BILL NUMBER: S6595

SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the village law, in relation to the
population of a village

 
PURPOSE:

To raise the threshold for forming a new village from 500 residents to
1,000 residents.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Amends section 2-200 of the Village Law to state that any
territory containing a population of at least one thousand persons may
be incorporated as a village under the provisions of the Village Law.

Section 2: Amends section 2-202 of the Village Law to require a petition
for incorporation to include an allegation that the territory to be
incorporated must contain a population of at least one thousand regular
inhabitants.
              

Section 3: Amends section 2-206 of the Village Law to allow an objection
to be raised to a village incorporation petition at the town supervi-
sor's hearing on the petition that the proposed territory does not
contain a population of at least one thousand regular inhabitants.

Section 4: Effective date

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The incorporation of new village is a major development for any town,
and one that can have significant fiscal impacts on taxpayers throughout
the town (or towns) in which a new village is to be located.  Current
law allows the incorporation of new villages with as few as 500 inhabit-
ants, a population threshold that has been unchanged for decades even as
the population of the state has grown and there has been an increased
awareness of the costs to taxpayers that having a multiplicity of small
villages may cause. Very small villages of fewer than 1,000 residents
may have difficulty providing the services that residents rely on, and
it can be difficult for villages of this size to find qualified resi-
dents to serve on the village board and on local land use boards. In
order to address these issues, this bill raises the minimum number of
residents to form a new village in New York from 500 regular inhabitants
to 1,000 regular inhabitants.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to any petitions
that have not reached final disposition under the provision of article 2
of the village law prior to the effective date of this act.