City of Saco, ME Chapter 83 Cost Recovery

[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Saco 9-15-2003; amended in its entirety 3-27-2023. Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]

§ 83-1 Definitions.

As used in this chapter, the following words have the following meanings unless the context indicates otherwise:

DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS

Any application seeking a change in the use of developed or undeveloped land for residential, industrial or commercial purposes, which application requires review, under any state or municipal law, ordinance or regulation, by a reviewing agency, as follows:

A. Chapter 179, Site Plan Review;

B. Chapter 186, Streets and Sidewalks;

C. Chapter 188, Subdivision of Land;

D. Chapter 230. Zoning;

E. Inspection of post-approval and construction compliance monitoring for development projects;

F. Any other relevant ordinance whereby the City acts in a development review capacity.

RELATED EXPENSES

The costs to the City for staff review time, including payroll and fringe benefit costs, copying charges, legal costs, advertising and postage costs, and other costs incurred by the City as a result of the review of development proposals and as a result of administering this chapter.

REVIEWING AGENCY

A municipal board, commission or agency required to consider and act on any developmental proposal and could include City Council, the Planning Board, the Board of Appeals, the Code Enforcement Officer, City Planner, and the Conservation Commission or any of them, depending upon the type of application and requirements of state and local law. For purposes of this chapter, "reviewing agency" shall also include inspectors designated by the City, including the staff of the Public Works, Water Resource Recovery, Planning, Code Enforcement Departments, or contracted consultant, or their designees.

STAFF

Any employee or official of the City.

§ 83-2 Purpose and applicability.

A. It is the purpose and intent of this chapter to equitably transfer the related expenses of reviewing development proposals to the applicant, whenever possible, in order to limit the impact on general tax revenues.

B. Fees shall be determined by the Council after a public hearing.

C. Applications initiated by City officials, boards, agencies or commissions are exempt from the scope of this chapter. Exempt applicants, however, shall pay for the cost of any engineering or legal review required by the reviewing agency when those reviews are performed by contracted firms rather than City employees.

§ 83-3 Fee for related expenses.

Fee to be adopted by the City Council after a public hearing.

§ 83-4 Project account.

A. At the time that the deposit imposed by this chapter is paid, an account shall be established by the appropriate staff person. The deposit shall be credited to such account, and the account shall be maintained throughout the entire review process.

B. The account will be monitored on a periodic basis. If the account balance is reduced to a minimum threshold set by the City's Fee Schedule, a supplemental deposit is due, which must be paid before any processing continues. An applicant shall be notified by appropriate staff when a supplemental deposit is due. The applicant must pay the supplemental deposit within 10 working days of notification, or review of the project will be discontinued.

C. Supplemental deposits shall be in increments as set by the City's Fee Schedule. Several supplemental deposits may be necessary, depending upon the complexity of an individual proposal. When all charges have been made, and the applicant has paid all charges and deficits necessary for the City to review the development proposal and monitor compliance, the project account shall be closed, and any remaining balance shall be returned to the applicant. No land use permits of any kind shall be issued, no signed subdivision plans shall be released or recorded, and no building permits shall be issued for any projects governed by this chapter unless all charges due under this chapter have been paid.

§ 83-5 Staff review; accounting.

A. Except for initial screening of an application to determine that all required types of information are being submitted, no review of any kind by any staff member may be undertaken for any development proposal until the deposit, established in the City's Fee Schedule, has been paid.

B. The appropriate reviewing agency, with the advice of staff, may determine that review by non-City staff is required to address particular issues. The applicant will be notified of the estimated costs of the additional review by an outside contractor before that review is undertaken.

C. Staff involved in the review of development proposals or in the administration of this chapter shall maintain periodic records of their time expended upon specific applications. Hourly rates shall be established by the Finance Department. A debit based upon the time expended and the applicable hourly rate shall be charged against the project account, along with any other related expenses.