Article 17. Public Safety

Section 470. General provision as to construction, equipment and maintenance of places of public assembly.

All places of public assembly as hereinbefore defined shall be so constructed, equipped and maintained as to provide reasonable and adequate protection to the lives, health and safety of all persons employed or assembled therein.

Section 471. Rules.

The board of standards and appeals shall make rules to carry out the provisions of this article. Such rules shall be the minimum standard required and shall supersede any special law or local ordinance inconsistent therewith, and no local ordinance inconsistent therewith shall be adopted, but nothing herein contained shall prevent the enactment by local ordinance of additional requirements and restrictions. Such rules of the board of standards and appeals for the construction, equipment and maintenance of places of public assembly, shall be subject to the procedure set forth in sections twenty-nine and thirty of this chapter, may be limited in their application to certain classes of buildings or to the conditions under which they are operated, and some or all of them may apply only to those buildings or places to be constructed, maintained or conducted in the future. Such rules shall have the force and effect of law and be enforced in the same manner as the provisions of this chapter.

Section 472. Enforcement.

The commissioner of labor shall enforce the provisions of this article and rules adopted thereunder; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to:

(a) any city exempted from this article by section four hundred seventy-four-a hereof; or

(b) any city, town, or village having a department, board or officer charged with the enforcement of building laws or ordinances, which files with the commissioner of labor a duly certified copy of a resolution adopted by its local legislative body assuming full responsibility for enforcing the provisions of this article and the rules adopted thereunder. Upon receipt of a certification of receipt of such resolution by the commissioner, which shall be issued no later than sixty days from the date of filing of such resolution, such city, town, or village shall have all the powers of the commissioner of labor in enforcing the provisions of this article and the rules adopted thereunder. The provisions of this section, however, shall apply to any such city, town, or village sixty days after the filing with the commissioner of labor of a duly certified copy of a resolution adopted by its local legislative body terminating its enforcement responsibilities.

Section 473. Certificate of compliance with requirements of law.

1. The enforcing authority shall ascertain by inspection whether places of public assembly conform to the requirements of this article and the rules adopted thereunder. If such places are found to so conform, he or it shall issue a certificate of compliance to that effect. Such certificate shall be conspicuously posted on the premises. Before any certificate of compliance shall be issued to a place of public assembly erected after the first day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, plans for such building shall be filed with the industrial commissioner or with the local enforcing authority for approval, and such plans shall not be approved unless they conform to the provisions of this article and the rules adopted thereunder. The industrial commissioner shall not require the filing of plans before the issuance of a certificate of compliance for a place of public assembly erected before July first, nineteen hundred sixty-three over which enforcement jurisdiction was delegated to the industrial commissioner on such date, nor for a place of public assembly which may be transferred to his jurisdiction pursuant to paragraph (b) of section four hundred seventy-two of this article.

2. A fee not to exceed one hundred dollars shall be charged to and collected from the owner, lessee or person conducting the place of assembly for each inspection, but not more than two hundred dollars in any one year shall be so charged or collected, in respect of the same premises, except that no fee shall be charged for inspection of buildings operated as a public place of assembly by any political subdivision or by an agricultural society or association receiving state aid; provided, however, that no fee shall be charged to or collected from a volunteer fire company or an organization of veterans for the inspection of any place of public assembly operated by such a volunteer fire company or organization of veterans.

Section 473-a. Posting of means of egress in places of public assembly.

There shall be posted in a conspicuous place and manner at all exits in every place of public assembly, a printed scale floor plan of that particular floor or story, which shall show all means of egress, clearly labeling those exits to be used in case of fire. Said printed scale floor plan shall be no smaller than eight inches by ten inches and shall be posted in such a manner that it cannot be readily removed.

Section 474. Revocation of certificate of compliance.

No place of public assembly shall be conducted for pecuniary gain unless a certificate of compliance shall have been issued and conspicuously posted therein. The enforcing authority granting the certificate of compliance may revoke the same if premises are not maintained according to the provisions of law and the rules adopted thereunder.

Section 474-a. Application to New York city and other cities.

This article, except for section four hundred seventy-five, shall not apply to the city of New York, or to other cities having a bureau of buildings which is charged with the duty of enforcing a building code enacted by the legislative body of such city.

Section 475. Crowd control plans in certain places of public assembly.

1. (a) For the purposes of this section places of public assembly shall be those with an occupancy capacity of at least five thousand persons and shall include: (i) all stadiums, ballparks, gymnasiums, fieldhouses, arenas, civic centers and similar facilities used for the conduct of sporting events; and (ii) concert halls, recital halls, theatres, indoor and outdoor amphitheatres or other auditoriums used for the presentation of musical renditions or concerts by living persons who appear in the immediate presence of their audience and which rely primarily for effect on the use of electronic amplification of accompaniment and principal voice or instrument together with visual and other special effects and whose musical renditions or concerts are represented by the performers to be, or advertised by the management of such halls, theatres, amphitheatres or auditoriums as, rock and/or rapp renditions or concerts. Such places of public assembly shall include the means of ingress thereto and egress therefrom. Places of public assembly shall not include halls owned by churches, religious organizations, granges, public associations, free libraries as defined by section two hundred fifty-three of the education law, and facilities for the performance of sporting events or rock and/or rapp musical renditions owned and used by public and nonpublic primary and secondary schools and boards of cooperative educational services.

(b) For the purposes of this section, operator shall include the primary tenant of a place of public assembly or the person or persons responsible for the operation and management of said place of public assembly. If no operator of said place of public assembly can be ascertained, then the owner shall be deemed the operator. In any event, the designation of such operator of said place of public assembly shall be included in all plans of compliance filed in accordance with this section.

2. The operators of places of public assembly as defined in this section shall establish a plan to be used for the purposes of crowd control in the event of a riot. Said plan shall include and set forth any programs mandated by section one hundred six-b of the alcoholic beverage control law or any other requirement of such law, and additional procedures designed to control the over-consumption of alcoholic beverages at such places of public assembly, which operators deem to be necessary or desirable for inclusion in the plan. Said plan shall be filed with the New York state emergency management office as follows: (i) with respect to places of public assembly in existence on the effective date of this section which have been used for sporting events or presentations described in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of subdivision one of this section, said plan shall be filed on or before March first, in the year next succeeding the year in which this section shall have become a law; and (ii) with respect to places of public assembly constructed after the effective date of this section or with respect to existing facilities used for the first time for presentation of sporting events or musical renditions or concerts described in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of subdivision one of this section, said plan shall be filed thirty days before the sporting event or the presentation of such musical renditions or concerts so described. Additionally, the plan shall be filed with the police and fire departments of the locality in which such place of public assembly is located, as well as with the state or county law enforcement agency having the primary responsibility to respond with the local police department in the event of an emergency. With respect to the operation of places of public assembly by a governmental entity which provides its own police and fire protection, plans shall be established in consultation with the officers charged with responsibility for providing such protection and enforcement.

3. The New York state emergency management office shall issue a report with recommendations to the governor and the legislature relative to the sufficiency of crowd control planning on or before March fifteenth, nineteen hundred ninety.

4. No owner, operator, governmental entity or any employee, officer, or agent thereof shall be liable for any claim filed by a person based upon negligence in the preparation or filing of such plans required under this section.