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Selling the State's Zoning Exemption?

By Stewart E. Sterk
March 31, 2005

The Court of Appeals recently confronted a significant zoning issue: When, and on what terms, can the state or a state agency transfer to a private entity its exemption from local zoning restrictions? In Matter of Crown Communication New York, Inc. v. Department of Transportation (NYLJ 2/14/05, p. 19, col. 4), a divided court held that telecommunications towers erected on state land were immune from local zoning regulations even when the much of the space on the towers had been leased to private companies. The court's decision, however, raises as many questions as it resolves.

Crown Communications: Background

In 1997, the State Police, on behalf of themselves and other state agencies, contracted to provide Castle Tower an exclusive license to construct and operate telecommunications towers on state-owned rights of way. Castle Tower subsequently assigned its license to Crown Communications. Under the terms of the license agreement, the state retained the right to locate its own communications equipment on the towers, but Crown was permitted to lease space on the towers to other localities and commercial wireless providers.

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