Once the New York Legislature passes a special law authorizing a property transfer for a fire substation, can the town change the substation's size without going back to the Legislature?

Plain-English summary

The Town of Islip and the Central Islip Fire District wanted a fire substation on a 2.5-acre parcel that the State had transferred to the Town in 1982 for educational and similar uses. To move the parcel from the New York Institute of Technology (which had received it from the Town in 1996 for educational use) to the Fire District, Islip submitted a 2013 home rule request asking the Legislature for a special law. Islip's home rule resolution included a size cap: a substation "not to exceed 7,000 square feet in gross floor area."

The Legislature enacted Chapter 498 of 2013, but the special law did not include the 7,000-square-foot cap. It only authorized the parcel's transfer to the Fire District for the "sole purpose of the creation of a substation."

Years later, the Fire District wanted to build something larger, and the Town was on board. The question to the AG: did Islip have to go back to the Legislature for a new special law to lift the size cap?

The answer was no. The special law itself imposed no size limit. The Senate sponsor's memo discussed only the change in permitted use, not the substation's dimensions. And the home rule request statutes do not bind the Legislature to incorporate every limit a town requests. So the Town can authorize a larger substation through ordinary local processes.

What this means for you

If you are a municipal attorney drafting a home rule request

Watch the gap between what your local resolution asks for and what the Legislature ultimately enacts. The Legislature is free to drop, add, or modify limits. If a limit matters to your municipality, you should either confirm it appears in the final special law or rely on your local code rather than a request that did not survive the legislative process.

If you are a fire district or special district commissioner

Once a special law has authorized a transfer for a particular use, decisions about the size and configuration of the use generally fall to local processes: site plan review, the district's own bylaws, building code, and any applicable zoning. The home rule request's terms do not bind the district unless the special law itself adopts them.

If you are a town board or village trustee

When the Legislature passes a special law on your home rule request, the special law (not the resolution) is the operative instrument. To change the use later, look first at the special law's text. If it is silent on the detail you want to change, you usually do not need to go back to Albany; revise through your normal local process.

If you are a citizen tracking a specific local development

This opinion is a useful citation when arguing that a town can revise the dimensions or configuration of a project authorized by special legislation, as long as the change stays within the permitted use the special law established. It is not a license to change the use itself; that would still need a fresh legislative authorization.

Common questions

Q: What is a home rule request?
A: A formal local government request asking the New York Legislature to pass a special law affecting that government. New York's constitution generally limits the Legislature from passing local-only laws unless the locality requests them. The mechanics live in Municipal Home Rule Law § 40 and Legislative Law § 55.

Q: Are details in a home rule request automatically part of the special law?
A: No. The Legislature can adopt, modify, or drop any portion of the request. What controls is the language of the enacted special law itself, not the resolution.

Q: Does the AG say the Town can change the use authorized by the 2013 special law?
A: No. The opinion only addresses size. The 2013 law authorizes the parcel's use as a fire substation; changing it to something else would likely require new special legislation.

Q: What if the local government wants to be sure a size limit binds the special district?
A: Put the limit in a local source the district must follow, like a site plan condition, zoning rule, or written agreement. Do not rely on the home rule request alone.

Q: Does this opinion apply to villages and cities, not just towns?
A: The reasoning generalizes. The home rule request framework in Municipal Home Rule Law § 40 and Legislative Law § 55 applies to any local government, and the same logic about reading the enacted law (not the request) governs.

Background and statutory framework

Article IX of New York's constitution divides legislative authority between the state Legislature and local governments. Section 2(c) gives local governments power to adopt local laws on their own property, affairs, and government. Section 2(b)(2) bars the Legislature from passing local-only laws except by general law or by special law on the local government's request. Municipal Home Rule Law § 40 and Legislative Law § 55 set up the home rule request mechanics.

When the Legislature acts on a home rule request, Legislative Law § 56 makes the resulting law conclusive on two factual questions: that the law was necessary at the time it was enacted, and that the request set out sufficient facts to establish necessity. Municipal Home Rule Law § 40 reinforces this by barring challenges to the law on those grounds. But neither statute binds the Legislature to copy every detail of the request into the law it actually passes.

