[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees
of the Village of Tivoli 3-19-2003 by L.L. No. 3-2003. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
A.
The Village Board hereby finds and determines that
in order to protect and safeguard the Village of Tivoli, its residents
and their property, with respect to certain land developments within
the Village, all buildings, highways, drainage facilities, sanitary
sewer facilities, other utilities and parks within said developments
should be designed and constructed in a competent and workmanlike
manner and in conformity with all applicable governmental codes, rules
and regulations and dedicated and conveyed to the Village in a legally
sufficient manner. In order to assure the foregoing, it is essential
for the Village to have Village staff and competent engineers and
planners retained by the Village to review applications, plans and
designs, make recommendations to the Village Board, Planning Board,
Zoning Board of Appeals and Architectural Review Commission and to
recommend their acceptance by the Village. It is also essential to
have competent attorneys retained by the Village to negotiate and
draft appropriate agreements with developers, obtain, review and approve
necessary securities, insurance and other legal documents, review
proposed deeds and easements to assure the Village is obtaining good
and proper title and to generally represent the Village with respect
to legal disputes and issues concerning these development projects.
The cost of staff time and retaining competent engineers, planners
and attorneys should be ultimately be paid by those who seek to profit
from such developments rather than from general Village funds paid
by taxpayers of the Village.
B.
This chapter is enacted under the authority of Subdivisions
a(12) and e(3) of Municipal Home Rule Law § 10(1)(ii) and
Municipal Home Rule Law § 22. To the extent Village Law
§§ 7-712-a, 7-712-b, 7-718, 7-725-a, 7725-b, 7-728,
7-730, 7-732 and 7-738 do not authorize the Village Board, Planning
Board, Zoning Board of Appeals or Architectural Review Commission
to require the reimbursement to the Village of legal, planning, and
engineering expenses incurred by the Village in connection with review
and consideration of development applications, it is the expressed
intent of the Village Board to supersede such statutes. To the extent
that such statutes do not authorize the deferral or withholding of
such approvals in the event such expenses are not paid to the Village,
it is the expressed intent of the Village Board to change and supersede
Village Law §§ 7-712-a, 7-712-b, 7-718, 7-725-a, 7-725-b,
7-728, 7-730, 7-732 and 7-738 to empower the Village to require such
payment as a condition to such approvals.
A reviewing board may require an applicant to
deposit an initial sum of money into an escrow account in advance
of the review of an application for a special permit, site plan or
subdivision approval, zoning amendment, variance or other appeal or
application. Said sum shall be in an amount estimated to cover the
reasonable and necessary costs to the Village in obtaining professional
review of the application, taking into account the Village's experience
in similar applications or the experience of neighboring municipalities.
Costs may include staff costs and consultant fees for planning, engineering,
legal and other professional and technical services required for the
proper and thorough review of an application.
The review fees provided for herein are in addition
to application or administrative fees required pursuant to other sections
of the Tivoli Village Code. Monies deposited by applicants pursuant
to this section shall not be used to offset the Village's general
expenses of professional services for the several boards of the Village
or its general administrative expenses.
The reviews governed by this chapter shall include
all environmental review pursuant to law, including review of the
proposed action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).
Fees charged strictly as a result of a SEQRA review shall in no event
exceed the maximum amounts that can be charged pursuant to the SEQRA
regulations by the lead agency.
Upon receipt of monies requested for an escrow
account, the Village Mayor shall cause such monies to be placed in
a separate non-interest-bearing account in the name of the Village
and shall keep a separate record of all such monies deposited and
the name of the applicant and project for which such sums were deposited.
Upon receipt and approval by the Village Board
of itemized vouchers from consultants for services rendered on behalf
of the Village regarding a particular application, the Village Treasurer
shall cause such vouchers to be paid out of the monies so deposited,
and shall debit the separate record of such account accordingly. The
Village shall provide copies of the vouchers to the applicant upon
request.
The Village Board shall review and audit all
such vouchers and shall approve payment of only such consultant charges
as are reasonable and necessary in connection with the review and
consideration of applications. A charge or part thereof is reasonable
in amount if it bears a reasonable relationship to the average charge
by consultants to the Village for services performed in connection
with the review of a similar application. In auditing the vouchers,
the Village Board may take into consideration the size, type and number
of buildings to be constructed, the topography of the site at issue,
environmental conditions at such site, the infrastructure proposed
in the application and any special conditions the Village Board may
deem relevant. A charge or part thereof is necessarily incurred if
it was charged by the consultant for a service which was rendered
in order to protect or promote the health, safety or other vital interests
of the residents of the Village, and protect public or private property
from damage.
In no event shall an applicant make direct payment
to any Village consultant as compensation for services performed for
the Village by the consultant in connection with his/her application.
If at any time during the processing of an application
there shall be insufficient monies on hand to the credit of an applicant
to pay the approved vouchers in full, or if it shall reasonably appear
to the reviewing board that such monies will be insufficient to meet
vouchers yet to be submitted, the reviewing board shall require the
applicant to deposit additional sums as the board deems necessary
or advisable in order to meet such expenses or anticipated expenses.
In the event the applicant fails to deposit
the requested professional review fees into an escrow account, any
application review, approval, permit or certificates of occupancy
may be withheld or suspended by the reviewing board, officer or employee
of the Village until such monies are deposited.
Upon completion of the review of an application
or upon the withdrawal of an application, and after all reasonable
and necessary professional review fees already incurred by the Village
have been paid and deducted from the escrow account, any balance remaining
in the escrow account shall be refunded within 60 days after the applicant's
request.
[Added 3-14-2006 by L.L. No. 3-2006]
The following SEQR documents must be posted on a publicly available Web site after the Village, or any board or agency thereof, including without limitation the Village Board, the Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals, acting as lead agency, has issued a positive declaration under SEQR: any environmental impact statement (EIS), including but not limited to draft, final, and supplemental EISs; comments received from any governmental agency, interested party, or member of the public with respect to such EIS; and the responses to these comments. The above-mentioned documents are referred to herein and in § 226-13 as "SEQR Internet documents."
[Added 3-14-2006 by L.L. No. 3-2006]
A.
Unless determined by the Village Board to be impracticable,
the Village's official Web site (http://www.tivoliny.org) will be
the posting site for all SEQR Internet documents. If the Village Board
deems posting on the Village's Web site impracticable, the applicant
shall post the SEQR Internet documents on a publicly available Web
site provided by the applicant for the period required by the lead
agency and in any event in accordance with Article 8 of the Environmental
Conservation Law and applicable regulations.
B.
When an applicant submits a hard copy of a SEQR Internet
document to the lead agency, the applicant shall simultaneously submit
a copy in digital portable document format (otherwise known as "pdf”)
on a compact disc to the lead agency, or other format required by
resolution of the Village Board from time to time, which will then
be forwarded to the Village's Webmaster for posting. No SEQR Internet
document will be deemed officially submitted to the lead agency until
the SEQR Internet document is posted and accessible to the public.
The applicant shall be responsible for collecting, digitizing and
providing to the Village in pdf format all comments received on the
EISs. This chapter does not change any of the applicant's other SEQR
obligations under state and local law, including, without limitation,
the filing and circulation of hard copies of SEQR Internet documents.
C.
Every SEQR public notice and filing must clearly indicate
the address of the Web site at which the SEQR Internet documents have
been posted.
