654 JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICY
In New York, local governments^181 do not have any inherent
law making authority; instead, such authority comes from state
legislation and Article IX of the New York State Constitution.^182
Article IX, often referred to as the “Home Rule” article,^183
delegates both broad and limited powers to local government.^184
This includes the power to create laws that relate to the
municipality’s “property, affairs or government.”^185 However,
the ability of local governments to exercise zoning authority is
not explicit in the New York Constitution.^186 Instead courts have
held that such zoning power comes from enabling statutes such
as the Statute of Local Governments and the Municipal Home
Rule Law.^187 The Statute of Local Governments includes the
power for cities, villages, and towns to “adopt, amend and
repeal zoning regulations”^188 but allows for restriction by the
state legislature.^189 Counties are excluded and do not have the
power to enact zoning regulations.^190 The Municipal Home Rule
Law, enacted by the Legislature, allows local governments to
“have the power to adopt and amend local laws where and to the
extent that its legislative body has the power to act by
ordinance, resolution, rule or regulation.”^191 This allows for
local governments to enact ordinances or zoning laws within the
(^181) Local government is defined as “a county, city, town or village.”
N.Y. CONST. art. IX, § 3(d)(2).
(^182) N.Y. CONST. art. IX (defining the powers and rights of local
governments).
(^183) LOCAL GOVERNMENT HANDBOOK, supra note 174, at 30.
(^184) See id. at 30–34.
(^185) N.Y. CONST. art IX, § 2(c).
(^186) See SALKIN, supra note 177, § 2:03.
(^187) See id. §§ 2:03–04 (stating that although delegated to local
government these powers are “quasi-constitutional” and can only be changed
through legislation action at regular session in two calendar years).
(^188) N.Y. STAT. LOCAL GOV’TS § 10(6) (McKinney 1994).
(^189) Id. § 10 (“Grant[s of power]... to local governments... shall at
all times be subject to such purposes, standards and procedures as the
legislature may have heretofore prescribed or may hereafter prescribe.”).
(^190) See SALKIN, supra note 177, § 2:09.
(^191) Id. § 2:05 (citing N.Y. MUN. HOME RULE LAW § 10 (McKinney
1994)).