Town officials are scrambling to figure out whether they will have to return more than $3.3 million in unspent development fees if they aren’t spent by 2013.
Since 1992, developers of more than 100 projects in the northern portion of the town paid amounts ranging from just a few hundred dollars to more than $270,000 in fees to offset impacts their projects would have on town infrastructure.
But much of the money was never used because projects were never proposed, town officials said.
And several signed agreements with developers state that any money still remaining in 2013 must be given back.
Town Supervisor Earle Reed said when he found out this week about the possible deadline, he was shocked.
“Quite frankly, I was flabbergasted about it,” he said.
The town is now looking at projects the money can be used for in the immediate future, he said. Officials also are culling through documents to see if the money really needs to be returned so soon.
“I am trying to find proper documentation on the deadlines, if they exist,” town Budget Director Heather Mowat said.
Richard Zdyb, who opened Zebb’s Restaurant in 1992 and paid $4,898, expressed frustration that the money hadn’t been used.
“I never got anything for the mitigation fees,” he said. “They just charged me because they could, not because there was any need,” he said.
Though he sold Zebb’s in 2006, he said he hopes he can get his money back when the time comes.
Town records show that $4,084 of Zdyb’s money, including accumulated
interest, remains.
Planning Board Chairman Jerome Donovan said the money
shouldn’t have been collected if it wasn’t needed.
“They couldn’t identify projects that needed to be done, and if that was the case … that begs the question, why was the money collected in the first place,” he said.
Plans existed, not followed
The town was to collect the development fees after it approved Generic
Environmental Impact Statements for the Seneca Turnpike/Commercial Drive area
and the French Road area.
At the same time, the town drew up a 20-year
capital plan listing how much money should be spent in different projects,
such roads, storm water and sewers.
Regular updates to the plan were supposed to be done, but never were, Mowat said.
The plan also suggests that the developers’ fees could be used to leverage millions in state and federal dollars for projects.
Asked if enough time was left to look for ways to get such federal or state funds before 2013, Reed pointed to the tough economy.
“I don’t think we can count on anything coming out of Albany,” he said.
Reed said some projects could be done, even with just over three years to go before the possible deadline.
He said it is possible work to address flooding on Mud Creek could be done, since the problems may be linked to nearby development.
Business owners
The idea the government might find uses for the money didn’t set well with Zdyb.
“That’s how government’s run,” he said.
But another local businessman, Dean Kelly, president of Jay-K Independent Lumber, had a different view.
In 1992, Jay-K paid $23,662 in mitigation fees, and now $20,023 is left.
He said he’d rather see the money used to help the community than get it back.
“I prefer to see them use it to make New Hartford a better climate for both businesses and residents,” he said.
“I don’t think we were against paying it,” he said. “It was for a good cause.”
Larry Adler, developer of The Orchard and other major New Hartford projects, could not be reached.
A spokesman for Benderson Development Co. of Buffalo did not return
calls.
