[Amended 1-8-1980 by Ord. No. 354-3C-80]
As a condition of final subdivision approval, the Planning Board may require and shall accept performance and maintenance guaranties in accordance with the standards adopted by ordinance for the purpose of assuring the installation and maintenance of on-tract improvements based on an estimate of the costs of the same to be performed by the Township Engineer or, at his discretion, the Planning Board Engineer.
The furnishing of a performance guaranty in favor of the municipality shall be required in an amount not to exceed 120% of the cost of installation for improvements it may deem necessary or appropriate, including streets, grading, pavement, gutters, curbs, sidewalks, streetlighting, shade trees, surveyor's monuments, as shown on the final map and required by the Map Filing Law, P.L. 1960, c. 141 (N.J.S.A. 46:23-9.9 et seq.), water mains, culverts, storm sewers, sanitary sewers or other means of sewage disposal, drainage structures, erosion control and sedimentation control devices, public improvements of open space and, in the case of site plans only, other on-site improvements and landscaping.
Provision shall be made for a maintenance guaranty to be posted with the governing body for a period not to exceed two years after final acceptance of the improvement, in an amount not to exceed 15% of the cost of the improvement. In the event that other governmental agencies or public utilities automatically will own the utilities to be installed or the improvements are covered by a performance or maintenance guaranty to another governmental agency, no performance or maintenance guaranty, as the case may be, shall be required by the municipality for such utilities or improvements.
The amount of any performance guaranty may be reduced by the governing body, by resolution, when portions of the improvements have been certified by the Municipal Engineer to have been completed. The time allowed for installation of the improvements for which the performance guaranty has been provided may be extended by said body by resolution. If the required improvements are not completed or corrected in accordance with the performance guaranty, the obligor and surety, if any, shall be liable thereon to the municipality for the reasonable cost of the improvements not completed or corrected, and the municipality may, either prior to or after the receipt of the proceeds thereof, complete such improvements.
As-built drawings shall be submitted before the guaranty is considered for release. As each partial release is applied for, as built drawings of the bonded improvements installed shall be submitted to the Township Engineer.
The governing body shall either approve, partially approve or reject the improvements on the basis of the report of the Municipal Engineer and shall notify the obligor, in writing and by certified mail, of the contents of said report and the action of said approving authority with relation thereto, not later than 65 days after receipt of the notice from the obligor of the completion of the improvements. Where partial approval is granted, the obligor shall be released from all liability pursuant to its performance guaranty, except for that portion adequately sufficient to secure provision of the improvements not yet approved. Failure of the governing body to send or provide such notification to the obligor within 65 days shall be deemed to constitute approval of the improvements, and the obligor and surety, if any, shall be released from all liability pursuant to such performance guaranty.
If any portion of the required improvements is rejected, the approving authority may require the obligor to complete such improvements, and, upon completion, the same procedure of notification, as set forth in this section, shall be followed.
Nothing herein, however, shall be construed to limit the right of the obligor to contest by legal proceedings any determination of the governing body or the Municipal Engineer.