20.13 - Special powers of a trust.
§ 20.13. Special powers of a trust. 1. A trust shall have such special powers with respect to assisting participating cultural institutions or other not-for-profit cultural organizations as are provided by special law; provided, that a trust may not develop or cause to be developed a combined-use facility for use or occupancy by a participating cultural institution unless (i) in a municipality such institution shall have had average annual admissions of at least five hundred thousand persons as shown on the records of such institution for a period of at least five years prior to either the effective date of this article or the date on which a trust first enters into an agreement for the development of a combined-use facility for the use or occupancy by such institution, (ii) in a city having a population of one hundred twenty-five thousand or more, such institution shall have had average annual admissions of at least fifty thousand persons as shown on the records of such institution for such period and (iii) in any other city, such institution shall have such minimum average annual admissions as are set forth in the special law creating a trust; provided, however, with respect to a participating cultural institution that is a public television station with respect to which a trust entered an agreement prior to January first, nineteen hundred ninety the foregoing shall not apply and provided further that the decision of the trust in determining such average annual admissions shall be final. 2. A trust may not acquire real property by condemnation, unless otherwise provided by special law. 3. For so long as any real property, consisting of all or any part of the non-institutional portion of a combined-use facility or in or on which all or any part of such portion prior to completion is designed to be and upon completion is developed shall be exempt from real property taxation pursuant to section 20.33 of this article, the owners from time to time of such real property shall pay to the trust which has developed or approved the developer of such facility, annual or other periodic amounts, as tax-equivalency payments, at least equal to the real property taxes that would have otherwise been paid or payable in respect of such real property; provided, however, that the special law creating a trust may provide a method for calculating such real property taxes for purposes of determining the amount of such tax-equivalency payments; and provided further that the special law creating a trust shall specify the purposes for which the trust shall use or expend such tax-equivalency payments, the means for enforcing such payments and the priorities in favor of a trust in connection with such enforcement. 4. A trust and the participating cultural institution with which the trust has entered into an agreement for the development of a combined-use facility, any facility for a not-for-profit cultural organization or a public television facility prior to January first, nineteen hundred ninety shall each have all rights provided by law, as if each were the owner of such facility and the real property in or on which such facility is or is designed to be developed, to contest in whole or in part any assessment or revised assessment of the value of such facility and property, or any portion thereof, by appropriate legal proceedings, and for purposes of this subdivision four, each shall be deemed to be a person aggrieved. Each owner required to make tax-equivalency payments to a trust shall have all rights provided by law, as if he were the owner of the real property with respect to which he is required to make such payments, to contest in whole or in part any assessment or revised assessment of the value of such real property, and each such owner shall be deemed to be a person aggrieved for purposes of this subdivision.5. Subject to any agreement with holders of its notes or bonds, a trust may enter into an agreement to pay or cause to be paid, by means which may include an agreement with a participating cultural institution in a municipality or a not-for-profit cultural institution in a county, a developer or an owner, annual sums in lieu of taxes to any municipality or political subdivision of the state, in respect of any real property which is exempt from taxation pursuant to section 20.33 of this article and is located in such municipality or political subdivision, or the special law creating a trust may provide for such payments in lieu of taxes.