2006 New York Code - Acquisition Of Property By Religious Corporations For Cemetery Purposes; Management Thereof.

 
    §  7.  Acquisition  of property by religious corporations for cemetery
  purposes; management thereof. A religious corporation may take and hold,
  by purchase, grant, gift or devise, real property for the purposes of  a
  cemetery;  or such lot or lots in any cemetery connected with it, as may
  be conveyed or devised  to  it,  with  or  without  provisions  limiting
  interments  therein to particular persons or classes of persons; and may
  take and hold any property granted, given, devised or bequeathed  to  it
  in  trust to apply the same or the income or proceeds thereof, under the
  direction of the trustees of the corporation,  for  the  improvement  or
  embellishment  of  such  cemetery  or  any  lot  therein,  including the
  erection,  repair,  preservation  or  removal   of   tombs,   monuments,
  gravestones,  fences,  railings  or  other erections, or the planting or
  cultivation of trees, shrubs, plants, or flowers in or around  any  such
  cemetery or cemetery lots.
    A  religious  corporation  may  erect upon any property held by it for
  cemetery purposes, a suitable building for religious  services  for  the
  burial  of  the  dead,  or  for  the use of the keepers or other persons
  employed in connection therewith, and may sell and convey lots  in  such
  cemetery   for   burial   purposes,   subject  to  such  conditions  and
  restrictions as may be imposed by the instrument by which the  same  was
  acquired,  or  by the rules and regulations adopted by such corporation.
  Every such conveyance of a lot or  plat  for  burial  purposes,  signed,
  sealed and acknowledged in the same manner as a deed to be recorded, may
  be  recorded  in  like  manner  and  with  like effect as a deed of real
  property.
    Notwithstanding the provisions of section four  hundred  fifty-one  of
  the  real  property law or any other provision of law to the contrary, a
  religious corporation that prior  to  January  first,  nineteen  hundred
  eighty-four  received  a special permit from the zoning board of appeals
  for the use of certain real property as a cemetery  and  which  actually
  used  such  real  property  for  cemetery  purposes,  may  use such real
  property for  cemetery  purposes  without  the  consent  of  the  county
  legislative body for the county in which such real property is situated.
    No  religious  corporation  owning, managing or controlling a cemetery
  shall, directly or indirectly:
    (a) sell, or have, enter into or perform a lease of any  of  its  real
  property dedicated to cemetery purposes or adjacent thereto to a funeral
  entity, or use any of its property for locating a funeral entity;
    (b) commingle its funds with a funeral entity;
    (c) direct or carry on its cemetery related business or affairs with a
  funeral entity;
    (d) authorize control of its cemetery related business or affairs by a
  funeral entity;
    (e)  engage in any sale or cross-marketing of goods or services with a
  funeral entity;
    (f) have, enter into or perform a management or service  contract  for
  cemetery operations with a funeral entity; or
    (g)  have, enter into or perform a management contract with any entity
  other than a not-for-profit cemetery or religious corporation.
    Only the provisions of subparagraphs  (a)  and  (b)  of  the  previous
  paragraph  shall  apply  to  religious corporations with thirty acres or
  less of real property dedicated to cemetery purposes, and  only  to  the
  extent  the  sale  or  lease  is  of real property dedicated to cemetery
  purposes, and such cemeteries shall not engage in the  sale  of  funeral
  home  goods or services, except if such goods and services are otherwise
  permitted to be sold by cemeteries.