A.
Before final approval of a subdivision plat or site
plan, the municipal agency may require and shall accept in accordance
with standards adopted by ordinance, for the purpose of assuring the
installation and maintenance of on-tract improvements:
(1)
The furnishing of a performance guaranty in favor of the Borough of Palisades Park in an amount not to exceed 120% of the cost of installation for improvements that the municipal agency may deem necessary or appropriate, including streets, grading, pavement, gutters, curbs, sidewalks, streetlighting, shade trees, surveyor's monuments, water mains, culverts, storm sewers, sanitary sewers or other means of sewage disposal, drainage structures, erosion-control and sedimentation-control devices, public improvements of open space and, in the case of site plans only, other on-site improvements and landscaping as specified in Article XIV, § 167-99D, if such have not been installed prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy and then only upon a finding by the municipal agency that sufficient reason exists to issue a certificate of occupancy prior to the installation of such site plan on-site improvements.
(2)
The furnishing of a performance guaranty in favor
of the Borough of Palisades Park equal to the pro rata share of the
cost of providing reasonable and necessary street improvements and
water, sewerage and drainage facilities and easements therefor located
outside the property limits of the subdivision or development but
necessitated or required by construction or improvements within such
subdivision or development. The municipal agency shall establish fair
and reasonable standards to determine the proportionate or pro rata
amount of the cost of such facilities that shall be borne by each
developer or owner within a related or common area, which standards
shall not be altered subsequent to preliminary approval. Such standards
shall be based on circulation and comprehensive utility service plans
pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-28. Where a developer pays the amount
determined as his pro rata share under protest, he shall institute
legal action within one year of such payment in order to preserve
the right to a judicial determination as to the fairness and reasonableness
of such amount.
B.
The Borough Engineer shall review the improvements
required by the approving authority which are to be bonded and itemize
their cost. Said itemization shall be the basis for determining the
amount of performance guaranty and maintenance guaranty required by
the approving authority. The Borough Engineer shall forward his estimate
of the cost of improvements to the applicant within 30 days of the
date of receipt of a request, sent by certified mail, for said estimate.
All improvements required by the municipal agency
shall require the posting of a performance guaranty to assure the
installation of the required improvements prior to final approval
of any subdivision or site plan.
Such performance guaranty may be in the form
of a performance bond which shall be issued by a bonding or surety
company approved by the borough, a certified check returnable to the
landowner after full compliance or other type of surety approved by
the Borough Attorney. The performance guaranty shall be approved by
the Borough Attorney as to form, sufficiency and execution.
The time allowed for installation of the improvements
for which the performance guaranty has been provided may be extended
by the governing body by resolution. As a condition or as a part of
any such extension, the amount of any performance guaranty shall be
increased or reduced, as the case may be, to an amount not to exceed
120% of the cost of the installation as determined as of the passage
of the resolution.
If the required improvements shall not have
been installed or corrected in accordance with the performance guaranty,
the obligor and surety, if any, shall be liable thereon to the borough
for the reasonable or corrected cost of the improvements not installed
or corrected, and, upon the receipt of the proceeds thereof, the borough
shall install such improvements.
A.
Upon substantial completion of all required appurtenant
utility improvements and connection of the same to the public system,
the obligor may notify the Mayor and Council, in writing, by certified
mail addressed in care of the Borough Clerk, of the completion or
substantial completion of improvements and shall send a copy thereof
to the Borough Engineer. Thereupon, the Borough Engineer shall inspect
all improvements of which said notice has been given and shall file
a detailed report, in writing, with the Mayor and Council, indicating
either approval, partial approval or rejection of such improvements,
with a statement of reasons of any rejection. The cost of the improvements
as approved or rejected shall be set forth.
B.
The Mayor and Council shall either approve, partially
approve or reject the improvements on the basis of the report of the
Borough Engineer and shall notify the obligor, in writing, by certified
mail, of the contents of said report and the action of said approving
authority with relation thereto, not later than 65 days after receipt
of the notice from the obligor of the completion of the improvements.
Where partial approval is granted, the obligor shall be released from
all liability pursuant to its performance guaranty, except for that
portion adequately sufficient to secure provision of the improvements
not yet approved, provided that 30% of the amount of the performance
guaranty posted may be retained to ensure completion of all improvements.
Failure of the Mayor and Council to send or provide such notification
to the obligor within 65 days shall be deemed to constitute approval
of the improvements, and the obligor and surety, if any, shall be
released from all liability pursuant to such performance guaranty
for such improvements.
C.
If any portion of the required improvements are rejected,
the approving authority may require the obligor to complete such improvements,
and, upon completion, the same procedure of notification as set forth
in this section shall be followed.
D.
Nothing herein shall be construed to limit the right
of the obligor to contest, by legal proceedings, any determination
of the Mayor and Council or the Borough Engineer.
E.
The obligor shall reimburse the borough for all reasonable
inspection fees paid to the Borough Engineer for the foregoing inspection
of improvements, provided that the municipality may require of the
developer a deposit for all or a portion of the reasonably anticipated
fees to be paid to the Borough Engineer for such inspection.
F.
In the event that final approval is by stages or sections
of development pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-38, the provisions of this
section shall be applied by stages or sections.
The Mayor and Council shall require the posting
of a maintenance guaranty for a period not to exceed two years after
the final acceptance of the improvement, in an amount not to exceed
15% of the cost of the improvement. In the event that other governmental
agencies or public utilities automatically will own the utilities
to be installed or the improvements are covered by a performance or
maintenance guaranty to another governmental agency, no performance
or maintenance guaranty, as the case may be, shall be required by
the borough for such utilities or improvements.
