All provisions of this chapter shall be administered by the
Board of Commissioners or its officially designated representatives.
All matters relating to this chapter shall be submitted to the Township
Manager who will handle the matter in accordance with current Township
policies, procedures, and guidelines established by the Board of Commissioners.
The Township 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 the Board of Commissioners and Planning Commission.
A.
No application for preliminary or final plan approval shall be filed
and processed until the fees and/or escrow deposit, as set forth below,
shall have been paid.
B.
The Board of Commissioners shall adopt and amend by resolution a
schedule of fees, payable by the applicant to the Township, for the
filing of preliminary and final plans.
C.
The Board of Commissioners shall adopt and amend by resolution a
schedule of escrow deposits to be paid by the applicant to the Township
at the time of the filing of an application, sufficient to pay all
Township expenditures anticipated in the course of its review and
disposition of plans.
(1)
Costs incurred by the Township 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 Township are less than the escrowed
amount, the difference shall be refunded to the applicant following
disposition of the plans.
D.
Township expenditures subject to escrow as in Subsection C, above, include but are not limited to the following:
(1)
Engineering and other technical services performed by landscape
architects, geologists, planners, and other professionals during the
plan review.
(2)
Construction inspection and the testing of materials.
(3)
Services of the Township 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 four subsections.
E.
Escrow accounts for fees to conduct the necessary inspection and review services provided by the Township during the construction of improvements approved in the final plan shall be established as part of the developer's agreement required in § 260-99.
F.
Disputes. In the event that the applicant disputes the amount of
any such review fee, the applicant shall, within 45 days of the billing
date or the notice of withdrawal by the Township of an amount held
in escrow, notify the Township and their consultant that the fees
are disputed. In such case the Township shall not delay or disapprove
a subdivision or land development due to the applicant's request regarding
disputed fees. The applicant shall within 30 days after the transmittal
date of a bill for inspection services or 45 days of the date of transmittal
of a final bill for inspection services, notify the Township and their
professional consultant that the fees are disputed. The fee dispute
process established in the Pennsylvania Municipalities Code generally
includes following steps:
(1)
In the event that the Township and the applicant cannot agree
on the amount of any review fees which are reasonable and necessary,
then the Township and applicant shall jointly by mutual agreement
appoint another professional consultant serving as arbitrator to examine
the disputed review fees and make a determination as to the amount
thereof which are fair and reasonable within 50 days.
(2)
Appropriate payments or reimbursements shall be made within
60 days following the decision by the arbitrator.
(3)
If the Township and applicant cannot agree on an independent
professional consultant to serve as arbitrator 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 Township Engineer or any professional engineer who has
been retained by, or performed services for the Township or applicant
within the preceding five years.
(4)
The fee of the appointed arbitrator 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 $5,000 or more, the arbitrator may require part of
full payment from the applicant or professional consultant. In all
other cases, the consultant and Township should each pay 1/2 of the
fees of the professional engineer.
A.
Preventative remedies.
(1)
In addition to other remedies, the Township may institute and
maintain appropriate actions by law or in equity to restrain, to correct
or abate violations, to prevent unlawful construction and/or demolition,
to recover damages and to prevent illegal occupancy of a building.
(2)
The Township 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 of this chapter. As
an additional condition for the issuance of any permit or approval,
the Township 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 therefore
in a civil enforcement proceeding commenced by the Township, pay a
judgment of not more than $500 plus all court costs, including the
reasonable attorney fees incurred by the Township 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 district justice.
D.
If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the
Township 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 district justice 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 district justice
and thereafter each day that a violation continues shall constitute
a separate violation.
F.
All penalties collected for such violations shall be paid to the
Township.
