16 U.S.C. § 459e–1: Acquisition of property

Summary

The Secretary is allowed and expected to buy or otherwise get lands, waters, buildings, and interests inside the seashore boundaries as money is appropriated or by donation, transfer, exchange, or other means. Property owned by New York State, Suffolk County, or their local governments can be taken only with the owner’s agreement. Federal property inside the area can be moved into the Secretary’s control if the agency that holds it agrees. The Secretary can sign contracts that call for future spending, but the United States only owes money under those contracts if Congress actually appropriates the funds. When enough land and water have been acquired to make an administrative unit, the Secretary will announce the creation of the Fire Island National Seashore in the Federal Register. The Secretary will pay no more than fair market value for purchases and may trade lands, using cash to balance differences in value. The Secretary generally cannot condemn (force a sale of) privately owned improved property inside the seashore or in certain mapped communities if a valid local zoning law that the Secretary accepts is in place. The one exception is an approximately eight-mile area from Davis Park to Smith Point County Park, where condemnation is allowed to improve park contiguity or administration. If the Secretary condemns improved property, owners who are not corporations and who held the same or a larger interest on July 1, 1963, can choose one of three options: sell the property for its fair market value at the taking; keep a life estate (with the purchase price reduced by the life estate’s actuarial value); or keep a 25-year estate (with the price reduced accordingly). “Improved property” means a building begun before July 1, 1963 plus up to two acres for a residence or up to ten acres for commercial/industrial use, though beaches and waters and nearby land needed for public access may be treated differently. Condemnation of undeveloped tracts in the Dune District is suspended while owners keep the land in its natural state, and any dune land the Secretary acquires must remain natural. Property acquired by condemnation must generally be sold to the highest bidder at no less than fair market value and must be sold under restrictions that keep its use in line with applicable regulations and zoning, except for dune district lands, beach/water areas in the exempt communities, the eight-mile Davis–Smith Point area, and certain property acquired before October 1, 1982 that must be kept. Money from those sales can be kept and used by the Secretary to buy more property without further appropriation. During or after a condemnation action, the Secretary may ask a federal court to block uses or construction that do not meet the Secretary’s standards or that would harm undeveloped Dune District land; such court orders end as provided by the applicable regulation.

Title 16, §459e–1

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Authority of Secretary; manner and place; concurrence of State owner; transfer from Federal agency to administrative jurisdiction of Secretary; liability of United States under contracts contingent on appropriations

The Secretary is authorized to acquire, and it is the intent of Congress that he shall acquire as appropriated funds become available for the purpose or as such acquisition can be accomplished by donation or with donated funds or by transfer, exchange, or otherwise, the lands, waters, and other property, and improvements thereon and any interest therein, within the boundaries of the seashore as established under section 459e of this title. Any property or interest therein owned by the State of New York, by Suffolk County, or by any other political subdivision of said State may be acquired only with the concurrence of such owner. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any Federal property located within such area may, with the concurrence of the agency having custody thereof, be transferred without consideration to the administrative jurisdiction of the Secretary for use by him in carrying out the provisions of sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title. In exercising his authority to acquire property in accordance with the provisions of this subsection, the Secretary may enter into contracts requiring the expenditure, when appropriated, of funds authorized by sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title, but the liability of the United States under any such contract shall be contingent on the appropriation of funds sufficient to fulfill the obligations thereby incurred.

(b)Establishment; notice in Federal Register

When the Secretary determines that lands and waters or interests therein have been acquired by the United States in sufficient quantity to provide an administrative unit, he shall declare the establishment of the Fire Island National Seashore by publication of notice in the Federal Register.

(c)Fair market value

The Secretary shall pay not more than the fair market value, as determined by him, for any land or interest therein acquired by purchase.

(d)Exchange of property; cash equalization payments

When acquiring land by exchange the Secretary may accept title to any nonfederally owned land located within the boundaries of the national seashore and convey to the grantor any federally owned land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary. The lands so exchanged shall be approximately equal in fair market value, but the Secretary may accept cash from or pay cash to the grantor in order to equalize the values of the lands exchanged.

