[Adopted 7-13-1993 by Ord. No. 3-1993]
The Board of Supervisors hereby establishes
the Acres Sewer District comprising the territory including Harvey
Lane and Andrews Road (T-648), Shepherd Road (T-646), Williams Road
(T-647), Wildwood Drive (T-617), Pond Lane (T-618), Mesa Lane (T-619),
Creek Road (T-530) and portions of Paoli Pike (LR143), School Lane
(T-661), Long Lane (T-638) and Warren Avenue (LR15228), as more specifically
detailed in the plans for the Acres Sanitary Sewer Extension Project
prepared by Yerkes Associates, Inc., dated March 1, 1993, last revised
April 8, 1993, issued April 23, 1993. The district shall include those
residential properties and the Sugartown Elementary School, as depicted
on the above plans.
A.
In addition to any other connection, customer facilities
or tapping fees fixed and imposed under this chapter, there is hereby
fixed and imposed upon the owner of each property situated within
the Acres Sewer District a tapping fee (collection part) of $4,827.93
per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) of capacity required for connection.
[Amended 4-9-2007 by Ord. No. 4-2007]
B.
Capacity allocations for the purpose of determining
the tapping fee shall be determined on the basis of a total wastewater
flow (including water use and an average infiltration/inflow allowance)
of 229.5 gallons per day per EDU. Each private dwelling unit or living
unit (including each house, townhouse, condominium or apartment unit)
shall have an EDU value of one EDU per unit. The EDU value of any
other uses shall be determined by the Township.
[Amended 4-9-2007 by Ord. No. 4-2007]
C.
Where two or more buildings are connected to the sewer
system through a single service connection or where two or more uses
are made of the same improved property, the tapping fee determination
shall be computed as though such building and each type of use were
separate improved properties or uses with separate sewer connections.
D.
Where any building connected to the sewer system shall be converted, enlarged or remodeled or additional buildings shall be constructed on a property and connected directly to the sewer system through an existing lateral or connected directly through a new lateral so as to create or establish more extensive use or additional uses as classified in Subsection B above, an additional tapping fee in accordance with Subsection A above, for each such additional use, shall be payable to the Township by the owner of the property so improved.
E.
The fees imposed hereunder shall be in addition to
any rental or other charges fixed, charged or imposed by the Township
by reason of the use, or availability for use, of the sewer system
by such property.
For each existing dwelling unit and other established
uses within the Acres Sewer District, the tapping fees established
herein shall be due and payable within 60 days of the effective date
of this article. All other connection, customer facilities or tapping
fees fixed and imposed under this chapter shall be due and payable
at the time of application for connection. For each new dwelling unit
or other use or converted, enlarged or remodeled or additional buildings,
the tapping fees shall be due and payable at the time of application
for connection.
[Amended 4-13-2009 by Ord. No. 3-2009]
A.
Sewer tapping fees shall be subject to a penalty of
5% if not paid on or before the 30th day after the billing date. These
penalties shall be concurrent with all other remedies, legal and equitable,
available to the Township for collection of said fees, including but
not limited to municipal lien and assumpsit remedies.
B.
All sewer tapping fees, together with all penalties
and additional fees thereon, not paid on or before the 30th day after
the billing date shall be deemed to be delinquent. It shall be the
duty of the Township to proceed to collect such delinquent fees, together
with penalties, additional fees and costs accrued thereon, including
attorneys' fees, either by action at law or by filing a lien or liens
for the same in the office of the Prothonotary of the Court of Common
Pleas of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and such liens, together with
penalty, costs, and interest accrued thereon, including attorneys'
fees, shall be filed and collected in accordance with the law. Interest
in the amount of 10% per annum shall begin to accrue on the date of
the filing of a lien.
B.
All persons owning any occupied private dwelling unit
or living unit now erected upon property in the Acres Sewer District
shall, at their own expense, connect such unit with the sewer system
within 60 days after written notice to such persons from the Township,
unless said persons obtain, at their own expense, a septic certification
which states that the existing sewage disposal system on the property
has been inspected and found to presently be in satisfactory working
condition, in accordance with the septic systems inspection guidelines
of the Pennsylvania Septic Management Association (PSMA), adopted
April 6, 1989. The inspection shall be conducted by a member of the
PSMA, and the certification shall be on the form known as the "PSMA
Septic System Inspection Checklist," dated March 1992. The PSMA inspection
guidelines and checklist are attached hereto and incorporated herein
as Appendix A.[1] The certification shall be submitted to the Township within
30 days after the property owners receive written notice from the
Township to connect and, thereafter, the property owners shall annually,
at their own expense, cause an inspection and certification to be
obtained in accordance with the above requirements and submit the
same to the Township. In the event that the property owners fail to
obtain or submit the annual certification, or in the event that the
sewage disposal system is found at any time not to presently be in
satisfactory working condition, the property owners shall, at their
own expense, connect with the sewer system within 60 days.
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix A is on file in the
Township offices.
C.
Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary set forth in Subsection B above, all persons shall, at their own expense, connect such building with the sewer system prior to the sale or transfer of the property to a third party, even if said persons have obtained a septic certification which states that the existing sewage disposal system is found to presently be in satisfactory working condition.
No connection shall be made to the Acres Sewer
System except in compliance with this chapter and with the ordinances
and resolutions, as well as such rules and regulations which may,
from time to time, be enacted, adopted, approved or promulgated by
the Township.
The Township and its agents and employees shall
have the right of access to and may enter any building, property,
lands, premises or place as may be necessary to carry out the provisions
of this article and the rules and regulations promulgated hereunder.
In connection with such inspection or investigation, samples may be
taken of any solid, semisolid, liquid or contained gaseous material
for analysis.
The provisions of this article are declared
to be for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the Township,
and persons violating any provisions of this article, upon conviction
before any District Justice, shall be fined not more than $1,000 and
costs of prosecution and collection activities or by imprisonment
in the county jail for a term not to exceed 30 days, or both such
fine and imprisonment. The continuation of such violation for each
successive day shall constitute a separate offense, and the person
or persons allowing or permitting the continuation of the violation
may be punished as provided above for such separate offense.
In addition to the penalties provided in § 105-62, the Township is authorized to file appropriate actions at law or in equity in the Court of Common Pleas in and for Chester County or before any other body having jurisdiction over the persons and activities herein regulated to abate any violations and remove any septic disposal system owned, operated or maintained in violation of the provisions of this article. Violations of this article are declared to be public nuisances, abatable as such.
The Township reserves the right to and may,
from time to time, adopt, revise, amend and readopt such rules and
regulations as it deems necessary and proper for the connection of
properties to the Acres Sewer System and for the use, maintenance
and operation of the Acres Sewer System, and all such rules and regulations
shall be and become a part of this article.
For all ordinances or resolutions or parts of
ordinances or resolutions, insofar as they are inconsistent herewith,
the more stringent ordinance or resolution shall apply.
This article and any rules and regulations hereunder
shall become effective immediately and shall be applicable to all
properties within the Acres Sewer District. The Township reserves
the right to make such changes from time to time as, in its opinion,
may be desirable or beneficial and to amend this article or to change
the fees in such manner and at such times as, in its opinion, may
be advisable.
If any sentence, clause, section or part of
this article is for any reason found to be unconstitutional, illegal
or invalid, such unconstitutionality, invalidity or illegality shall
not affect or impair any of the remaining provisions, sentences, clauses,
sections or parts of this article. It is hereby declared that, as
the intent of the Board of Supervisors of Willistown Township, this
article would have been adopted had such unconstitutional, illegal
or invalid sentence, clause, section or part thereof not been included
therein.
