NOTHING TO "CROW" ABOUT?

Our Township, like many others, uses the mechanism of an escrow fund to pay fees incurred during a process requested by an applicant such as a public hearing for a Text Amendment, for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP), or for an Interim Use Permit (IUP), as well as in other instances.

When such requests are made, there are "standard" costs such as for officials' attendance, required newspaper publication, sending out letters to neighbors within 1,000 feet, and so on. This amount is paid by the applicant and is nonrefundable, for obvious reasons.



The escrow is a separate amount in addition to these "standard" costs and both must be paid at the time of application in order for the application to be considered complete. The Planning Commission and the Town Board aren't supposed to move forward on any application that is incomplete. Makes sense, right? The applicant is to be notified in writing within 15 days of submission if his application is not complete and is informed as to what is still missing.

The thing with escrows, however, is that they are more like a "down payment." That means the initial amount -often $1,000- stipulated in the Fee Schedule (Ordinance 7) is paid up front to cover any additional costs such as attorney fees or engineer fees as they come up. But that thousand dollars does not represent a total figure necessarily.  It is up to the Commission and the Board as to what additional information they may need in processing an application like this and that information can include such things as attorney consults, for example. If it should happen that more than one thousand dollars is expended, the applicant must also pay any additional fees.  On the other hand, it is certainly possible that less than the one thousand dollars is spent.  In that case, the extra amount is returned to the applicant at the end of the process.

For some uses, there are escrow accounts held by the Township on a continuing basis.  If the account should fall below 50%, it must be replenished to the stipulated amount, which is sometimes $4,000. All this can be spelled out in a development agreement, for example.

This should make a lot of sense and seem right to you because, unless the applicant pays both the "standard" and any escrow amounts involved, you, as the taxpayer, pay. Because the engineer's or other bills still have to be paid, of course! The applicant is and should be the one to pay all costs of gaining his permit or holding his hearing. Period, in my estimation. If someone refuses to pay an additional amount or later requests and is granted a refund, as has actually happened, you and I, through means of the general fund, end up paying for someone else's hearing, entailed attorney fees, or whatever else was deemed necessary.

In the case of a permit, the Township has the simple remedy of at least not granting the permit if any additional costs are not paid in full.  We even have an Ordinance (born out of "necessity") that states that, before receiving any additional permits, any outstanding bills from the past must be paid first.

In the case of a CUP or an IUP, reasonable and related conditions may be placed, but ultimately, these are permitted uses.  We grant them when the procedure is followed correctly and the applicant agrees to all such conditions.  It's possible one may not be thrilled by some conditions, but if they can be defended as related and reasonable, they would stand. As a citizen, you are entitled to such a permit if you agree to the conditions. The Township can regulate by allowing some uses in the list of CUPs and IUPs and not others. One cannot get a permit, even with conditions, for a restaurant as we do not allow that.  It's not on "the list."

But in the case of a hearing, say, for an ordinance text change, the hearing results in their entirety may not be to the applicant's liking. The Board can turn down a Ordinance Text Amendment request. It does not have to allow the use being asked for. This is different from a CUP or an IUP situation. There have been such hearings in the past whereby the applicant was not granted the text change he or she sought. Whether the hearing results are what the applicant wanted or not, or even if the request is withdrawn, but after the fees have been charged for services rendered while the request was in play, does not relieve that person from his/her obligations. Those obligations are taken on at the outset.

ob·li·ga·tion

ˌäbləˈɡāSH(ə)n/

noun

1. an act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a duty or commitment.

o·blig·a·to·ry

əˈbliɡəˌtôrē/

adjective

1. required by a legal, moral, or other rule; compulsory.

   "use of seat belts in cars is now obligatory"

   synonyms:

   compulsory, mandatory, prescribed, required, demanded, statutory,enforced, binding, incumbent;