[Amended 3-11-1991 by L.L. No. 1-1991; 11-13-1995 by L.L. No. 3-1995; 1-11-1999 by L.L. No. 1-1999; 2-11-2002 by L.L. No. 2-2002; 2-12-2007 by L.L. No. 3-2007]
[Amended 2-12-2007 by L.L. No. 3-2007]
All nonrefundable application fees shall be in an amount set forth in a fee schedule which may be amended from time to time by resolution of the Village Board of Trustees.
[1]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 81, Fees, Art. I, Building Permit, Certificate of Occupancy and Application Fees.
[Amended 7-6-2009 by L.L. No. 14-2009]
A. 
Permitting authority.
[Amended 5-24-2010 by L.L. No. 6-2010; 2-22-2012 by L.L. No. 2-2012]
(1) 
Where the permitting authority (as hereinafter defined) uses the services of professional planners, engineers, architects, attorneys (including "special counsel") or other consultants for the purposes of engineering, planning, environmental or legal reviews of the adequacy or substantive details of applications, or issues raised during the course of review of such applications, for special permit approvals, site plan approvals, subdivision approvals, use or area variances or interpretations, applications for rezoning of parcels, applications for drainage permits under the applicable provisions of the Village Code, or for any other or ancillary land use or development permits or approvals required under the Village Code, as well as to assist in assuring or enforcing an applicant's compliance with the terms and conditions of all the aforementioned administrative and legislative permits or approvals, the applicant and landowner, if different, shall be jointly and severally responsible for payment of all the reasonable and necessary costs of such services.
(2) 
The term "permitting authority" is hereby defined to be any legally empowered zoning official or government body of the Village of Fishkill which has authority to make decisions related to the issuance of zoning permits or appeals from denial thereof or interpretation and/or amendment of the zoning laws of the Village of Fishkill. Such permitting authorities include but are not limited to the Code Enforcement Officer, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Village Board of Trustees.
B. 
In addition to the collection of the fees specified in § 81-3 of this Code, the permitting authority shall adjust the application review fees sufficiently to reimburse the Village for the cost of professional consultation charges which exceed the fees stipulated in § 81-3. For this purpose, the permitting authority shall establish an escrow account funded by the applicant in accordance with the following procedure:
(1) 
Where the permitting authority determines that the cost of the professional consultation services attributable to the review of an application will exceed the fees collected in connection with § 81-3, the permitting authority shall approve a resolution establishing the amount of money that the applicant will be required to deliver to the Village of Fishkill for deposit in a Village of Fishkill escrow account maintained by the Village Treasurer for custody of funds collected.
(2) 
This amount of money shall be calculated in accordance with the following schedule:
(a) 
For all subdivisions and for residential site plan and special permit applications:
Number of Lots or Dwelling Units
Amount of Initial Deposit
(per dwelling unit)
1 to 25
$8,000
26 or more
$4,000
(b) 
For nonresidential site plan and special permit applications:
Gross Floor Area (GFA)
(square feet)
Amount of Initial Deposit
Up to 1,000
$8,000
1,001 to 10,000
$7.50 per square foot of GFA
10,001 and over
$10.00 per square foot of GFA
(c) 
For rezoning, zoning amendment and variance requests: The amount of the initial deposit shall be $2,500 per acre of property or part thereof owned or controlled by the applicant to which the request pertains.
(d) 
For certificate of appropriateness applications: In addition to the required application fee, the Planning Board may require an escrow account with an initial deposit in the amount of $500 if, in its opinion, such an escrow account may be needed to reimburse the Village for the cost of professional consultation costs.
(e) 
For sign permit applications: In addition to the required application fee, the Planning Board may require an escrow account with an initial deposit in the amount of $250 if, in its opinion, such an escrow account may be needed to reimburse the Village for the cost of professional consultation costs.
C. 
The applicant shall be required by the permitting authority from time to time to deliver additional funds to the Village for deposit in the escrow account, if such additional funds are required to pay for professional consultation services rendered to the Village or anticipated to be rendered. Such additional funds shall be delivered to the Village before any further consideration of the applicant's application takes place.
D. 
The permitting authority shall not make any final determination on an application until all application review fees imposed on the applicant have been paid to the Village.
E. 
Escrow funds may be refunded to the applicant only when the applicant formally withdraws the application from consideration by the permitting authority or when the applicant receives a final determination from the permitting authority. In either case, all reimbursable charges incurred by the Village shall be first deducted from the escrow account, leaving an unencumbered balance that is not required by the permitting authority to pay consulting costs attributable to the application. Fees collected in accordance with § 81-3 shall not be refunded.
F. 
The imposition of escrow account fees is in addition to and not in place of other fee schedules currently in force. The foregoing escrow deposit schedule may be amended from time to time by resolution of the Village Board of Trustees. The owner(s) of the subject real property, if different from the applicant, shall be jointly and severally responsible to reimburse the Village of Fishkill for funds expended to compensate for services rendered to the Village under this section by professional consultants. In order for a land use application to be complete, the applicant shall provide the written consent of all owners of the subject real property, both authorizing the applicant to file and pursue land development proposals and acknowledging potential landowner responsibility, under this section, for professional consulting fees incurred by the Village.
[Amended 2-22-2012 by L.L. No. 2-2012]
If the permitting authority is the lead agency in the environmental review of an application in accordance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the permitting authority shall impose the fees authorized by Part 617 of Title 6 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (the implementing regulations pertaining to Article 8 of the Environmental Conservation Law) in connection with the environmental review of the application. The permitting authority shall utilize an escrow account in accordance with the procedures in § 171-161 above for this purpose.
In addition to the collection of application review fees and the establishment of escrow accounts to reimburse the Village for professional review costs specified elsewhere in Article XV, Fees, the permitting agency shall establish, at the time of project approval, an escrow account funded by the applicant in accordance with the following procedure for the purpose of reimbursing the Village for the cost of postconstruction inspections by its professional consultants:
A. 
The permitting agency shall approve a resolution establishing the amount of money that the applicant will be required to deliver to the Village of Fishkill for deposit in a Village of Fishkill escrow account, maintained by the Village Treasurer for custody of funds collected. This amount of money shall be collected in accordance with the following schedule:
(1) 
For site plans and special permit applications:
Gross Floor Area (GFA)
(square feet)
Amount of
Initial Deposit
Up to 25,000
$250
Over 25,000
$500
B. 
The applicant may be required by the permitting authority to deliver additional funds for the escrow account if such additional funds are required to pay for professional services costs which exceed the initial deposit.
C. 
Escrow funds may be refunded to the applicant only after it has been determined that all required improvements have been made and a certificate of occupancy has been issued by the Code Enforcement Officer. All reimbursable charges incurred by the Village shall be first deducted from the escrow account, leaving an unencumbered balance that is not required by the Village to pay consultation costs attributable to postconstruction inspection.
[Amended 5-24-2010 by L.L. No. 6-2010]