(1) "Agency"--shall mean an Industrial Development Agency created pursuant to this act.
(2) "Bonds"--shall mean the bonds, notes, interim certificates and other obligations issued by the agency pursuant to this act.
(3) "Municipality"--shall mean any county, city, village, town or Indian reservation in the state.
(4) "Project" - shall mean any land, any building or other improvement, and all real and personal properties located within the state of New York and within or outside or partially within and partially outside the municipality for whose benefit the agency was created, including, but not limited to, machinery, equipment and other facilities deemed necessary or desirable in connection therewith, or incidental thereto, whether or not now in existence or under construction, which shall be suitable for manufacturing, warehousing, research, commercial, renewable energy or industrial purposes or other economically sound purposes identified and called for to implement a state designated urban cultural park management plan as provided in title G of the parks, recreation and historic preservation law and which may include or mean an industrial pollution control facility, a recreation facility, educational or cultural facility, a horse racing facility, a railroad facility, a renewable energy project or an automobile racing facility, provided, however, no agency shall use its funds or provide financial assistance in respect of any project wholly or partially outside the municipality for whose benefit the agency was created without the prior consent thereto by the governing body or bodies of all the other municipalities in which a part or parts of the project is, or is to be, located, and such portion of the project located outside such municipality for whose benefit the agency was created shall be contiguous with the portion of the project inside such municipality.
(5) "Governing body"--shall mean the board or body in which the general legislative powers of the municipality are vested.
(6) "Mortgage"--shall mean a mortgage or other security device.
(7) "Revenues"--shall mean all rents, revenues, fees, charges and other sources of income derived by the agency from the leasing, sale or other disposition of a project or projects.
(8) "Industrial pollution control facility"--shall mean any equipment, improvement, structure or facility or any land and any building, structure, facility or other improvement thereon, or any combination thereof, and all real and personal property deemed necessary therewith, which if within any city are not of a character or nature then or formerly furnished or supplied by the city, having to do with or the end purpose of which is the control, abatement or prevention of land, sewer, water, air, noise or general environmental pollution deriving from the operation of industrial, manufacturing, warehousing, commercial, recreation and research facilities, including, but not limited to any air pollution control facility, noise abatement facility, water management facility, waste water collecting system, waste water treatment works, sewage treatment works system, sewage treatment system or solid waste disposal facility or site.
(9) "Recreation facility"--shall mean any facility for the use of the general public as spectators or participants in recreation activities, including but not limited to skiing, golfing, swimming, tennis, ice skating or ice hockey facilities, together with all buildings, structures, machinery, equipment, facilities and appurtenances thereto which the agency may deem necessary, useful or desirable in connection with the construction, improvement or operation of any such facility, including overnight accommodations and other facilities incidental thereto and facilities that may permit the use of recreation facilities by the general public as participants in recreation activities, but shall not include facilities for automobile or horse racing or other similar activities.
(10) "Horse racing facility"--shall mean any facility for the use of the general public for purpose of conducting pari-mutuel wagering, licensed by the state gaming commission, as of January first, nineteen hundred seventy-seven, except non-profit racing associations, including buildings, structures, machinery, equipments, facilities and appurtenances thereto, the construction, reconstruction, acquisition and/or improvement of which shall have been approved by the state gaming commission, and that the agency may deem necessary, useful or desirable in connection with the construction, improvement or operation of such racing facility.
(11) "Railroad facility"--shall mean, but shall not be limited to, railroad rights-of-way, beds, bridges, viaducts, tracks, switches and rolling stock and any other attendant structure, equipment, facility or property necessary or appropriate to railroading conducted in conjunction with industrial, commerical, manufacturing, recreational or warehousing operations; provided, however, that (i) no agency shall itself operate a railroad facility for freight or passenger service, but may lease or otherwise make such facility available to an operator, subject to an agreement for the maintenance and operation of such facility for freight or passenger service, provided that passenger service does not constitute the primary purpose of the railroad facility; (ii) prior to undertaking any project involving acquisition, construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance, equipping or furnishing of a railroad facility, an agency shall submit its plans for the proposed project to the commissioner of transportation; the commissioner shall, within sixty days of his receipt of the proposal, submit an analysis of the financial and operational feasibility of the proposed project, along with any recommendations for modification for improving the project's viability, to the agency, the governor, the commissioner of commerce, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly and the governing body of the municipality in which the agency is located; and (iii) no agency shall enter into any contract for the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance, equipping or furnishing of a railroad facility until fifteen days after the submission of the analysis and recommendations of the commissioner of transportation, or seventy-five days after submission of the agency's plan to the commissioner, whichever is earlier.
