In today's Observer Dispatch there is a
guest editorial written Dr. Palumbo regarding the recent decision by town officials to keep the FILM money that has been collected since the 1990s. Dr. Palumbo reportedly paid the town $62,600 of Fees In Lieu of Mitigation (FILM) to develop a medical building.
According to a November 20, 2009,
Observer Dispatch article:
Since September, when officials learned the money might have to be returned, they have searched for ways to spend it.
That brings up an interesting question, if you have to search for ways to spend the money, why did you collect it in the first place? By the meaning of the words themselves, Fees In Lieu of Mitigation, it seems to imply that you are collecting monies because you need to mitigate a known adverse impact caused by the proposed development; so why didn't the town use the money that was collected long before the 'drop dead date' of the signed agreements? The town can't even find some of the agreements; what does that say about accountability in the Town of New Hartford?
The fact that, according to Heather Mowat at a recent town board meeting, the lawyer hired by the town advised the town board to not disclose the letter at this point leaves one to believe that the opinion is just that "one lawyer's opinion", open to interpretation. Could they fear that a possible lawsuit might be lurking in the wings? We have yet to see a court case in NYS clearly defining whether or not it is legal to collect these fees. The closest thing we have been able to find was a court case in Guilderland regarding the collection of Impact Fees; the
Town of Guilderland lost the case.If you are a developer looking to build in the Town of New Hartford, would you pay the FILM money without seeing a copy of the opinion that the town paid for?
Strikeslip has more on Dr. Palumbo's guest editorial,
Fees In Lieu of Mitigation...
