The Town Board finds and determines that there is a critical and compelling need, in the public interests as set forth herein, to provide for full and fair disclosure of all privately held and/or non-publicly-traded entities making land use applications before the Town to the extent possible to ensure that any and all potential conflicts of interest or other ethical concerns are properly disclosed and addressed by any and all affected parties.

The Town finds and declares that there is no existing law that preempts the adoption of this article so that the public interests in open and transparent government and land use applications can be promoted by enactment of this article to require all privately held and/or non-publicly-traded entities making land use applications to supply information as to all limited and general members, shareholders, officers and directors or any other authorized persons having control over such privately held entities who apply for approval from the Town. Such disclosure will inform the public and the Town concerning the names of individuals with a vested interest in land use applications, will facilitate application review by the reviewing boards, will disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest and enhance enforcement of the Code.

A land use application for land development or construction within the Town that lists an entity as the owner and/or applicant shall complete an entity disclosure statement in a form approved by the Town Board from time to time by resolution and provide all information required in said form. Said entity disclosure statement shall be affirmed or sworn to under the penalty of perjury and shall be filed along with any such land use application or request for permission to undertake any construction activity within the Town. The following information shall be required to be disclosed in the entity disclosure statement:

In the event that, prior to issuance of a certificate of occupancy for any project under this article, a project that has previously received approval is in any manner transferred, whether by transfer of the property or transfer of the management and/or operation of the original entity making application to another entity, the transferring entity shall notify the Town and such succeeding entity must fully comply with this article before any work on the project shall be permitted to proceed. It shall be the responsibility of both the applicant and the entity to which transfer is being made, to notify the Town of any such transfer.

Said entity disclosure statement shall apply to any land use applications, approvals or permission sought from the Building Inspector, Town Board, Town Planning Board, Town Zoning Board of Appeals, the Architectural Community Appearance Board of Review (ACABOR) or Historical Area Board of Review (HABOR). The Town shall not process, hear, rehear, approve or sign any new or pending preliminary or final site plan, preliminary or final subdivision map, special permit, variance or other land use application or permit which relates directly or indirectly to any construction, including but not limited to any grading permit, erosion and sediment control permit, wetland permit, sewer connection permit, floodplain development permit, water connection permit, which may be granted in association with any construction unless the application includes a fully completed entity disclosure statement signed and either sworn to or affirmed and submitted with said application to the respective Board.

An entity disclosure statement is not required for any of the following activities:

Where an entity or its representative(s) refuses or fails to provide the information required under this article, the further processing of such application and any work related thereto ("the application") shall be suspended in all respects, until such time as the board or official before which application is submitted or pending determines that the entity has fully complied with the provisions of this article. In the event of any form of transfer of the property that is the subject of the application occurs or the ownership and/or management of the project is transferred in any manner to another entity during a pending suspension of the application under the Local Law, the application shall remain suspended until such time as the succeeding entity shall appear before such body or official before whom the application is pending and obtain approval for any continued work in relation to the application in addition to compliance with this article. The Building Inspector is authorized to issue a stop-work order on any project where an application has been suspended under this article.

Any entity or representative of an entity that provides false information or grossly inaccurate information regarding any application, or who fails to advise the Town of a change in ownership shall, in addition to the suspension of any pending application as set forth in Subsection A above, be punishable by a penalty pursuant to Chapter 41A of the Town Code for violation of this article. The Town Building Inspector/Code Enforcement Officer is hereby authorized to issue an appearance ticket or other process for a violation of this article.

Nothing herein shall be deemed to preclude a criminal proceeding being instituted by the People of the State of New York against the entity or any of its representatives in the Justice Court or County Court for any offenses where the conduct committed may constitute a violation of the New York State Penal Law or other criminal statutes.

Civil penalty. In addition to those penalties prescribed by herein and by state law, any person or entity who violates any provision of this chapter shall be liable to a civil penalty of not more than $3,000 for each offense. The civil penalties provided by this subsection shall be recoverable in an action instituted in the name of this Town. In any such proceeding to collect a civil penalty, the Town shall be entitled to collect interest, costs and disbursements incurred in connection with such proceeding and in addition reasonable counsel fees or a charge to reimburse the Town for expenditures for attorneys employed or appointed by the Town.