The 1982 special law (Chapter 719) transferred state land to the Town and limited use of the parcel to State, municipal, and not-for-profit educational entities for hospital, park, recreation, municipal-office, or educational purposes. The 1996 transfer to NYIT fit that frame. The 2013 amendment (Chapter 498) opened a new path: the parcel could be transferred to the Fire District for the "sole purpose of the creation of a substation." The Senate sponsor's memo focused on lifting the use restriction, not on regulating the substation's footprint.

That focus matters because courts and the AG read special laws against their stated purpose. The legislative history of Chapter 498 contains no indication that the Legislature was trying to regulate substation size. The Town's home rule request mentioned 7,000 square feet, but the Legislature did not carry that over. Reading the special law to silently incorporate the cap would, in effect, give the home rule request more legal force than the statute itself, which has no support in the statutory framework.

The AG's office issues formal opinions only to state officers and departments. Opinions to local government attorneys are styled "informal," but the analysis is the same; informal status reflects the recipient, not the depth of the reasoning.

Citations and references

Statutes:
- N.Y. Const. Art. IX, §§ 2(b)(2), 2(c), home rule and Legislature's special-law authority
- Municipal Home Rule Law §§ 10(1)(i), 40, local legislative power; home rule request procedure
- Legislative Law §§ 55, 56: home rule request procedure; conclusive effect

Special laws:
- L. 1982, ch. 719, original transfer of State land to Town with use restrictions
- L. 2013, ch. 498: amendment authorizing transfer to Fire District for substation use

Source

• Landing page: https://ag.ny.gov/libraries-documents/opinions/opinions-year
• Original PDF: https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/opinions/2021-1.pw_.pdf

Original opinion text

Home Rule Municipal Law §§ 10(1)(i), 40; Legislative Law § 55; New York Constitution
Article IX, sections 2(c), 2(b)(2); Session Laws L. 1982, ch. 719 §§ 1 & 7, Act of Nov. 13, 2013,
ch. 498 §§ 2 & 9
The town of Islip need not seek additional special legislation before revising the permitted
size of the Central Islip Fire Districts’ proposed fire substation.
July 19, 2021
Informal Opinion
No. 2021-1
Dear Messrs. McCarthy and DiCioccio:
You have requested an opinion relating to special legislation enacted by the
Legislature in 2013, in response to a request by the town of Islip (Town), allowing the Town
to transfer property to the Central Islip Fire District (Fire District) for a fire substation.
You have advised that the Town’s request, submitted as a “home rule request,” included a
limitation on the size of the substation that the Legislature did not adopt when it enacted
the special law. The Fire District would now like to build a larger substation than the
Town’s request specified, and the Town appears amenable to the increased size. You have
asked whether the Town must submit a new home rule request for another special law
before it can proceed with authorizing the Fire District to build a larger substation. As
explained below, we are of the opinion that additional special legislation is unnecessary.
I.

Legislative History

In 1982, the Legislature authorized the transfer of property, including the
approximately two-and-a-half-acre parcel at issue, from the State to the Town. L. 1982, ch.
719, § 1. The Legislature restricted ownership of the property to certain types of entities
and the use of the property to certain purposes, none of which included ownership by a fire
district or use for fire district purposes. Specifically, the law provided that “[a]ny land and
improvements thereon transferred pursuant to this act shall be used only by, or for the
purposes of the state, a municipal corporation or a not-for-profit college or university
chartered by the regents of the university of the state of New York, and shall be used only
for hospital, park and recreation, municipal office or educational purposes, and for
complementary academic, scientific or technological uses, applied research and
developmental activities of a not-for-profit college or university, a voluntary, municipal or
state-operated hospital, or a municipal corporation.” Id., § 7.
In or around 1996, the Town transferred the parcel to the New York Institute of
Technology (NYIT), a not-for-profit university chartered by the Regents of the University of
the State of New York, for educational uses, as permitted by the 1982 legislation.
Later, local entities determined that the parcel should be used for the Fire District’s
substation. As a result, in 2013 the Town submitted a request to the Legislature for special

