The disclosure act does not reach vacant land
The Property Condition Disclosure Act sits at Article 14 of the Real Property Law, sections 460 through 467. Section 461 defines residential real property as property improved by a one-to-four family dwelling and expressly excludes unimproved real property on which such dwellings are to be constructed. Bare ground is outside the statute, so no disclosure statement is due. The amendment that took effect March 20, 2024 deleted the $500 credit a seller could once give in place of the form and added flood-related questions, raising the count from 49 to 56. That change matters for houses. It does not pull vacant land into the act, and it does not license misrepresenting what you know.
Adirondack Park Agency jurisdiction covers private land
The Adirondack Park Agency Act, Executive Law Article 27, does not stop at the Forest Preserve. Section 805 adopts the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan, which classifies every private acre inside the Blue Line into one of six categories: hamlet, moderate intensity use, low intensity use, rural use, resource management, and industrial use. Each carries an overall intensity guideline stated as principal buildings per square mile — 500 in moderate intensity, 200 in low intensity, 75 in rural use, and 15 in resource management, about 42.7 acres per building. Executive Law section 806 adds shoreline restrictions on lot width, setback, and vegetation cutting. Agency review runs alongside town review, not instead of it.
Agricultural districts carry a notice and a penalty
Article 25-AA of the Agriculture and Markets Law creates county agricultural districts, and two provisions bear on a sale. Section 310 requires the grantor of property lying wholly or partly in a district to give the buyer a written disclosure notice — statutory text about noise, dust, odors, and possible limits on water and sewer access — signed by both parties. That one does reach vacant land. Sections 305 and 306 govern agricultural assessment. Converting land to a nonagricultural use triggers a payment of five times the taxes saved in the last year of the assessment, plus six percent interest compounded annually, within five years for in-district land and eight years outside one.
Downstate land answers to different commissions
Long Island runs its own preservation regime. The Long Island Pine Barrens Maritime Reserve Act, Environmental Conservation Law Article 57, created the Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission across parts of Brookhaven, Riverhead, and Southampton. ECL 57-0109 splits the area into a Core Preservation Area, where development is barred, and a Compatible Growth Area, where it is allowed under the commission's land use plan. Core parcels can generate Pine Barrens Credits usable elsewhere, which is often the only value a Core lot retains. Upstate, parcels in the New York City watershed counties face Department of Environmental Protection watershed regulations layered over town zoning, and the Catskill Park has no agency equivalent to the APA.