The chapter shall be known as the "Expert Expense Reimbursement
Law of the Town of Evans."
The Town Board hereby finds and determines that in order to
protect and safeguard the Town of Evans, its residents and their property,
with respect to certain land developments within the Town, all 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 that the
Town have available to it all necessary professional expertise to
assist in the review of plans, designs, applications and related materials
in order to make recommendations to the Town Board, Planning Board,
and Zoning Board of Appeals. The Town of Evans takes great pride in
the skill and professionalism of its staff. However, from time to
time, the staff is called upon to review and evaluate matters outside
the range of staff training. These situations may require the Town
to seek out skills not possessed by Town employees but which are not
required frequently enough to justify the hiring of new staff. At
the same time, the cost of retaining such outside expertise should
not be borne by the taxpayers of the Town but rather by those who
seek to profit from the decisions of the Town and its boards. Therefore,
it is the intent of this chapter to establish a mechanism whereby
the Town may hire necessary expertise that is needed infrequently
without imposing the cost on its taxpayers.
This chapter is enacted under the authority of Subdivision 1(ii)a(12)
and d(13) of the Municipal Home Rule Law § 10 and Municipal
Home Rule Law § 22. To the extent that the Town Law of the
State of New York does not authorize the Town Board, Town Planning
Board, or Zoning Board of Appeals to require the reimbursement to
the Town of expenses incurred by the Town in connection with the professional
review of applications for land use approvals, it is the expressed
intent of the Town Board to change and supersede such statutes. More
particularly, 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 §§ 64(17-a), 264, 265, 267, 267-a, 267-b,
274-a, 274-b, 276, 277, 278, and 280-a to empower the Town to require
such payment as part of the approval process.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
APPLICANT
Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation,
company, limited liability company, or organization of any kind who
or which requests the Town Board, the Planning Board, or the Zoning
Board of Appeals to approve a land use application or take other action
to advance a proposed land use development project within the Town.
CONSULTANT or EXPERT
Any consultant or professional, including, but not limited
to, attorneys, engineers, accountants, financial advisors, architects,
surveyors, retained by the Town for any purpose authorized pursuant
to this chapter.
LAND USE APPLICATION
An application for subdivision approval, site plan approval,
area variance, use variance, special use permit, development plan
approval, planned district rezoning, planned unit development, amendments
to the Zoning Map, rezoning, temporary use permits, or any similar
approval issued pursuant to the Code of the Town of Evans, as amended,
and any additional review for those as needed to comply with any other
applicable state or local law, including, but not limited to, the
New York Town Law, General Municipal Law, Highway Law, Municipal Home
Rule Law, Local Finance Law and the New York State Environmental Quality
Review Act, Environmental Conservation Law Article 8, and any regulations
adopted pursuant thereto.
If any section, clause or provision of this chapter or the application
thereof to any persons is adjudged invalid, the adjudication shall
not affect other sections, clauses or provisions or the application
thereof that can be sustained or given effect without the invalid
section, clause or provision or application, and to this end the various
sections, clauses or provisions of this chapter are declared to be
severable.