§ 1506. Cemetery lands.

(a) Purchase of land; notice to cemetery board. (1) No cemetery
corporation, in purchasing real property hereafter, shall pay or agree
to pay more than the fair and reasonable market value thereof. The terms
of the purchase, including the price to be paid and the method of
payment, shall be subject to notice and approval of the cemetery board.
In determining the fair and reasonable market value, the cemetery board
may take into consideration the method by which the purchase price is to
be paid.

(2) Notwithstanding the restrictions set forth in subparagraph three
of paragraph (h) of this section, a cemetery corporation may purchase
real property for cemetery purposes that is not adjacent to existing
cemetery property or that would result in the cemetery corporation
owning more than two hundred acres of land in the aggregate upon proving
to the satisfaction of the cemetery board:

i. that the proposed purchase will benefit the cemetery corporation
and the owners of plots and graves in the cemetery;

ii. that the cemetery has sufficient funds and sufficient ability to
take on any debt required by the proposed terms of purchase;

iii. that the cemetery corporation fully investigated available land
in reasonable proximity to its existing cemetery and that the proposed
purchase is prudent, taking into consideration the proximity of the land
to the existing cemetery, the quantity of land, the proposed purchase
price, and if applicable, the number of lot sales and income the land is
reasonably expected to generate, and the future needs of the cemetery;
and

iv. that the municipalities that would be required to assume the care
and control of any part of the cemetery if the cemetery corporation were
to be abandoned have been notified of the proposed purchase.

(b) Consent of local authorities. (1) No cemetery shall hereafter be
located in any city or village without the consent of the local
legislative body of such city, or the board of trustees of such village.
(2) No cemetery shall hereafter be located in any town, outside of an
incorporated village in Suffolk county, without the consent of the town
board of such town.

(c) Cemeteries in Kings, Queens, Rockland, Westchester, Nassau,
Suffolk, Putnam and Erie counties. A cemetery corporation shall not take
by deed, devise, merger or otherwise any land in the counties of Kings,
Queens, Rockland, Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam or Erie for
cemetery purposes, or set apart any ground therefor in any of such
counties, unless the consent of the board of supervisors or legislative
body thereof, or of the city council of the city of New York, in respect
to Kings or Queens county, be first obtained. Such consent may be
granted upon such conditions and under such regulations and restrictions
as the public health and welfare may require. Notice of application for
such consent shall be published, once a week for six weeks, in the
newspapers designated to publish the session laws and in such other
newspapers published in the county as such board or body may direct,
stating the time when the application will be made, a brief description
of the lands proposed to be acquired, their location and the area
thereof. Any person interested therein may be heard on such
presentation. If such consent is granted the corporation may take and
hold the lands designated therein. The consent shall not authorize any
one corporation to take or hold more than two hundred fifty acres of
land unless the acquisition is by an abandonment pursuant to section
fifteen hundred six-c of this article or a merger or consolidation of
cemetery corporations pursuant to article nine of this chapter that
complies with the additional requirement of section fifteen hundred
six-d of this article, except that such limitation shall not apply to
paragraph (n) of this section and the provisions of subparagraph two of
paragraph (a) of this section. Nothing contained in this subdivision
shall prevent any religious corporation in existence on April fifteenth,
eighteen hundred fifty-four, in any of said counties from using as
heretofore any burial ground then belonging to it within such county.
Such board or body, from time to time, may make such regulation as to
burials in any cemetery in the county as the public health may require.

(d) Limitation on the acquisition of land by rural cemetery
corporations. It shall not be lawful for any rural cemetery corporation
hereafter to acquire or take by deed, devise or otherwise, any land in
any county within the state of New York, having a population of between
one hundred seventy-five thousand and two hundred thousand, according to
the federal census of nineteen hundred, or set apart any ground for
cemetery purposes therein, where there has already been set apart in any
such county, five hundred acres of land for rural cemetery purposes, and
the consent of the board of supervisors of any such county shall not be
granted where there has already been granted five hundred acres of land,
or upwards, within such county, to rural cemetery corporations unless
the acquisition is by an abandonment pursuant to section fifteen hundred
six-c of this article or a merger or consolidation of cemetery
corporations pursuant to article nine of this chapter that complies with
the additional requirements of section fifteen hundred six-d of this
article. Nothing herein contained shall affect any lawful consent or
grant hitherto made by the board of supervisors of any such county.