(12) "Educational or cultural facility"--shall mean any facility identified and called for to implement a state designated heritage area management plan as provided in title G of the parks, recreation and historic preservation law that is open to the public at large as participants in educational and cultural activities including but not limited to theaters, museums, exhibitions and festival and interpretive facilities, together with buildings, structures, machinery, equipment, facilities and appurtenances thereto which the agency may deem necessary, useful or desirable in connection with the construction, improvement or operation of any such facility, including overnight accommodations and other facilities incidental thereto and facilities that may permit the use of educational or cultural facilities by the general public.
(14) "Financial assistance" - shall mean the proceeds of bonds issued by an agency, straight-leases, or exemptions from taxation claimed by a project occupant as a result of an agency taking title, possession or control (by lease, license or otherwise) to the property or equipment of such project occupant or of such project occupant acting as an agent of an agency.
(15) "Straight-lease transaction" - shall mean a transaction in which an agency takes title, possession or control (by lease, license or otherwise) to the property or equipment of a project occupant, entitling such property or equipment to be exempt from taxation according to the provisions of section eight hundred seventy-four of this article, and no financial assistance in the form of the proceeds of bonds issued by the agency is provided to the project occupant.
(16) "Affected tax jurisdiction" - shall mean any municipality or school district, in which a project is located, which will fail to receive real property tax payments, or other tax payments which would otherwise be due, except for the tax exempt status of an agency involved in a project.
(17) "Payments in lieu of taxes" - shall mean any payment made to an agency, or affected tax jurisdiction equal to the amount, or a portion of, real property taxes, or other taxes, which would have been levied by or on behalf of an affected tax jurisdiction if the project was not tax exempt by reason of agency involvement.
(18) "Highly distressed area" - shall mean (a) a census tract or tracts or block numbering areas or areas or such census tract or block numbering area contiguous thereto which, according to the most recent census data available, has:
(i) a poverty rate of at least twenty percent for the year to which the data relates or at least twenty percent of households receiving public assistance; and
(ii) an unemployment rate of at least 1.25 times the statewide unemployment rate for the year to which the data relates; or
(b) a city, town, village or county within a city with a population of one million or more for which: (i) the ratio of the full value property wealth, as determined by the comptroller for the year nineteen hundred ninety, per resident to the statewide average full value property wealth per resident; and (ii) the ratio of the income per resident; as shown in the nineteen hundred ninety census to the statewide average income per resident; are each fifty-five percent or less of the statewide average; or
(c) an area which was designated an empire zone pursuant to article eighteen-B of this chapter.
(19) "Continuing care retirement community" - shall mean any facility that has been granted a certificate of authority pursuant to article forty-six or forty-six-A of the public health law and is established to provide, pursuant to continuing care retirement contracts approved pursuant to article forty-six of the public health law, or fee-for-service continuing care contracts approved pursuant to article forty-six-A of the public health law, a comprehensive, cohesive living arrangement for the elderly, and certified by the commissioner of health, that (i) has been approved for the issuance of industrial development agency bonds by the continuing care retirement community council pursuant to section forty-six hundred four-a of the public health law except that paragraphs b and g of subdivision two of section forty-six hundred four-a of the public health law shall not apply to a continuing care retirement community granted a certificate of authority pursuant to article forty-six-A of the public health law and (ii) is a not-for-profit corporation as defined in section one hundred two of the not-for-profit corporation law that is (a) eligible for tax-exempt financing under section forty-six hundred four-a of the public health law and this chapter and (b) is exempt from taxation pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the federal internal revenue code; except that "continuing care retirement community" shall not include a facility granted a certificate of authority upon application of a state or local government applicant.
(20) "Automobile racing facility" shall mean any closed-course motorsports complex and its ancillary grounds that has at least fifty thousand fixed seats for race patrons and hosts at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup series race and at least two other nationally recognized racing events each calendar year.
(21) "Renewable energy project" shall mean any project and associated real property on which the project is situated, that utilizes any system or equipment as set forth in section four hundred eighty-seven of the real property tax law or as defined pursuant to paragraph b of subdivision one of section sixty-six-p of the public service law as added by chapter one hundred six of the laws of two thousand nineteen.