Black River Ltd. Partnership v. Astafan

Order unanimously affirmed without costs. Memorandum: Supreme Court correctly determined that, on the facts of this case, petitioner commenced "construction * * * or improvement of real property” (RPTL 485-b [2] [b] [1]) before the Town of Le Ray adopted a local law *688eliminating the tax exemption provided by RPTL 485-b. Before the local law was enacted, petitioner performed substantial site preparation work, including soil testing, the marking of site boundaries and grades, the removal of numerous tree stumps, the stockpiling of fill material, the use of fill to repair and level various…