, nineteen hundred five, except as hereinafter provided, and situate in the counties of Ulster, Albany or Greene, directly or indirectly decreased in value by reason of the acquiring of land by the city for an additional water supply or by reason of the execution of any plans for such additional water supply by the city under the provisions of this subchapter and article fifteen of the environmental conservation law, his or her heirs, assigns or personal representatives shall have a right to damages for such decrease in value. The owner of any real estate not taken by virtue of this subchapter or of any established business on the first day of December, nineteen hundred fourteen, except as hereinafter provided, situate in the counties of Ulster, Greene, Delaware or Schoharie, directly or indirectly decreased in value by reason of the acquisition, after the passage of this subchapter of land by the city for an additional water supply from the Schoharie watershed, or by reason of the execution of any plans for such additional water supply from such watershed, under the provisions of this subchapter, his or her assigns or personal representatives, shall have a right to damages for such decrease in value. The owner of any real estate, not taken, situate in any one or more of the counties of Ulster, Delaware, Orange or Sullivan, or of any established business, directly or indirectly decreased in value by reason of the execution of any plans for or by the acquisition of land by the city for a water supply from the Rondout and Delaware watersheds except that portion of the Delaware watershed of the west branch of the Delaware river within such counties, or any of them, and the owner of any real estate, not taken, situate in any one or more of such counties or situate in the corporate limits of the village of Deposit in the county of Broome existing on the first day of April, nineteen hundred fifty-nine, or of any established business, which business was established on or prior to the first day of April, nineteen hundred fifty-nine which is directly or indirectly decreased in value by reason of the execution of any plans for or by the acquisition of land by the city for a water supply from the watershed of the west branch of the Delaware river, pursuant to law, his or her or its assigns, or personal representatives in any such case shall have a right to damages for such decrease in value, from the time of the beginning of such decrease in value, provided, however, that in the case of an established business, the recovery of or award made to any claimant shall not include any business that may have resulted by reason of the execution of any plans for such water supply. The commissioner of environmental protection may agree with such person as to the amount of such damages, and if such agreement can not be made such damages, if any, shall be determined in the manner herein provided for the ascertaining and determining the value of real estate taken under the provisions of this subchapter, and the commissioners shall not be limited in the reception of evidence to the rules regulating the proof of direct damages. They may also recommend such sums, if any, as shall seem to them proper to be allowed to parties appearing in the proceeding, as expenses and disbursements, including reasonable compensation for witnesses. The amount of such damages so agreed upon as aforesaid or determined as aforesaid shall be payable and collectible in the same manner as is herein provided in the case of awards made through the confirmation of a report of commissioners of appraisal.
b. A person employed in a manufacturing establishment, or in an established business, or upon any lands, and who is not an owner or part owner thereof or of any interest therein, in the counties of Ulster, Delaware, Orange and Sullivan, which manufacturing establishment, established business or lands is injured or destroyed because of the acquisition by the city of an additional water supply from any watershed within such counties, except the watershed tributary to the west branch of the Delaware river, or which lands are taken or acquired for like purpose by the city and a person who was employed in a manufacturing establishment or in an established business or upon any lands within such counties or in the corporate limits of the village of Deposit in the county of Broome and who is not an owner or part owner thereof or of any interest therein, which manufacturing establishment or established business or lands is injured or destroyed because of an acquisition by the city of an additional water supply from the watershed of the west branch of the Delaware river, or which lands are taken or acquired for like purpose by the city, and who in any such case has been so employed continuously for six months prior to, and who continues in such employment up to the time of such injury, destruction, taking or acquisition, shall have a claim for damages against the city equal to the salary paid such employee for the six months immediately preceding such injury, destruction, taking or acquisition. Such damages may be determined by agreement with the commissioner of environmental protection. In case such agreement can not be made such employee may maintain an action against the city in the supreme court to recover such damages, not, however, to exceed the sum of wages paid the employee for the six months preceding such injury, destruction, taking or acquisition.
The city shall have no power to acquire, take or condemn lands under this subchapter unless maps and plans covering the work contemplated by this subchapter shall have been submitted to and approved by the New York state department of environmental conservation or any of its predecessors. All amendments or modification of such maps and plans thereafter made shall be in like manner submitted to and approved by such department, and when so approved, shall have the same force and effect as the original plans filed therewith.
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