Rockaway Township City Zoning Code
§ 54-15.3
Inspection fees.
[Ord. No. 95-24 § 54-27; Ord. No. 00-16 § 6]
The developer shall reimburse the Township for all reasonable inspection fees paid to the Township Engineer for the inspection of improvements required pursuant to this chapter. Prior to the initiation of any construction approved pursuant to this chapter, the developer shall deposit with the Administrative Officer sufficient funds to reimburse the Township for inspection fees paid to the Township Engineer. Deposits shall be paid by cashier's check, certified check, bank money order or cash. The Township Engineer shall not perform any inspection if sufficient funds to pay for those inspections are not on deposit.
Any deposits which remain unused after final approval has been granted and plans signed in the case of a plan review or after improvements have been approved in a project improvement, will be returned pursuant to the close out procedures set forth in Subsection 54-15.5B of the Township of Rockaway Code.
The application review and inspection charges shall be limited only to professional charges for review of applications, review and preparation of documents and inspections of developments under construction and review by outside consultants when an application is of a nature beyond the scope of the expertise of the professionals normally utilized by the Municipality.
Deposits shall be as follows:
A.
The developer shall deposit for the inspection fees an amount with the Township not to exceed, except for extraordinary circumstances, the greater of $500 or 5% of the cost of improvements, which cost shall be determined pursuant to this chapter.
B.
For those developments for which the reasonably anticipated fees are less than $10,000, fees may, at the option of the developer, be paid in two installments. The initial amount deposited by a developer shall be 50% of the reasonably anticipated fees. When the balance on deposit drops to 10% of the reasonably anticipated fees because the amount deposited by the developer has been reduced by the amount paid to the Township Engineer for inspection, the developer shall deposit the remaining 50% of the anticipated inspection fees.
C.
For those developments for which the reasonably anticipated fees are $10,000 or greater, fees may, at the option of the developer, be paid in four installments. The initial amount deposited by a developer shall be 25% of the reasonably anticipated fees. When the balance on deposit drops to 10% of the reasonably anticipated fees because the amount deposited by the developer has been reduced by the amount paid to the Township Engineer for inspection, the developer shall make additional deposits of 25% of the reasonably anticipated fees.
D.
If the salary, staff support and overhead for a Municipal professional are provided by the Municipality, the charges shall not exceed 200% of the sum of the products resulting from multiplying (1) the hourly based salary, which shall be established annually, by ordinance, of each of the professionals by (2) the number of hours spent by the respective professional upon review on the application for development or inspection of the developer's improvements, as the case may be. For other professionals the charge shall be at the same rate as all other work of the same nature by the professional for the Municipality when fees are not reimbursed or otherwise imposed on applicants or developers.
E.
The only cost that shall be added to any such charges shall be actual out-of-pocket expenses of any such professionals or consultants including normal and typical expenses incurred in processing applications and inspecting improvements.
F.
If the Municipality retains a different professional or consultant in the place of the professional originally responsible for development, application review, or inspection of improvements, the Municipality or approving authority shall be responsible for all time and expenses of the new professional to become familiar with the application or the project and the municipality or approving authority shall not bill the applicant or charge the deposit or the escrow account for any such services.