[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the
Town of Ithaca 2-9-2004 by L.L. No. 3-2004. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
This chapter shall be known and may be cited
as the “Town of Ithaca Sewer Rent Law.”
A.
The Town of Ithaca (the “Town”) has established,
by duly adopted procedures, a Town-wide sewer improvement area and
a Town-wide Town of Ithaca - Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant
Improvement Area as an addition to the Town-wide sewer improvement
area.
B.
The Town, by the ordinances and local laws referred
to below in this chapter, has established sewer rents for the purposes
permitted by, and in accordance with, General Municipal Law Article
14-F, Town Law §§ 130, 133, 198, and 209-q.
C.
The Town wishes to clarify and consolidate the various
ordinances and local laws into one restated sewer rent law.
D.
The Town hereby finds and determines that the most
equitable manner of collecting funds from the various properties within
the Town served by its sewer system (the “Improvement Area”)
to defray the costs of operating, maintaining, and financing the Town's
sewer system and the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant is to
be based, to the extent reasonably possible, upon the consumption
of water on the premises connected with and served by the said Improvement
Area. All other costs of expenditures for operating and maintaining
the facilities of said Improvement Area shall continue to be computed
and assessed upon benefited real property pursuant the process conducted
by the Town annually for the purpose of making such assessments as
the same may be applied and modified from time to time hereafter.
For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise
provided in this chapter, the definitions set forth in § 451
of the General Municipal Law shall be controlling.
[Amended 12-7-2009 by L.L. No. 24-2009[1]]
Pursuant to Subdivision 12-a of § 209-q of the Town
Law, Paragraph (l) of Subdivision 1 of § 198 of the Town
Law, and Article 14-F of the General Municipal Law, the Town hereby
establishes and imposes sewer rents for the use of the sewer system
or for any part or parts thereof and establishes and imposes such
sewer rents as a minimum charge. Pursuant to the aforementioned laws,
the Town Board shall set from time to time by resolution such sewer
rents and charges. Such resolutions shall be adopted after a public
hearing upon five days’ public notice.
[1]
Editor's Note: This local law also provided for an effective
date of 1-1-2010.
The Town Engineer may require each owner and/or
occupant of real property within the Town connected to the Town-wide
sewer facilities to furnish such information as may be necessary and
reasonable in order to carry out the provisions of this chapter. Any
duly authorized officer, employee, contractor, or agent of the Town
or other person duly authorized by the Town, including employees or
other persons associated with the Southern Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal
Water Commission, shall be permitted to enter on any property at reasonable
hours for the purpose of reading meters, inspecting, disconnecting,
repairing or for any other purposes reasonably necessary to carry
out the provisions or purposes of this chapter.
A.
All rents and charges due hereunder shall be payable
quarterly and shall be paid to the Town Clerk of the Town at the Town
Offices at 215 North Tioga Street, Ithaca, New York, except for such
rents and charges which are due and payable to any other entity to
whom billing authority for sewer rents has been given or delegated
by the Town.
B.
The Town Clerk or other person authorized by the Town
Board shall keep a record of all properties within the Town which
are connected to the Town-wide water system and the Town-wide sewer
system, and sewer bills shall be mailed to the owner or any other
person to whom a water bill is addressed, billed, or mailed by the
Town or other entity performing water billing services for the Town,
and at the address appearing on said water bill. If property is connected
to the Town-wide sewer system but not to a Town-operated water system,
unless the property owner has directed the Town in writing to use
a different address, the sewer rent bill shall be sent to the address
to which real estate tax bills for the property are sent. The failure
of any owner or other user to receive a bill shall not excuse nonpayment
thereof, nor shall it operate as a waiver of the penalty herein prescribed.
Notwithstanding any other provision in this chapter, all sewer rents,
surcharges or other fees or charges relating to sewer service, shall
be a charge against the owner of the premises connected with the Town-wide
sewer system, and such owner shall be liable for the payment of all
such rents and charges, including penalties and interest.
C.
In the event any sewer rent is not paid within 30
days of the date of the bill, there shall be added a penalty of 10%
for late payment.
D.
If sewer rents or other charges payable hereunder are not paid within 60 days from the date on which they are due, the Town Supervisor or other person designated by the Town Supervisor may cause a notice to be delivered or mailed to the owner or to any other person designated by the owner addressed to the address to which bills are to be sent, and to the occupant of the premises, addressed at the premises, stating the amount due and demanding payment thereof within a period of at least 10 days of the date of the notice and stating that if such payment is not made, the sewer service shall be discontinued, without further notice, and, at the expiration of such period the Town Supervisor, or any employee or officer of the Town designated by the Town Supervisor, or the Town Board, or any person referred to in § 210-5 above, may enter on said premises and cause the sewer service to be disconnected.
E.
Sewer rents and any other charges payable hereunder
shall constitute a lien on the real property served by the sewer system.
