New York Arts and Cultural Affairs Law Section 20.03 - General definitions.

20.03. General definitions. As used or referred to in this article and in any special law creating a trust for cultural resources, except as otherwise provided in such law, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

1. "Board" or "board of trustees" shall mean the board of trustees of a trust for cultural resources.

2. "Bonds and notes" shall mean the bonds and notes issued by a trust for cultural resources.

3. "Combined-use facility" shall mean any structure or improvement and any adjoining structures or improvements that are or are to be designed to be and upon completion are used or occupied in part by a participating cultural institution and in part by other persons who shall pay tax equivalency payments to the trust pursuant to section 20.13 of this article, any real property used or to be used in connection therewith, and any and all recreational, educational, cultural, office, living, rehearsal, parking, restaurant, retail, storage and other facilities necessary or desirable in connection with the activities of the participating cultural institution or such other person.

4. "Convey" shall mean to convey, grant, sell, license, lease, sublease, assign, transfer, or otherwise dispose of real property, and the term "conveyance" shall mean and include the equivalent noun form of each such verb included within the meaning of the verb "to convey." The terms "to convey" or "conveyance" shall not include the creation of a mortgage or other lien on real property unless such mortgage or lien has been foreclosed or the mortgagee or lienholder of such mortgage or lien has taken possession of such real property.

5. "Cultural facility" shall mean any structure, improvement, furnishing, equipment or other real or personal property that is or is to be used, owned, or occupied in whole or in part by a participating cultural institution, including but not limited to museums, performing arts centers, public television and radio stations, theaters, auditoriums, libraries, exhibition, performance and rehearsal space, galleries, artists' and dancers' studios, recording studios, and any and all recreational, educational, cultural, office, living, rehearsal, parking, restaurant, retail, storage and other facilities necessary or desirable in connection with the activities of the participating cultural institution.

6. "Develop" shall mean to design, construct, acquire, reconstruct, rehabilitate, expand, modernize, repair or otherwise improve real property for use or conveyance, and the term "development" shall mean and include the equivalent noun form of each such verb included within the meaning of the verb "to develop."

7. "Developer" shall mean any person approved by a trust as being qualified and eligible to enter into an agreement with a trust for the development of a combined-use facility or any part or portion thereof or a cultural facility or any part or portion thereof.

8. "Exempt real property" shall mean real property exempt from real property taxation pursuant to section four hundred twenty-a or four hundred twenty-b of the real property tax law.

9. "Governing body" shall mean the board or body in which the general legislative powers of a municipality or county are vested.

10. "Governor" shall mean the governor of the state.

11. "Institutional portion" shall mean the part or portion of a combined-use facility that prior to completion is designed to be and upon completion is used or occupied by a participating cultural institution. The institutional portion shall include the real property used or to be used in connection therewith; any and all recreational, educational, cultural, office, living, rehearsal, parking, restaurant, retail, storage and other facilities necessary or desirable in connection with the activities of the participating cultural institution; and any interest in a combined-use facility which prior to completion is designed to be and upon completion is owned by, or conveyed to, a participating cultural institution jointly or in common with a trust, a developer, or an owner, to the extent of the interest of such participating cultural institution.

12. "Mayor" shall mean the mayor or highest elected official of a municipality.

13. "Municipality" shall mean any city in the state having a population of one million or more people.

14. "County" shall mean any county in the state except a county located wholly within a city.

15. "Non-institutional portion" shall mean the part or portion of a combined-use facility other than the institutional portion. If the non-institutional portion, or any part thereof, consists of a condominium, the consent of the trust which has developed or approved the developer of such condominium shall be required prior to any amendment of the declaration of such condominium pursuant to subdivision nine of section three hundred thirty-nine-n of the real property law and prior to any amendment of the by-laws of such condominium pursuant to paragraph (j) of subdivision one of section three hundred thirty-nine-v of the real property law, and whether or not such trust is a unit owner of such condominium, it may exercise the rights of the board of managers and an aggrieved unit owner under section three hundred thirty-nine-j of the real property law in the case of a failure of any unit owner of such condominium to comply with the by-laws of such condominium and with the rules, regulations, and decisions adopted pursuant thereto.

16. "Owner" shall mean any person, other than a trust for cultural resources, to whom any real property, consisting of all or any part of the non-institutional portion of a combined-use facility, or in or on which all or any part of such portion prior to completion is designed to be and upon completion is developed, is conveyed.

17. "Participating cultural institution" shall mean a person de- scribed in the special law creating a trust.

18. "Not-for-profit cultural organization" shall mean a not-for-profit corporation described in the special law creating a trust in any county and which is able to demonstrate any one of the following three proofs of not-for-profit status: acceptance of non-profit status by the U. S. treasury department under section 501 (c) (3) of the U. S. internal revenue code; filing with the board of regents of the state of New York pursuant to section two hundred sixteen of the education law; or filing with the secretary of state under the registration of charitable organizations, pursuant to section one hundred seventy-two of the executive law; provided that such organization shall have been incorporated or shall have made the appropriate filing at least five years prior to the date on which the trust approves a loan for such organization.

19. "Person" shall mean an individual, a partnership, an association, a joint stock company, an unincorporated organization, a trust (as distinguished from a trust for cultural resources), a corporation, including any public corporation, any corporation formed other than for profit and any corporation formed for profit, all as classified and defined respectively in sections sixty-five and sixty-six of the general construction law, or a government or political subdivision or agency thereof.

20. "Real property" shall mean any land, water, structures, buildings, improvements or any rights or interest therein, including without limitation air, space or development rights, interests in such property less than full title, such as permanent or temporary easements, rights-of-way, franchises, uses, leaseholds, licenses, and all other incorporeal hereditaments in every legal or equitable estate, interest or right, and any and all other things and rights usually included within the term "real property".

21. "Special law" shall mean an act of the legislature creating a trust for cultural resources pursuant to this article.

22. "State" shall mean the state of New York.

23. "Tax-equivalency payments" shall mean the payments required to be made pursuant to subdivision three of section 20.13 of this article.

24. "Trust for cultural resources" or "trust" shall mean a public benefit corporation created by special law.

25. "Trustee" shall mean a member of the board of trustees of a trust for cultural resources.


Last modified: February 3, 2019