Section 171. Consent of property owners and local authorities

A street
  surface railroad, or extensions or branches thereof, shall not be built,
  extended or operated unless  the  consent  in  writing  acknowledged  or
  proved as are deeds entitled to be recorded, of the owners in cities and
  villages  of  one-half  in value, and in towns, not within the corporate
  limits of a city or village, of the owners of two-thirds  in  value,  of
  the  property  bounded  on and also the consent of the local authorities
  having control of that portion of a street or highway upon which  it  is
  proposed  to  build  or operate such railroad, extension or branch shall
  have been first obtained. Such consents of property owners in the county
  of Kings which shall be hereafter  executed,  may  be  forfeited  unless
  within  sixty  days  after  the  execution  thereof,  the  same shall be
  recorded in the office of the register of such county. Such register  is
  hereby  directed  upon  the  payment  of  the  proper fees to record all
  consents left with him for that purpose in books to be provided  by  him
  and  paid  for  out  of  the funds provided to meet the expenses of said
  office. Such books shall be  indexed  according  to  the  names  of  the
  consenting  property  owners  and  also  according  to  the names of the
  streets, roads or other highways upon which the property  to  which  the
  consent relates shall be bounded. In case the recording of such consents
  shall  be  hindered,  delayed  or  prevented by legal proceedings in any
  court or from any other or different cause not within the control of the
  corporation upon which such requirement is imposed,  the  time  for  the
  performance of such act is hereby and shall be deemed to be extended for
  the  period covered by such hindrance, delay or prevention. The consents
  of property owners in one city, village or town, or in any  other  civil
  division  of  the  state,  shall not be of any effect in any other city,
  village or town or other civil  divisions  of  the  state.  Consents  of
  property   owners   heretofore  obtained  to  the  building,  extending,
  operating or change of motive power shall be effectual for the  purposes
  herein  mentioned  and may be deemed to be sufficiently proved and shall
  be entitled to be recorded,  wherever  such  consents  shall  have  been
  signed,  executed or acknowledged before an officer authorized by law to
  take acknowledgments of deeds,  or  before  or  in  the  presence  of  a
  subscribing   witness,   and  without  regard  to  whether  or  not  the
  subscribing witness shall have affixed his signature in the presence  of
  the  subscriber,  provided  that the proof of such signing, execution or
  acknowledgment shall have been made by such subscribing witness  in  the
  manner prescribed by section three hundred and four of the real property
  law.  In  cities  the  common  council,  acting subject to the power now
  possessed by the mayor to veto ordinances;  in  villages  the  board  of
  trustees; and in towns the superintendent of highways and the town board
  shall  be  the  local  authorities  referred to, except that in villages
  where the control of the  streets  is  vested  in  any  other  board  or
  authorities,  such  other  board  or  authorities  shall  be  the  local
  authorities referred  to,  and  the  consent  of  such  other  board  or
  authorities  hereafter or heretofore obtained shall be sufficient; if in
  any city or county the exclusive control of any street, avenue or  other
  property which is to be used or occupied by any such railroad, extension
  or  branch,  is  vested  in  any  other  authority,  the consent of such
  authority shall also be first obtained. The value of the property  above
  specified  shall be ascertained and determined by the assessment-roll of
  the city, village or town in which it is situated, completed last before
  the local authorities shall have given their  consent,  except  property
  owned by such city, village or town, or by the state of New York, or the
  United  States  of  America, the value of which shall be ascertained and
  determined by making the value thereof to be the same  as  is  shown  by
  such  assessment-roll  to  be  the  value  of the equivalent in size and

  frontage of the adjacent property on the same street or highway; and the
  consent of the local authorities shall operate as consent of such  city,
  village  or  town as the owners of such property. Whenever heretofore or
  hereafter  a  railroad  has  been  or  shall  be  constructed and put in
  operation for one year or the motive power thereof has been or shall  be
  changed  and  put  in operation for a similar length of time, such facts
  shall be presumptive evidence  that  the  requisite  consents  of  local
  authorities,  property  owners  and other authority to the construction,
  maintenance and operation of such railroad or  change  of  motive  power
  have  been duly obtained. No consent of local authorities given prior to
  May second, nineteen hundred and one, shall be deemed invalid because of
  any portion of the road or route consented to not being  connected  with
  an existing road or route of the corporation obtaining or acquiring such
  consent  and all statements of extension filed under section one hundred
  and seventy of this article in reference to the route  or  part  thereof
  described  in  any  consent of local authorities are hereby ratified and
  confirmed, whether the same were filed before or after the obtaining  or
  acquiring  of  such  consents,  provided,  however,  that nothing herein
  contained shall be construed to affect any portion of a  street  surface
  railroad  which is now in or upon any portion of a street which is under
  the  jurisdiction  of  a  park  department  in  any  city  containing  a
  population of over twelve hundred thousand inhabitants.