(e)Limitation of condemnation power during existence of zoning ordinance; Davis Park-Smith Point County Park area exception; beneficial owner’s election of alternatives as condition for acquisition

With one exception the Secretary shall not acquire any privately owned improved property or interests therein within the boundaries of the seashore or any property or interests therein within the communities delineated on the boundary map mentioned in section 459e of this title, except beach or waters and adjoining land within such communities which the Secretary determines are needed for public access to the beach, without the consent of the owners so long as the appropriate local zoning agency shall have in force and applicable to such property a duly adopted, valid, zoning ordinance that is satisfactory to the Secretary. The sole exception to this limitation on the power of the Secretary to condemn improved property where appropriate zoning ordinances exist shall be in the approximately eight-mile area from the easterly boundary of the Brookhaven town park at Davis Park, in the town of Brookhaven, to the westerly boundary of the Smith Point County Park. In this area only, when the Secretary deems it advisable for carrying out the purposes of sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title or to improve the contiguity of the park land and ease its administration, the Secretary may acquire any land or improvements therein by condemnation. In every case in which the Secretary exercises this right of condemnation of improved property the beneficial owner or owners (not being a corporation) of any improved property so condemned, provided he, she, or they held the same or a greater estate in the property on July 1, 1963, may elect as a condition of such acquisition by the Secretary any one of the following three alternatives:

(1)that the Secretary shall take the said property in fee simple absolute and pay the fair market value thereof as of the date of such taking;

(2)that the owner or owners shall retain a life estate in said property, measured on the life of the sole owner or on the life of any one person among multiple owners (notice of the person so designated to be filed in writing with the Secretary within six months after the taking) or on the life of the survivor in title of any estate held on July 1, 1963, as a tenancy by the entirety. The price in such case shall be diminished by the actuarial fair market value of the life estate retained, determined on the basis of standard actuarial methods;

(3)that the owner or owners shall retain an estate for twenty-five years. The price in this case shall likewise be diminished by the value of the estate retained.

(f)“Improved property” defined

The term “improved property” as used in sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title shall mean any building, the construction of which was begun before July 1, 1963, and such amount of land, not in excess of two acres in the case of a residence or ten acres in the case of a commercial or industrial use, on which the building is situated as the Secretary considers reasonably necessary to the use of the building: Provided, That the Secretary may exclude from improved properties any beach or waters, together with so much of the land adjoining such beach or waters as he deems necessary for public access thereto.

(g)Undeveloped tracts and property; suspension of condemnation authority; natural state

The authority of the Secretary to condemn undeveloped tracts within the Dune District as depicted on map entitled “Fire Island National Seashore” numbered OGP–0004 dated May, 1978, is suspended so long as the owner or owners of the undeveloped property therein maintain the property in its natural state. Undeveloped property within the Dune District that is acquired by the Secretary shall remain in its natural state.

(h)Sale of property acquired by condemnation; excepted properties; proceeds available for acquisition of property

(1)(A)The Secretary shall sell any property described in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph acquired by condemnation under sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title to the highest bidder; except that—

(i)no property shall be sold at less than its fair market value; and

(ii)no property shall be sold unless it is sold subject to covenants or other restrictions that will ensure that the use of such property conforms—

(I)to the standards specified in regulations issued under section 459e–2(a) of this title which are in effect at the time of such sale, and

(II)to any approved zoning ordinance or amendment thereof to which such property is subject.

(B)The property referred to in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph is any property within the boundaries of the national seashore as delineated on the map mentioned in section 459e of this title except—

(i)property within the Dune district referred to in subsection (g) of this section;

(ii)beach or waters and adjoining land within the exempt communities referred to in the first sentence of subsection (e) of this section; and

(iii)property within the eight-mile area described in the second sentence of subsection (e) of this section; and

(iv)any property acquired prior to October 1, 1982, that the Secretary determines should be retained to further the purpose of sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title.

(2)Notwithstanding any other provision of law, all moneys received from sales under paragraph (1) of this subsection may be retained and shall be available to the Secretary, without further appropriation, only for purposes of acquiring property under sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title.

(i)Injunctive relief; termination

(1)Upon or after the commencement of any action for condemnation with respect to any property under sections 459e to 459e–9 of this title, the Secretary, through the Attorney General of the United States, may apply to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York for a temporary restraining order or injunction to prevent any use of, or construction upon, such property that—

(A)fails, or would result in a failure of such property, to conform to the standards specified in regulations issued under section 459e–2(a) of this title in effect at the time such use or construction began; or

(B)in the case of undeveloped tracts in the Dune district referred to in subsection (g) of this section, would result in such undeveloped property not being maintained in its natural state.

(2)Any temporary restraining order or injunction issued pursuant to such an application shall terminate in accordance with the provisions of section 459e–2(g) of this title.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1984—Subsecs. (h), (i). Pub. L. 98–482 added subsecs. (h) and (i). 1978—Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 95–625 added subsec. (g).

§459e–1 Acquisition of Property

Summary

Title 16, §459e–1

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

Citations & Metadata