§ 335. Filing of maps and abandonment of subdivisions in Suffolk
county; penalty for nonfiling. 1. It shall be the duty of every person
or corporation, excepting church cemetery organizations, attached to a
religious parish within the county of Suffolk, who as owner or agent
subdivides real property in Suffolk county into lots, plots, blocks or
sites, with or without streets, for the purpose of offering such lots,
plots, blocks or sites for sale to the public, regardless of how they
are conveyed, to file or cause to be filed in the office of the county
clerk of Suffolk county a map thereof together with a certificate of the
surveyor endorsed on the face of such map certifying same to have been
made from an actual survey of the property that was performed by or
under the direction of said surveyor and the date of the completion of
the survey. Said certificate shall state that stone or concrete
monuments have been set at not less than two corners of every street
intersection as indicated on such map, provided, however, that where the
planning board or other governmental agency having jurisdiction over the
approval of said maps has required the subdivider to deposit with the
town or local governing body a performance bond or bonds to secure the
installation and completion of all site improvements, including setting
stone or concrete monuments in the streets as aforesaid, and
simultaneously with the filing of said map the subdivider files with the
county clerk a written certification from the town or local governing
body that such bond or bonds have been duly deposited and accepted by
the town or local governing body and that said bond or bonds expressly
include the setting of stone or concrete monuments as aforesaid, the
said surveyor's certificate may state that stone or concrete monuments
will be set at not less than two corners of every street intersection as
indicated on such map upon completion of the installation of said
streets and that the surveyor shall execute and deliver a further
written certification of the completion of such monumentation to both
the county clerk and the town or local governing body prior to and as a
condition for the release of said performance bond or bonds. All lots
and blocks on such map shall be numbered consecutively. Said map shall
set forth the courses, measurements and adjoining property owners with
sufficient definiteness to determine the location of said property and
the name of the subdivision as stated by the owner. Said name must
differ from any name already filed with the county clerk and must be
approved by the county clerk before the acceptance of the map. At the
time of the filing of such map there shall also be furnished to the
county clerk two copies of such map for each town and village in which
any portion of the mapped property is located. Such copies shall be duly
certified by him to be true copies of the original and one certified
copy shall be forwarded by said county clerk to the assessor or board of
assessors, as the case may be, of each town or village in which any
portion of said property is located. At the time of filing such map with
the county clerk an abstract of title of all of the property shown on
said map which shall cover a period of not less than the twenty years
last past the date it is submitted, certified by an attorney and
counselor at law of the state of New York, a title company duly
incorporated and authorized to transact business in the state of New
York or a competent searcher of titles, shall be presented to said
county clerk, and be filed in his office, unless the title to said
property has been duly registered pursuant to the provisions of the real
property law for the registration of titles to real property, in which
case this fact shall be set forth upon the original map together with
the number of the certificate of the title so registered. An index of
such abstracts and registrations shall be maintained to clearly indicate
the maps to which they refer. In the case of a tax title, the fee title
for a period of at least twenty years prior to the date of the tax sale
under which title is claimed must be submitted as a part of the
abstract. A key map, made to the scale of six hundred feet to one inch,
must appear on all maps submitted and must show one or more monuments in
the tract definitely tied to a given point or a monument set at the
point of the intersection of the side lines (as prolonged, if there is a
curve) of two established highways; said point or monument shall be that
which is nearest the proposed subdivision and shall not require a
measurement to be made across any portion of an established highway. No
re-mapping of subdivided property will be accepted for filing until
there has been filed with the county clerk a certificate of abandonment
and cancellation of the original map or the portion thereof to be
abandoned and cancelled in accordance with the provisions of this act.
Before a map will be eligible for filing, a certificate of the county
treasurer of Suffolk county or the report of a tax search by a licensed
title company must be submitted by the party presenting the map for
filing as a part of the abstract of title showing the payment in full of
all taxes due and payable at the date of filing. Such maps and abstracts
of title shall be filed as aforesaid and a copy of said map filed in the
office of the clerk of each town or village where any portion of said
property is located prior to the offering for sale of any lot, plot,
block or site thereon. All such maps must be printed or drawn upon
tracing cloth or linen or printed on mylar and must be of a standard
size of eighteen inches by twenty inches or thirty-six inches by twenty
inches and the original of such maps filed in said county clerk's office
shall be placed and kept by some suitable method in consecutive order,
be consecutively numbered in the order of filing and shall be indexed
under the initial letters of all of the substantives in the title of the
subdivision. However, he may maintain a record of such maps in a
microfilm format provided he supplies facilities for displaying said
maps through projection with microfilm to the aforesaid standard sizes.
