2012 New York Consolidated Laws
HAY - Highway
Article 2 - (10 - 23*2) COMMISSIONER OF TRANSPORTATION
21 - Restoration, preservation and enhancement of natural or scenic beauty.

 
    §  21.  Restoration, preservation and enhancement of natural or scenic
  beauty. The commissioner of  transportation  is  hereby  authorized  and
  empowered  to  acquire  property  for  the restoration, preservation and
  enhancement of natural or scenic beauty  of  areas  traversed  by  state
  highways,  in order for the state to comply with any federal aid highway
  acts. Acquisition of property for the purposes of this section shall  be
  in  the  manner  provided by section thirty of this chapter, except that
  any  property  in  the  city  of  New  York,  which  is  deemed  by  the
  commissioner  of transportation and the city of New York to be necessary
  for the purposes of this section, shall be acquired by the city  of  New
  York   in   the  same  manner  as  provided  in  section  three  hundred
  forty-nine-c of this chapter relating to the acquisition of property for
  the state arterial system in the city of New York. However, any property
  located more than six hundred sixty feet from the nearest  edge  of  the
  right  of  way  of any state highway, as shown on the final construction
  plans for such highway on file  in  the  department  of  transportation,
  shall  be  acquired  for  the  purposes of this section only by grant or
  purchase. The term "property" as used in  this  section  is  defined  to
  include   lands,   waters,   rights  in  lands  or  waters,  structures,
  franchises, and interest  in  land,  including  lands  under  water  and
  riparian rights and any and all other things and rights usually included
  within  the  said  term  and includes also any and all interests in such
  property  less  than  full  title,  such  as  easements,  permanent   or
  temporary,   rights-of-way,   uses,   leases,  licenses  and  all  other
  incorporeal hereditaments and every estate, interest or right, legal  or
  equitable.  Notwithstanding  any  provision of this section, no property
  may be appropriated for the purposes of this section which is  in  areas
  zoned  industrial  or  commercial  under authority of state law or areas
  which are used predominantly for industrial or commercial activities.