All provisions of this chapter shall be administered by Borough Council or their officially designated representatives. All matters relating to this chapter shall be submitted to the Borough Manager who will handle the matter in accordance with current Borough policies, procedures, and guidelines established by Borough Council.
The Borough shall keep a public record of its correspondence, findings, recommendations, and actions relating to plans filed for review, in accordance with the policies, procedures, and guidelines established by Borough Council and Planning Commission.
A.
No sketch plan review shall be performed by any Borough consultant, including, but not limited to, the Borough Engineer and/or Borough Solicitor, or any other Borough consultant until such time as the owner/developer and/or applicant have entered into a professional services agreement substantially in the form attached hereto as Exhibit "A"[1] with the Borough and deposited escrow in the amount set forth in a duly adopted Borough fee and escrow resolution. Additionally, no application for preliminary or final plan approval shall be received and processed until such time as the owner/developer and/or applicant enters into a professional services agreement substantially in the form attached hereto as Exhibit "A" and any and all required fees and/or escrow deposits as established by resolution duly adopted by Borough Council shall have been paid in full to the Borough.
[Amended 3-5-2014 by Ord. No. 567]
[1]
Editor's Note: Said exhibit is on file in the Borough offices.
B.
Borough Council shall adopt and amend by resolution a schedule of fees and escrows, payable by the owner/developer or applicant to the Borough, for review of sketch plans and for the filing of preliminary and final plans.
[Amended 3-5-2014 by Ord. No. 567]
C.
Borough Council shall adopt and amend by resolution a schedule of escrow deposits to be paid by the applicant to the Borough at the time of filing of an application, sufficient to pay all Borough expenditures anticipated in the course of its review and disposition of plans.
(1)
Costs incurred by the Borough in excess of the escrowed amount shall be paid by the applicant prior to the granting of approvals or permits.
(2)
If costs incurred by the Borough are less than the escrowed amount, the difference shall be refunded to the applicant following disposition of the plans.
D.
Borough expenditures subject to escrow as in § 600-72C, above, include but are not limited to the following:
(1)
Engineering and other technical services such as plan review and construction inspections.
(2)
Materials and facilities tests.
(3)
Services of the Borough Solicitor in reviewing and/or preparing documents related to the plan reviews.
(4)
Actual costs of recording.
(5)
An administrative charge of 15% of the total costs described in the previous five subsections.
E.
Disputes. In the event that the applicant disputes the amount of any such review fees, the applicant shall within 10 days of the billing date of the notice of withdrawal by the Borough of an amount for deposit, notify the Borough that the fees are disputed, in such case the Borough shall not delay or disapprove a subdivision or land development due to the applicant's request over disputed fees. The following steps shall be taken to resolve disputes over contested review fees:
(1)
In the event that the Borough and the applicant cannot agree on the amount of any review fees which are reasonable and necessary, then the Borough and applicant shall jointly by mutual agreement, appoint another professional engineer to examine the disputed review fees and make a determination as to the amount thereof which are fair and reasonable within 50 days.
(2)
Following the independent engineer's decision, the applicant shall pay the entire amount determined immediately.
(3)
If the Borough and applicant cannot agree on an independent engineer within 20 days of the billing date, then upon application of either party, the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the judicial district in which the municipality is located shall appoint an engineer who shall be neither the Borough Engineer or any professional engineer who has been retained by, or performed services for, the Borough or applicant within the preceding five years.
(4)
The fee of the appointed professional engineer for determining the reasonable and necessary review fees shall be paid by the applicant if the amount of payment required in the decision is equal to or greater than the original bill. If the amount of payment is less than the original bill by one $1,000 or more, the Borough shall pay the professional engineer's fees. Otherwise, the applicant and Township should each pay one-half of the fees of the professional engineer.
Upon review and recommendation by the Borough Planning Commission, Borough Council may grant a modification of the requirements of one or more provisions of this chapter, if the literal enforcement of them would exact undue hardship because of peculiar conditions pertaining to the land in question, provided that such modification(s) will not be contrary to the public interest and that the purpose and intent of this chapter is observed. All requests for modification(s) shall:
A.
Preventative remedies.
(1)
In addition to other remedies, the Borough may institute and maintain appropriate actions by law or in equity to restrain, correct or abate violations, to prevent unlawful construction, to recover damages and to prevent illegal occupancy of a building.
(2)
The Borough may refuse to issue any permit or grant any approval necessary to further improve any real property which has been developed or has resulted from a subdivision in violation to this chapter. As an additional condition for the issuance of any permit or approval, the Borough may require compliance with the conditions that would have been applicable to the property at which time the applicant acquired it.
B.
Any person, partnership, or corporation who or which has violated the provisions of this chapter shall, upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding commenced by the Borough, pay a judgment of not more than $500 plus all court costs, including the reasonable attorney fees incurred by the Borough as a result thereof.
C.
No judgment shall commence or be imposed, levied, or be payable until the date of the determination of a violation by the Magisterial District Judge.
D.
If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the Borough may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable rules of civil procedure.
E.
Each day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation, unless the Magisterial District Judge determining that there has been a violation further determines that there was a good faith basis for the person, partnership, or corporation violating this chapter to have believed that there was no such violation, in which event there shall be deemed to have been only one such violation until the fifth day following the date of the determination of a violation by the Magisterial District Judge and thereafter each day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation.
F.
All fines collected for such violations shall be paid to the Borough.