The fee of the county clerk for such filing, certifying and indexing
each map and copy thereof, and abstract of title therewith and
forwarding copies of said map to the assessors, boards of assessors and
clerks of the towns and villages where the property therein described is
located, shall be ten dollars and be paid by the party presenting them
for filing. Failure to file any such map as required by the provisions
of this section shall subject the owner of such subdivision or of the
unsold lots therein, to a penalty to the people of the state of New York
of two hundred fifty dollars for each and every lot therein sold and
conveyed by or for such owner prior to the due filing of such map and
abstract of title as aforesaid. The requirements as provided for in this
section may be applied to the filing of each and every kind of map
submitted for filing which is not a subdivision map of real property, at
the discretion of the county clerk, and the filing fee of ten dollars
shall be paid for the filing of any non-subdivision map so submitted.

2. Every such subdivision map of property in any of the towns of
Suffolk county located wholly or partly outside an incorporated village
in such towns, shall, before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore
provided, have indorsed on the face thereof in writing the approval of
the planning board of such towns, or in the towns not having planning
boards, the approval of the town board. Likewise, every such subdivision
map of property located wholly or partly within an incorporated village,
shall before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore provided, have endorsed
on the face thereof in writing the approval of the planning board of
such village, or in a village not having a planning board, the approval
of the board of trustees. In addition, every such subdivision map of
property in any of the towns of the county of Suffolk, whether located
wholly or partly, inside or outside, an incorporated village in such
towns, shall before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore provided, have
endorsed on the face thereof in writing the approval of the county
department of health.

3. Whenever at least two years have elapsed since the filing of a map
of the subdivision of any tract of land into lots, plots, blocks or
sites, with or without opened or proposed roads, the owner of such
tract, or of any part thereof, may abandon and cancel the subdivision of
the property so owned by recording in the office of the county clerk a
written certificate of abandonment, duly executed and acknowledged,
which shall contain a description of the property to be abandoned, the
complete title or name of the map, the filing date and file number
thereof, except that no opened or proposed streets, other than those
entirely within the bounds of the property to be abandoned, or the area
within such bounds of streets which as laid out on said map come to a
dead-end within such bounds, shall be abandoned unless each owner of a
lot or interest in the subdivision consents to the abandonment thereof
by instrument in writing duly executed, acknowledged and recorded with
the certificate of abandonment; provided, however, that whenever at
least twenty years have elapsed since the filing of said map, the owner
of the property to be abandoned may, without such consent, abandon any
streets or portions thereof shown on said map and which are within the
bounds of the property to be abandoned if such streets or portions
thereof are neither opened, nor public highways, nor used by the public,
nor necessary for the use of owners, occupants or any other persons
having an interest in any part of the subdivision; but nothing herein
shall prevent an owner using or a seller of land from conveying part of
a lot, plot or site separately or together with an adjoining lot, plot
or site, subject to the provisions of local zoning ordinances. Whenever
there is on file more than one map of the property to be abandoned, such
property must be abandoned in the manner herein provided as to each of
such maps. A copy of each certificate of abandonment must be filed with
the assessor and/or board of assessors of each town and village wherein
any portion of the property to be abandoned is situated, and the
endorsement of approval by each such assessor and/or board of assessors
must be endorsed on the original of each certificate presented to the
county clerk for recording. An abstract of title to the property to be
abandoned covering a period of at least twenty years last past, and a
certificate of the county treasurer of Suffolk county to the effect that
there are no unpaid tax liens against such property, must be submitted
to the county clerk and be approved by him at the time the certificate
of abandonment and cancellation is offered for recording. Said
certificates and abstracts shall be filed in the county clerk's office,
a suitable index shall be kept of the same, and notice thereof shall be
endorsed by the recording officer upon the map therein referred to at
the time of recording the certificate of abandonment. Where the
endorsement of approval of the town or village assessor above referred
to includes a recitation to the effect that the municipality has duly
adopted an urban renewal plan pursuant to article fifteen of the general
municipal law which plan provides for adequate street access to all
properties within and adjacent to the planning area, and further that
the property to be abandoned is subject to said plan, and its
abandonment is required thereunder, the clerk shall accept and record
the certificate of abandonment tendered therefor regardless of the area
thereof, and notwithstanding that the property to be abandoned is a
portion of an opened or proposed street for which the consent to the
abandonment thereof required in this subdivision has not been obtained.
Upon the abandonment of subdivided property as herein provided such
property shall, for all purposes, be regarded as a single tract of land.
No abandonment of lot divisions shall be made under this section for the
purpose of reviving or making effective any other subdivision of the
same tract of land and no map may be reinstated as it was prior to the
filing of any abandonment certificate. The fee of the county clerk for
such filing and indexing each certificate and abstract therewith shall
be ten dollars and shall be paid by the party presenting them for
filing. Provided, however, that the Suffolk county board of supervisors
shall have full authority to abandon any subdivision of property or any
portion thereof which the county of Suffolk now owns or may hereafter
acquire through the sale of tax liens, by causing to be filed with the
county clerk of Suffolk county, a certificate of abandonment, duly
executed by the said county board, without regard to any of the other
foregoing requirements of this section. Nothing contained in this
section shall be construed to prevent the filing of a new map and
certificate of a subdivision of real property in the manner prescribed
herein, after, and in the area of, a subdivision or portion thereof
abandoned in accordance with the provisions of this section.