[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Athens 2-24-2003
by L.L. No. 3-2003. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A.
The Town Board hereby finds and determines that in order
to protect and safeguard the Town of Athens, its residents and their property,
with respect to certain land developments within the Town, 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 Town in a legally
sufficient manner. In order to assure the foregoing, it is essential for the
Town to have Town staff and competent engineers and planners retained by the
Town to review applications, plans and designs, make recommendations to the
Town Board, Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals and to recommend their
acceptance by the Town. It is also essential to have competent attorneys retained
by the Town, to negotiate and draft appropriate agreements with developers,
to obtain, review and approve necessary securities, insurance and other legal
documents, to review proposed deeds and easements to assure the Town that
it is obtaining good and proper title and to generally represent the Town
with respect to legal disputes and issues concerning these development projects.
The cost of staff time and retaining competent engineers, planners and attorneys
should ultimately be paid by those who seek to profit from such developments
rather than from general Town funds paid by taxpayers of the Town.
B.
This chapter is enacted under the authority of Subparagraphs
(a)(12) and (d)(3) of Municipal Home Rule Law § 10(1)(ii) and Municipal
Home Rule Law § 22. To the extent Town Law §§ 274-a,
276 and 277 do not authorize the Town Board, Planning Board or Zoning Board
of Appeals to require the reimbursement to the Town of legal, planning, and
engineering expenses incurred by the Town in connection with review and consideration
of development applications, it is the expressed intent of the Town 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 Town, it is the expressed intent of the Town Board to change
and supersede Town Law §§ 274-a, 276 and 277 to empower the
Town 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 used to cover the
reasonable and necessary costs to the Town in obtaining professional review
of the application. 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. In establishing
the sum to be deposited, the reviewing board shall consider the professional
review fees of neighboring municipalities in reviewing similar applications.
The reviewing board shall also consider the Town's most recent survey
of professional review fees in neighboring municipalities.
The review fees provided for herein are in addition to application or
administrative fees required pursuant to other sections of the Athens Town
Code. Monies deposited by applicants pursuant to this chapter shall not be
used to offset the Town's general expenses of professional services for
the several boards of the Town 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 Town Supervisor
shall cause such monies to be placed in a separate non-interest-bearing account
in the name of the Town 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 Town Board of itemized vouchers from
consultants for services rendered on behalf of the Town regarding a particular
application, the Town Supervisor shall cause such vouchers to be paid out
of the monies so deposited, and shall debit the separate record of such account
accordingly. The consultant shall make copies of such vouchers available to
the applicant at the same time the vouchers are submitted to the Town.
The Town 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 Town for services performed in
connection with the review of a similar application. In auditing the vouchers,
the Town 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 Town 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 Town, and protect public or private property from
damage.
In no event shall an applicant make direct payment to any Town consultant
as compensation for services performed for the Town 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 cause 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 certificate of occupancy may be withheld or suspended by the reviewing
board, officer or employee of the Town 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 Town 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.
