In performing reviews of applications or petitions
for site plan, subdivision, special permits, variances and amendments
to the Village Zoning Law, and related laws and sections of the Village
Code, any applicable Board, including but not necessarily limited
to the Village Board of Trustees, the Village Planning Board and the
Village Zoning Board, may refer such applications or petitions to
such engineering, technical, planning, environmental or other professional
consultants as it may deem reasonably necessary to review such applications.
If such referral is by the Planning Board or the Zoning Board is to
a person or organization with whom the Village does not have a current
agreement for the provision of services, then such referral shall
be subject to the approval of the Village Board of Trustees.
In addition to the application fees required
to be paid by an applicant, the applicant shall also reimburse the
Village for any and all fees required to be paid by the Village to
a consultant in connection with the review of such application on
behalf of the Board of Trustees, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals
or other such Board or Village department.
Following the submission of any application/petition
for review and approval within the scope of this article, but before
such application/petition shall be placed on the agenda of such Board,
the applicant shall deliver to the Village a monetary amount as set
forth in Article A255, Fees, hereof, to be held in escrow, for release
to the Village upon the Village's payment of consulting fees incurred
in connection with its review of the application/petition. Unless
expressly waived by the applicable Board, any amount released from
escrow in reimbursement to the Village of consulting fees actually
incurred and paid by the Village shall be replaced by the applicant
before the application/petition shall be placed on any subsequent
agenda, it being the express intent of this provision that the applicant
always have on deposit with the Village an amount sufficient to cover
the cost of the Village's ongoing review of the application/petition.
The professional consulting services covered by this article shall be those services customarily rendered in the County of Rockland, State of New York, in connection with the review of applications for relief as set forth in §
250-118 hereof, by municipal boards and agencies. Fees for such services shall be charged on a time and expense, or flat fee basis, as the case may be, at the actual rates charged by such consulting professionals and paid by the Village, which rates shall not exceed those that are customary in the greater metropolitan New York area for such services. The fees intended to be covered include, but are not necessarily limited to, engineering, planning, landscape, legal and other similar type professional services, where such services are rendered by other than Village employees.
Prior to, and as a condition of an applicant's
obligation to reimburse the Village for consulting services rendered,
the applicant shall be entitled to receive a copy of the consultant(s)
statement of services rendered, which statement shall set forth the
nature of all services for which reimbursement is required, the date
such services were rendered, the time expended by the consultant (if
such services are rendered on a timed basis) and the name of the party
rendering such services. A voucher or other bill rendered to the Village
and paid by the Village shall be deemed a fee statement in full compliance
with this section. The date of such statement for the purpose of any
dispute thereof shall be the third business day following the mailing
or other delivery of such statement to the applicant.
Any applicant who disputes any fee statement
presented to him pursuant to this article may bring a proceeding in
the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in and for the County
of Rockland, pursuant to Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and
Rules of the State of New York, within 30 days after presentation
of such disputed fee statement. The commencement of such a proceeding
shall not stay the obligation of the applicant to pay any fee statement
presented to him pursuant to this article.
Any fee statement which remains unpaid under
this article, as this article may be amended from time to time, at
the time the Village certifies its annual tax roll shall become a
lien upon the premises for which the application was made. Such unreimbursed
fees shall thereupon be levied against the said premises, as if a
tax on real property, and in addition to all other taxes, fees, rents
or charges which would otherwise be so levied. In the event the affected
premises comprise more than one tax lot, then the Village Clerk-Treasurer
shall distribute such levy equally among each such tax lot without
regard to assessed value or any other factor.
Final approval of any application shall not
be granted, nor shall any building permit, certificate of occupancy
or other permit or final approval be granted, nor shall any map or
plat be signed or released for filing, if an applicant is delinquent
in making any payment required by this article.