[HISTORY: Adopted Orangetown Town Board 4-9-1974 by Local Law
No. 1, 1974. Amendments noted where applicable.]
Be it enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Orangetown as
follows:
A.
The Town Board of the Town of Orangetown finds as follows:
(1)
There presently exists within the Town of Orangetown,
as well as within the State of New York and the United States generally,
an emergency in the availability of gasoline for use as a fuel for
motor vehicles, characterized by instability in prices and great fluctuations
in the availability of supplies of gasoline.
(2)
As a result, there has been interference with the orderly
flow of traffic on and over the various highways within the Town of
Orangetown, particularly in the vicinity of gasoline service and filling
stations, and the official agencies and departments of the Town of
Orangetown have been and are likely to be burdened disproportionately
as a result of the said gasoline emergency.
(3)
As a result of the gasoline emergency, a number of the
existing gasoline service and filling stations within the Town of
Orangetown have been adversely economically affected because of the
unavailability to them of gasoline which is their main stock-in-trade.
This results in an inability to sell a sufficient volume to continue
in business on a profitable basis. The present unstable situation
appears likely to continue for a considerable time to come and at
least for the balance of the current year of 1974.
(4)
A number of gasoline service and filling stations within
the Town of Orangetown are presently closed, others have heretofore
closed, and others appear likely to close; with the result that the
sites on which they stand are or may become unsightly and the buildings
thereon deteriorated or the subject of make-shift conversions to other
uses for which they were not originally designed.
(5)
Due to the need for the installation of underground tanks
in connection with the construction of gasoline service and filling
stations, when such use is discontinued or abandoned such tanks remain
permanently implanted causing potential fire hazards and other detrimental
impact.
B.
The Town Board, therefore, finds that a need exists to
protect the public health and welfare by the imposition of a moratorium
on the issuance of permits for the construction of gasoline service
and filling stations.
A.
After the effective date of this local law, any and all
officers and agencies of the Town of Orangetown having any jurisdiction
over building construction, land development and land subdivision
shall grant no permits for the construction of gasoline service and
filling stations, nor for the development of land within the Town
of Orangetown for the purpose of gasoline service and filling stations,
nor for subdivisions any part of which are designated for use as a
gasoline service or filling station, nor for the enlargement of any
existing gasoline service and filling station use. The within prohibition
shall not apply to the replacement, maintenance or repair of existing
facilities, nor to ancillary uses such as automobile repair and service
other than the storage and supply of gasoline and the facilities used
in connection therewith.
B.
This local law shall not be construed to prohibit any necessary
additions, alterations or modifications required by any applicable
federal or state law, rule or regulation now in effect or hereafter
promulgated or enacted.
All existing building permits, special permits and subdivision
applications which have received preliminary approval prior to the
effective date of this local law shall continue in full force and
effect during the existence of this moratorium.
The moratorium imposed by this local law shall continue in effect
from the date it becomes effective until 12:00 midnight, December
31, 1974.
Upon application duly made within one year after the termination
of the moratorium established by this local law and any succeeding
moratoriums which may be imposed thereafter, the owners or leasees
of any lands within the Town of Orangetown previously lawfully occupied
as gasoline service and filling stations, which use has terminated
by operation of law heretofore or during the term of the moratorium,
shall be afforded priority in the issuance of permits under and pursuant
to the applicable provisions of the Code of the Town of Orangetown
for the installation and maintenance of gasoline service and filling
stations on such lands owned or leased by them. This section shall
not be construed to constitute any waiver or modification of the requirements
of any other provision of this Code.
If any part or provision of this local law or the application
thereof to any person or circumstance is adjudged invalid by any court
of competent jurisdiction, such judgment shall be confined in its
operation to the part, provision or application directly involved
in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered
and shall not affect or impair the validity of the remainder of this
law or the application thereof to other persons or circumstances.
The Town Board hereby declares that it would have enacted the remainder
of the law even without such part, provision or application.
This local law shall take effect immediately.