(e) Limitations on the acquisition of land for cemetery purposes in
certain counties. (1) It shall not be lawful for any corporation,
association or person hereafter to set aside or use for cemetery
purposes any lands in any county within the state erected on and after
January first, eighteen hundred ninety, adjoining a city of the first
class and having a population of between eighty thousand and eighty-five
thousand according to the federal census of nineteen hundred ten; but
nothing herein contained shall prevent cemetery corporations formed
prior to January first, nineteen hundred seventeen, which own in such
county a cemetery in which burials have been made prior to such date,
from setting apart and using for burial purposes lands lying contiguous
or adjacent to such cemetery which lands have been heretofore acquired
by a recorded deed of conveyance made to such a cemetery corporation
either for burial purposes, or for the purposes of the convenient
transaction of its general business, which lands shall have been
acquired with the consent of the board of supervisors; nor to prohibit
the dedication or use of land within such county for a family cemetery
as provided in paragraph (c) of section fourteen hundred one of this
chapter. Nothing herein contained shall prohibit a cemetery corporation
from assuming management and maintenance of an abandoned cemetery
pursuant to section fifteen hundred six-c of this article or a merger or
consolidation of cemetery corporations pursuant to article nine of this
chapter that complies with the additional requirements of section
fifteen hundred six-d of this article.

(2) The provisions of this paragraph shall not operate to prevent any
such cemetery corporation located in Nassau county from using for burial
purposes contiguous or adjacent land acquired by it provided that such
use shall be consented to by the Nassau county legislature.

(f) Conveyance by religious corporations or by trustees. A cemetery
corporation may accept a conveyance of real property held by a religious
corporation for burial purposes, or by trustees for such purposes if all
such trustees living and residing in this state unite in the conveyance,
subject to all trusts, restrictions and conditions upon the title or
use. Lots previously sold and grants for burial purposes shall not be
affected by any such conveyance; nor shall any grave, monument or other
erection, or any remains, be disturbed or removed without the consent of
the lot owner, or if there be no such owner, without the consent of the
heirs of the persons whose remains are buried in such grave.

(g) Certain conveyances to cemetery corporations authorized. Upon
approval of the cemetery board first having been obtained, a cemetery
corporation which maintains and operates a cemetery may accept a
conveyance of title to the fee of or to burial rights in lands within
the confines of said cemetery and it shall be lawful for any cemetery or
business corporation to make such conveyances. Lots previously sold and
grants previously made for burial purposes shall not be affected by such
conveyance. The cemetery corporation, in consideration of the
conveyance to it of burial rights in lands within the confines of said
cemetery, may, with the approval of the cemetery board, issue
participating certificates of the kind and nature provided for in
paragraph three of subdivision (e) of section fifteen hundred eleven of
this article. In making its determination the cemetery board shall
consider and may condition its approval on the purposes of this section.

(h) Acquisition of property by condemnation or otherwise. (1) If the
certificate of incorporation or by-laws of a cemetery corporation do not
exclude any person, on equal terms with other persons, from the
privilege of purchasing a lot or of burial in its cemetery, such
corporation may, from time to time, acquire by condemnation, exclusively
for the purposes of a cemetery, not more than two hundred acres of land
in the aggregate, forming one continuous tract, wholly or partly within
the county in which its certificate of incorporation is filed or
recorded, except as in this section otherwise provided as to the
counties of Erie, Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Kings, Queens, Rockland and
Westchester.

(2) A cemetery corporation may acquire by condemnation, exclusively
for the purposes of a cemetery, any real property or any interest
therein necessary to supply water for the uses of such cemetery, and the
right to lay, relay, repair and maintain conduits and water pipes with
connections and fixtures, in, through or over the lands of others and
the right to intercept and divert the flow of waters from the lands of
riparian owners, and from persons owning or interested in any waters.
But no such cemetery corporation shall have power to take or use water
from any of the canals of this state, or any canal reservoirs as
feeders, or any streams which have been taken by the state for the
purpose of supplying the canals with water.

(3) A cemetery corporation may acquire, otherwise than by
condemnation, real property exclusively for the purposes of a cemetery
as aforesaid in subparagraph 1 of this paragraph and additional real
property for the purposes of the convenient transactions of its
business, no portion of which shall be used for the purposes of a
cemetery. Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other provision of law to
the contrary, a cemetery corporation that holds real property for
cemetery purposes that exceeds two hundred acres in the aggregate or
that does not form one continuous tract as a result of acquisitions of
real property that occurred prior to the effective date of the chapter
of the laws of two thousand twenty which amended this paragraph and for
which all approvals and consents required at the time to acquire such
real property were obtained, may continue to use such real property for
cemetery purposes.

(i) Sale or disposition of cemetery lands. (1) No cemetery corporation
may sell or dispose of the fee of all or any part of its lands dedicated
to cemetery use, unless it shall prove to the satisfaction of the
supreme court in the district where any portion of the cemetery lands is
located or the cemetery board, that either: (A) all bodies have been
removed from each and every part of the cemetery, that all the lots in
the entire cemetery have been reconveyed to the corporation and are not
used for burial purposes, and that it has no debts and liabilities, or
(B) the land to be sold or disposed of is not used or is not physically
adaptable for burial purposes and that the sale or disposition will
benefit the cemetery corporation and the owners of plots and graves in
the cemetery, and (C) the sale or disposition is not to a funeral entity
as defined in paragraph (c) of section fifteen hundred six-a of this
article. (2) If the sale or disposition is made pursuant to subparagraph
(A) of subdivision one of this paragraph, the cemetery shall satisfy the
court or the cemetery board that it is in the public interest to dispose
of such cemetery land in the manner proposed; that the subject land is
not suitable for cemetery purposes or is no longer needed by the
community for such cemetery uses or purposes; and that the subject land
is being sold for its current market value. (3) If the sale or
disposition of the land is made pursuant to subparagraph (B) of
subdivision one of this paragraph, the court or cemetery board shall
order that the consideration received by the cemetery corporation, less
the necessary expenses incurred, shall be deposited into the permanent
maintenance fund established by the cemetery corporation pursuant to
paragraph (a) of section fifteen hundred seven of this article. (4)
Notice of any application hereunder shall be given in addition to the
cemetery board, to the holders of certificates of indebtedness and land
shares of the cemetery corporation, to any person having informed the
cemetery board by petition or notice of interest in the proceeding and
to any person interested in the proceeding pursuant to section five
hundred eleven of this chapter (Petition for leave of court).

