[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Jerusalem as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 3-16-2011 by L.L. No. 2-2011]
A. 
In the Town of Jerusalem (herein called the "Town"), the Town Board, the Town Planning Board or the Town Zoning Board of Appeals, in the review of any application pending before it, may refer the application to such engineering, planning, legal, fiscal, accounting, technical or environmental consultant employed by the Town as such Board shall deem reasonably necessary to enable it to review the application as required by law and to observe a project following its initial approval, as during or after construction for inspections and administration.
B. 
The applicant shall reimburse the Town for the cost of such consultant's services, except for the following:
(1) 
Review by the Town Engineer of the initial design plans for water, sewage, drainage or roads (public or private) submitted by the applicant.
(2) 
Attendance by the Town Engineer at one or more meetings prior to the submission of an application for the purpose of discussing the project, identifying applicable rules and regulations, and anticipating technical concerns.
(3) 
Preparation by the Town Attorney of any required public notices regarding said application.
(4) 
Review by the Town Engineer and Attorney of any environmental assessment form and supporting documents in connection with the determination of environmental significance pursuant to the New York State Environment Quality Review Law. An environmental assessment form does not include an environmental impact statement or the process known as scoping.
(5) 
Attendance by the Town Engineer and Attorney at any regular or special public meetings of the Town Planning Board or the Town Zoning Board of Appeals.
C. 
Charges made by consultants who are not regular employees of the Town shall be in accord with charges usually made for such services in the Yates County, New York region, or pursuant to an existing contractual agreement between the Town and the consultant.
D. 
Charges made for consultants who are regular employees of the town shall be in accord with the hourly rates upon which the employee's actual salary is based plus fringe benefits and reasonable overhead costs.
E. 
At such time as the project is completed or the application is denied by the Board or Boards having jurisdiction, the Town Clerk shall refund to the applicant the deposit required pursuant to § 84-2, less any sums expended by the Town for the services of such consultants but excluding those services referred to in Subsection B(1), (2), and (3). A copy of the computation of said sums so expended shall be provided to the applicant at the time that the Town Clerk shall calculate the refund, if any, due the applicant hereunder.
F. 
In the event that an application is required to be reviewed by more than one board, then to the extent practicable, both boards shall use the same consultant, who shall to the extent practicable, prepare one report providing data, information and recommendations requested. In all cases, duplication of consultants' reports or services shall be avoided wherever practicable in order to reduce the cost of such consultants' reports or services to the applicant.
G. 
The above charges are in addition to any and all other fees required by any other law, rule or regulation.
A. 
At the time of submission of any application, or thereafter, an escrow account shall be established, from which withdrawals shall be made to reimburse the Town for the costs of consultant services as described in § 84-1. The applicant shall then pay to the Town for deposit into such account in an amount to be determined by the reviewing board with the advice and recommendation of the Town Engineer and Building Inspector based on the Board's evaluation of the nature and complexity of the application, using the following schedule as a general guideline, the decision of the reviewing board to be final and conclusive on the applicant. The following amounts were derived from fees suggested by SEQR regulations:
(1) 
For projects involving no more than two residences, no fee shall be charged and therefore no escrow deposit shall be required.
(2) 
For projects involving three or more residences, the total project value shall be calculated based on the actual purchase price of the land or the fair market value of the land (determined by assessed value divided by equalization rate), whichever is higher, plus the cost of all required site improvements, not including the cost of buildings and structures as determined with reference to a current cost data publication in common use. For such projects, the escrow deposit shall be 2% of the total project value.
(3) 
For nonresidential construction projects, the total project cost shall be calculated on the actual purchase price of the land or the fair market value of the land (determined by assessed value divided by equalization rate), whichever is higher, plus the cost of supplying utility service to the project, the cost of site preparation and the cost of labor and material as determined with reference to a current cost data publication in common use. In the case of such projects, the escrow deposit shall be 1/2 of 1% of the total project value.
(4) 
For projects involving the extraction of minerals, the total project value shall be calculated on the cost of site preparation for mining. Site preparation cost means the cost of clearing and grubbing and removal of over-burden for the entire area to be mined plus the cost of utility services and construction of access roads. Such costs are determined with reference to a current cost data publication in common use. The escrow deposit shall be two percent of the total project value. For those costs to be incurred for phases occurring three or more years after issuance of a permit, the project value shall be determined using a present value calculation.
B. 
The applicant shall be provided with copies of each voucher for such services as it is submitted to the Town.
C. 
The consultant shall report monthly to the Town Clerk the monetary value of his or her services rendered on each project.
D. 
When the balance in such escrow account is reduced to 1/3 of its initial amount, the Town Clerk shall advise the applicant and furnish a statement of the account and the applicant shall deposit additional funds into such account to bring its balance up to the amount of the initial deposit. If such account is not replenished within 30 days after the applicant is notified, in writing, of the requirement for such additional deposit, the reviewing board may suspend its review of the application. An application shall be deemed incomplete if any amount shall be outstanding.
E. 
A building permit or other permit being sought shall not be issued unless all professional review fees charged in connection with the applicant's project have been reimbursed to the Town from said escrow account.
F. 
All charges required by this article shall be collected by the Town Clerk.
G. 
This article shall apply to applications pending at the time it shall become effective, unless the reviewing board shall determine that to do so would be impracticable, unfair or unjust in the particular circumstances. When this article shall be applicable to such a pending application, the applicant shall be required to pay only for consultant's fees for services rendered after the article shall have become effective.