Senate Bill S860

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S860

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to the
sale of state lands


 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :
The purpose of this bill is to ensure that the natural resource value
of state-owned land is fully identified and considered before its
sale.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :
This bill would add a new section 49-0217 to the ECL to require that
the State Land Acquisition Advisory Council review any state- owned
land prior to its sale. Such review would be conducted to determine:

* if the land is within a resource protection area as designated by
the State Land Acquisition Plan (SLAP);

* if the land meets a category definition contained in the SLAP; or

* if it receives a minimum score, above the cutoff, using the
appropriate rating system as defined in the SLAP.

This bill would also require that if any of the above listed criteria
              

are met, the subject land would be transferred to the Department of
Environmental Conservation, and the Department would be required to
manage the land in accordance with the recommendations of the SLAP.

 JUSTIFICATION :
The State Land Acquisition Plan was created in statute to help
identify and prioritize the State's natural resources. The State Land
Acquisition Advisory Council was created to aid in the formulation of
this plan, and to make recommendations for land acquisition that
ensure a balance of statewide and regional acquisition goals. In order
to further the State's land preservation goals, this bill would
require the State Land Acquisition Advisory Council to determine
whether state-owned lands proposed for sale have any value that would
deem them worthy of resource protection by the state. In the absence
of such a provision, some of New York's most precious open space will
continue to be lost due to hasty and shortsighted transactions that
ignore the efforts of the state (through the council and the
acquisition plan) to preserve its most valuable land resources.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
S.4367 of 2007-08
S.6376 of 2006

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
This bill could potentially result in a decrease in revenue from the
sale of State land. At the same time, however, the bill could result
in savings to the State by preventing the sale of land with a high
preservation value.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.