(j) Conveyance by cemetery corporation to city or village. A
cemetery corporation may convey and transfer its real property held for
burial purposes, together with its other assets, to a city having a
population of less than one million inhabitants in which such real
property is located, or to a village, provided such real property is
located within such village or wholly within three miles of the
boundaries thereof, or to a town, in which such real property is
located, if all the directors and trustees of such cemetery corporation
living and residing in the state of New York unite in the conveyance and
transfer. Such conveyance and transfer shall be subject to all
agreements as to lots sold and all trusts, restrictions and conditions
upon the title or use of such real property and assets. Lots previously
sold and grants previously made for burial purposes shall not be
affected by such conveyance, nor shall any grave, monument or other
erection be disturbed or removed except in accordance with law. No such
conveyance shall be effective unless and until the legislative body of
such city, town or village shall by ordinance or resolution accept the
same subject to the conditions and restrictions hereinabove imposed,
which ordinance or resolution said legislative body is hereby authorized
and empowered to adopt by a majority vote of such body. Upon such
conveyance and transfer such property shall be and become a municipal
cemetery of such city, town or village and such property and assets so
conveyed and transferred shall be administered as any other municipal
cemetery of such city, town or village and the said cemetery corporation
shall be dissolved by the recording of such conveyance and transfer.

(k) Streets or highways not to be laid out through certain cemetery
lands. So long as the lands of a rural cemetery corporation organized
under the act entitled "An act authorizing the incorporation of rural
cemetery associations," constituting chapter one hundred thirty-three of
the laws of eighteen hundred forty-seven, and the acts amendatory
thereof, shall remain dedicated to the purpose of a cemetery, no street,
road, avenue or public thoroughfare shall be laid out through such
cemetery, or any part of the lands held by such association for the
purposes aforesaid, without the consent of the trustees of such
association and the cemetery board.

(l) Exclusive right of cemetery corporation to provide annual care
services. Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary,
it shall be the right of each cemetery corporation, at its option, to
exclusively provide all annual care services to be performed for
consideration on all or any part of its lands at rates to be reviewed by
the cemetery board. In the event that the cemetery board determines that
an excessive, unauthorized or improper charge has been made for such
services or that the services have not been properly performed, he or
she may direct the cemetery corporation to pay to the person from whom
such charge was collected a sum equivalent to three times the excess as
determined by the cemetery board, or in the case of work not properly
performed, it may direct the cemetery corporation to perform the work
properly. Every cemetery corporation that chooses to provide, on an
exclusive basis, such annual care services shall include in any contract
for the sale of any part of its lands the following notice, in at least
ten point bold type:

Notice

The (name of cemetery corporation), pursuant to
state law, provides annual care services on an exclusive basis.
Therefore, the purchaser of the plot or lot being transferred by this
agreement may not contract with any outside party for such annual care
services. For purposes of this paragraph, the term "annual care" shall
mean the maintenance of a lot, plot or part thereof, and may include
care of lawns, trees, shrubs, monuments and markers within the plot. The
provisions of this paragraph shall not be construed to prohibit a lot
owner from placing, or arranging to place, floral or similar
arrangements on such cemetery lots or plots.

(m) Prohibition of stand-alone mausoleum and columbarium. No
application for the construction of a mausoleum or columbarium to be
located in any city, town or village shall be approved by the cemetery
board when such mausoleum or columbarium shall be the only form of
interment offered by a cemetery corporation, unless a management
contract has been entered into with an existing cemetery corporation
regulated under this article, that will provide operational management
of the mausoleum or columbarium, and the owner of the mausoleum or
columbarium has reserved interment space and secured interment services
in a cemetery regulated under this article, in order to assure continued
perpetual care of the remains contained in the mausoleum or columbarium
should such mausoleum or columbarium become abandoned or choose to cease
operations.

(n) The provisions of this section shall not operate to prevent any
two cemeteries located in Suffolk county with contiguous or adjacent
land dedicated for cemetery purposes and previously operating as public
cemetery corporations, from effectuating a merger of such cemeteries
where their total acreage does not exceed three hundred twenty-five
acres.