Enabling statute

New York

Town Law Article 16 (Zoning and Planning); Village Law Article 7 (Zoning and Planning); General City Law Article 2-A (Zoning and Planning)

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Summary

New York is a delegation/home-rule state with no single statewide zoning code. The State Legislature delegates zoning power to its three classes of general-purpose municipalities through three parallel enabling statutes—Town Law Article 16 (§§ 261 et seq.), Village Law Article 7 (§§ 7-700 et seq.), and General City Law Article 2-A / § 20(24)-(25)—each using nearly identical Standard State Zoning Enabling Act language empowering the local legislative body to regulate building height, bulk, density, open space, and the use of land to promote health, safety, morals, and general welfare. The town board, village board of trustees, and city council are the bodies that hold and exercise the power; town zoning applies only to areas outside incorporated villages and cities. These statutory grants are reinforced by home-rule authority under the N.Y. Constitution (Art. IX) and the Municipal Home Rule Law. Counties in New York are generally NOT vested with general zoning authority; zoning is overwhelmingly a city/town/village function, with counties playing planning/advisory and referral roles (e.g., General Municipal Law § 239-m).

The delegation

N.Y. Town Law § 261 (Grant of power): "For the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals, or the general welfare of the community, the town board is hereby empowered by local law or ordinance to regulate and restrict the height, number of stories and size of buildings and other structures, the percentage of lot that may be occupied, the size of yards, courts, and other open spaces, the density of population, and the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes; provided that such regulations shall apply to and affect only such part of a town as is outside the limits of any incorporated village or city. ..." N.Y. Village Law § 7-700 (Grant of power): "For the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals, or the general welfare of the community, the board of trustees of a village is hereby empowered, by local law, to regulate and restrict the height, number of stories and size of buildings and other structures, the percentage of lot that may be occupied, the size of yards, courts, and other open spaces, the density of population, and the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes ..." N.Y. General City Law § 20 (Grant of specific powers): The legislative body of every city is empowered — "(24) To regulate and limit the height, bulk and location of buildings hereafter erected, to regulate and determine the area of yards, courts and other open spaces, and to regulate the density of population in any given area, and for said purposes to divide the city into districts. Such regulations shall be uniform for each class of buildings throughout each district, but the regulations in one or more districts may differ from those in other districts. ... (25) To regulate and restrict the location of trades and industries and the location of buildings, designed for specified uses, and for said purposes to divide the city into districts and to prescribe for each such district the trades and industries that shall be excluded or subjected to special regulation and the uses for which buildings may not be erected or altered ..."

Verification

A verification pass checked this record against the source and filed corrections; the citation above is shown as extracted.

Corrected citation

N.Y. Town Law §§ 261 et seq. (Art. 16); N.Y. Village Law §§ 7-700 et seq. (Art. 7); N.Y. General City Law § 20(24)-(25) (Art. 2-A)

Read the verification audit

Citations and authority model are CORRECT; two of the three article TITLES in the "title" field are WRONG. VERIFIED CORRECT: - N.Y. Town Law Art. 16, § 261 et seq. — real, current. § 261 is "Grant of power..." Article title genuinely IS "Zoning and Planning." This is the towns' zoning enabling statute. Confirmed via nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/TWN/A16. - N.Y. Village Law Art. 7, § 7-700 et seq. — real, current. § 7-700 is "Grant of power" (board of trustees may regulate height, bulk, yards, density, use of land). This is the villages' zoning enabling statute. Confirmed via nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VIL/A7. - N.Y. General City Law § 20(24)-(25) — real, current. Subd. 24 grants power to regulate height/bulk/location of buildings, open spaces, density, and to divide the city into districts; subd. 25 grants power to regulate location of trades/industries and uses by district. This is the cities' zoning enabling grant. Confirmed via codes.findlaw.com and nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GCT/20. - Authority model accurate: municipal_delegation to cities/towns/villages, reinforced by home rule (N.Y. Const. Art. IX; Municipal Home Rule Law). Town zoning applies outside incorporated villages/cities. Counties are generally NOT vested with general zoning authority; they play planning/advisory/referral roles (GML § 239-m). All consistent with the record. ERRORS (in the title field, and one mischaracterization): 1. Village Law Article 7 is titled "Building Zones," NOT "Zoning and Planning." (Confirmed: heading reads "ARTICLE 7 Building Zones.") 2. General City Law Article 2-A is titled "Powers of Cities," NOT "Zoning and Planning." (Confirmed: Art. 2-A contains §§ 19-24; its title is "Powers of Cities.") 3. Minor: listing "§ 20-g et seq." as part of the city zoning enabling authority is misleading. GCL § 20-g is "Intermunicipal cooperation in comprehensive planning and land use regulation," not the core zoning grant. The actual city zoning enabling power is § 20(24)-(25). § 20-g is a supplementary/cooperation provision, not the enabling grant. The underlying legal substance (which statutes confer zoning power) is right; the inaccuracies are in the descriptive article titles and the framing of § 20-g.