
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 2002]
[CITE: 16USC459e-1]

 
                         TITLE 16--CONSERVATION
 
   CHAPTER 1--NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES
 
         SUBCHAPTER LXIII--NATIONAL SEASHORE RECREATIONAL AREAS
 
Sec. 459e-1. Acquisition of property


(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.

(Pub. L. 88-587, Sec. 2, Sept. 11, 1964, 78 Stat. 929; Pub. L. 95-625, 
title III, Sec. 322(b), Nov. 10, 1978, 92 Stat. 3489; Pub. L. 98-482, 
Sec. 2, Oct. 17, 1984, 98 Stat. 2255.)


                               Amendments

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

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 459e-2, 459e-5, 459e-6, 
459e-7, 459e-9 of this title.