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legislation authorizing the parcel’s transfer to the Fire District, to be used for purposes other
than those identified in the 1982 special law. Specifically, the Town Board adopted the
following language in its resolution:
Be it therefore resolved, that the Town Board of the Town of Islip hereby adopts
a Home Rule resolution supporting . . . an amendment to Chapter 719 of the laws of
1982 permitting the transfer . . . of property as described [on a survey], owned by the
New York Institute of Technology . . . to the Central Islip Fire District for the purpose
of constructing a Fire Department sub-station not to exceed 7,000 square feet in gross
floor area.
Islip, N.Y., Resolution No. 4 (Apr. 23, 2013).
The Legislature enacted the desired special law, which took effect in late 2013. The
law authorized NYIT to sell the parcel to the Town, required the Town to sell the parcel to
the Fire District, and revised the uses to which the parcel could be put. As relevant here,
the law provided that “[t]he town of Islip shall convey the land transferred [by NYIT] to the
Central Islip Fire District. Such land shall be conveyed to the Central Islip Fire District for
the sole purpose of the creation of a substation.” Act of Nov. 13, 2013, ch. 498, § 2. The
special law included no specifications with respect to the substation.
II.

Home Rule Requests

Under New York law, a local government such as a town generally is empowered to
adopt local laws relating to its property, affairs, or government. N.Y. Const., art. IX, § 2(c);
Municipal Home Rule Law § 10(1)(i). The state Legislature concomitantly is restricted from
legislating in these areas except by general law (one that applies, as relevant here, to all
towns) or by special law upon request by the local government. N.Y. Const., art. IX, § 2(b)(2).
Such a request by the local government for special legislation is a “home rule request.”
Municipal Home Rule Law § 40; Legislative Law § 55.
The Legislature has established that a law enacted upon a home rule request is
conclusive as to the facts that (1) the law was necessary at the time it was enacted, and (2)
the home rule request set forth sufficient facts to establish the necessity. Legislative Law
§ 56; see also Municipal Home Rule Law § 40 (validity of law cannot be challenged on these
grounds).
III.

Analysis

We conclude for several reasons that the Town need not seek additional special
legislation from the Legislature before permitting the Fire District to build a larger
substation on the parcel. First, the language of the 2013 special law reflects only the
legislative intent to amend the 1982 statute to expand permissible parcel owners to include

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the Fire District and permissible uses of the parcel to include creation of a substation. The
language of the statute contains no size or other restrictions on the substation and otherwise
reflects no legislative intent to regulate the particulars of the substation itself.
Second, the legislative history of the 2013 statute confirms that the Legislature’s
purpose underlying the statute was to modify existing restrictions to permit the parcel’s use
for a substation, and not to regulate the size of the substation. The Senate sponsor of the
statute explained that “[t]he law, as it currently stands, restricts the use of this land, and
the improvements thereon, to purposes relating to education and associated complements
and to municipal corporations. Recognizing the productive potential of the specified parcel
of land, this legislation aims to lift those restrictions so that the parcel may be utilized to
benefit the community through improvement of public safety initiatives.” Letter from Lee
M. Zeldin, Senator, to Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor (Jul. 2, 2013), reprinted in Bill Jacket
for ch. 498 (2013), at 9. The size of the intended substation was not mentioned.
And neither the Legislative Law nor the Municipal Home Rule Law provisions
relating to a special law enacted upon a home rule request require that the 2013 special law
authorizing the transfer of property for the purpose of building a substation incorporate the
size limitation included in the Town’s home rule request.
In short, the language and history of the special law provide no basis for reading it
as incorporating the substation size limitation included in the Town’s home rule request.
Nor do the statutes governing the submission of a home rule request and the enactment of
requested special legislation. We therefore conclude that the Town need not seek additional
special legislation before revising the permitted size of the Fire District’s proposed fire
substation.
The Attorney General issues formal opinions only to officers and departments of state
government. Thus, this is an informal opinion rendered to assist you in advising the
municipality you represent.
Very truly yours,
KATHRYN SHEINGOLD
Assistant Solicitor General
in Charge of Opinions