In every application to an officer, official, department, agency or board of the Village for an action or approval by the Village related to the development, occupancy or use of a property or premises in the Village, upon the filing of the application, the applicant shall be responsible for all consulting fees incurred by the Village for the services of any lawyers, consultants or engineers that are retained by the Village with regard to that application for services related but not limited to engineering, environmental, legal, planning and traffic.

In every application to an officer, official, department, agency or board of the Village for an action or approval by the Village related to the development, occupancy, or use of a property or premises in the Village, upon the filing of the application, the applicant shall be responsible to deposit with the Village Clerk an amount of money to be held by the Village in escrow for the purpose of reimbursing the Village for the costs that are incurred by the Village for the services of any lawyers or consultants, including but not limited to engineering, environmental, legal, planning and traffic, that are retained by the Village in the review and/or processing of that application and the completion of environmental assessment and other required forms.

The Village Administrator of the Village shall be responsible to compute the initial escrow deposit that is paid to the Village for consulting fees for an application pursuant to this section. In the calculation of the deposit required for consulting fees, the Village Administrator shall rely on written estimates provided by the consultants to be retained or that the Village is considering retaining for the work that is involved for that consultant or on previous costs incurred by the Village for similar applications. Where the Village Administrator determines that the application may involve significant review by consultants employed by the Village, the Village Administrator may require an initial escrow deposit of $50,000.

The Village Clerk shall place each deposit that is made to the Village by an applicant pursuant to this section in a separate non-interest-bearing account.

Any application to an officer, official, department, agency or board of the Village for which a deposit for consulting fees is required shall not be considered to have been filed with the Village, no review of the application shall be undertaken by the Village or its consultants and no hearing on the application shall be scheduled by the Village until the amount that is required to be paid into escrow for consulting fees shall have been deposited by the applicant with the Village Clerk.

If the amount that is being held in escrow by the Village should be below 20% of the amount of the initial escrow deposit, the Village, on the recommendation or request of the Village Administrator, may require that the applicant pay additional monies to the Village to be placed in the escrow account to maintain the balance of the escrow account at not less than 50% of the initial deposit amount.

In the event that an application for which a deposit has been made is formally withdrawn in writing or when the application process and any judicial or other review of an application is completed, the balance of funds, if any, in the escrow account for that application shall be remitted to the applicant within 60 days of the final action by the Village. The applicant may request that the amount in the escrow account shall remain on deposit with the Village as the applicant's initial payment towards any post-approval fees for inspections or related matters.

The applicant for any application to an officer, official, department, agency or board of the Village for which a deposit for consulting fees is required shall be responsible for all the consulting and engineering fees incurred by the Village as provided in this section, notwithstanding that the escrow account balance may be insufficient to pay for said fees or expenses.