The priority of such lien, and the enforcement thereof shall be in
accordance with Article 14-F of the General Municipal Law which presently
provides that the lien shall be prior and superior to every other
lien or claim except the lien of an existing tax, assessment or other
lawful charge enforced by or for the state or a political subdivision
or district thereof.
F.
The Town may bring an action a) as upon contract,
for sewer rents, surcharges thereto, and all other charges incurred
by the owner of property in connection with sewer service, which are
in arrears, together with interest and penalties thereon, or b) to
foreclose liens for such sewer rents and surcharges. Also, in the
alternative, the Town Board may cause any unpaid sewer rents, surcharges,
or other charges to be levied and collected in the same manner and
in the same time as the Town and county tax in accordance with the
provisions of Article 14-F (Subdivision 4 of § 452) of the
General Municipal Law, or any amendment thereof.
Any costs and expenses or other charges other
than those hereinbefore described, incurred by the Town because of
any repair or other work to the sewer system or otherwise for which
the owner of any property served by or connected with the sewer system
is obligated under this chapter or any other local law, ordinance,
statute or provision of law, shall be collected in the manner provided
for the collection of sewer rents in this chapter, and shall be a
lien upon the property and enforceable in accordance with the provisions
of this chapter, or any other applicable provision of law.
[Amended 5-9-2022 by L.L. No. 9-2022]
A.
Correction of errors. If any owner of real property on which a sewer
rent or charge has been imposed deems themself aggrieved because an
error has been made in computing such sewer rent or charge, or in
applying such sewer rent or charge to the property, they may file
an application for a refund of all or part of such sewer rent or charge.
Such application shall be verified by the owner and shall set forth
the amount of refund sought and the grounds therefor. Such application
shall be presented to the Town Board of the Town, which may refund
all or part of such sewer rent or charge if it determines that an
error has occurred. The Town Board shall make findings to support
its determination. Any such application shall be filed within 60 days
of the time the applicant learns of the claimed error, or within four
months of the date of the bill claimed to be in error, whichever is
earlier. The Town Board may, for good cause shown, extend the time
for the filing of such application if circumstances show the charges
are patently unfair and that the applicant had a reasonable basis
for not timely filing the application for correction of the error.
B.
Refunds for leaks. The Town Board may, by resolution, establish and
revise from time to time a policy for refunds due to leaks. All refund
requests due to leaks shall be governed by any such policy.
Any revenues derived by the Town of Ithaca from
the sewer rents, including penalties and interest, shall be deposited
in a special fund to be known as the “Sewer Rent Fund.”
Monies in such fund shall be used for the payment of the necessary
management, maintenance, operation, repair and financing of any sewer
improvement or service provided by the Town or the Town-wide sewer
improvement area, including any payment required to be made by the
Town to any contracting municipality for such purposes, including
interest and penalties. Except as otherwise stated in this chapter,
at any time, any surcharges on said sewer rents shall be used for
the costs of sewer operations as above defined and shall be specifically
designated for such purpose in the Sewer Rent Fund. Moneys in the
fund shall be used to pay the Town's share of the operating and maintenance
costs and capital costs, to the extent authorized by law and the Town
Board, related to collection, transmission and treatment of sewage
and for any other purpose authorized by General Municipal Law § 453
as the same may be amended from time to time.
This chapter shall apply to all properties in
the Town outside the Village of Cayuga Heights that are connected
to any sewer system operated by the Town, including the Town-wide
sewer system.
If any part or provision of this chapter or
the application thereof to any person or circumstance be adjudged
invalid by any court of competent jurisdiction, such judgment shall
be confined in its operation to the part or provision or application
directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall
have been rendered and shall not affect or impair the validity of
the remainder of this chapter or the application thereof to other
persons or circumstances.
A.
Town of Ithaca Sewer Rent Ordinances adopted by the
Town Board on August 11, 1969, and July 10, 1972, and Local Law Number
6 of the year 1986 entitled “A LOCAL LAW TO ESTABLISH SEWER
RENTS IN THE TOWN OF ITHACA SEWER IMPROVEMENT AREA” adopted
to be effective January 1, 1987, as amended by Local Law Number 7
of the year 1989, by Local Law Number 12 of the year 1990, by Local
Law Number 11 of the year 1993, by Local Law Number 7 of the year
1994, by Local Law Number 12 of the year 1995, by Local Law Number
4 of the year 1997, and by any other ordinances or local laws amending
any of the foregoing, are all hereby amended and restated to read
as set forth in this chapter effective upon the effective date of
this chapter. To the extent the provisions of said earlier ordinances
and local laws conflict with the chapter as set forth herein, this
chapter shall govern.
B.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the sewer rents in
effect prior to the effective date of this amended and restated Town
of Ithaca Sewer Rent Law shall continue in effect for the purposes
of determining any amounts due for sewer rents during the periods
referred to in said prior local laws and ordinances.
