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HomeMy WebLinkAboutI - 19 Annual Association of Towns TrainingCalendar of Events 2022 Regional Fall Planning & Zoning Schools In cooperation with the NewYork Planning Federation, our fall Planning & Zoning Schools return to in -person training with three convenient regional locations. We strongly recommend registering online ahead of time as spacing is limited at each location. NYPF and/or ACT member registration rates: $90 pre -registration / $95 at the door; non-member pre -registration $110 / $130 at the door. • (2nd Room Added) September 13, 2022, Town of Hyde Park (Dutchess County), Wallace Center at FDR Library & Museum SOLD OUTSept:.:.L ,: D2, `32-2, October 6, 2022, Village of Lake Placid (Essex County), Conference Center at Lake Placid 2023 Annual Meeting • Feb.19 - 22, 2023, NY Marriott Marquis NEW THIS YEAR, register byl 0/31 to lock in the lowest event registration rate and hotel room rates at 2022 prices! All rates will increase on 11 /1 and event egistration will go up again on 1/28/231. 0.1J 0�11VUI -Y, Case Law Update Appellate Court Upholds Updated Municipal Permit Fee Structure In Matter of201 C-Town LLC v City of Ithaca (206 AD3d 1398 [2022]), a developer challenged the City of Ithaca's street opening permit fee structure as an unconstitutional tax. Specifically, the city developed a new fee structure during the course of the developer's project in response to public complaints and public safety concerns over obstructions in the right-of-way and street and sidewalk closings.The developer paid the original application fees of $50 and $25 and asserted that the additional permit fees were an unconstitutional tax. The court disagreed, finding that local governments have home rule authority to adopt local laws relating to the acquisition, care, management and use of its highways, roads, streets, avenues and property (see Municipal Home Rule Law section 10 [1 ] [I!] [a] [61), which includes both the issuance of permits to allow encroachments in the rights -of -way and to impose fees to cover the costs associated with the encroachment. Inasmuch as the public has an "absolute and paramount"right to use the city's streets, the city could impose reasonable conditions and fees on any permits that inhibit this right. In this case, the initial fee structure did not contemplate the impacts of the developer's project and, accordingly, could be modified to account for same. The fee has to be reasonably necessary and cannot be open-ended or unlimited. Here, the city looked to a fee structure that would allow the developer to temporarily close a street or sidewalk but also ensure that the cost would incentivize the developer to minimize these closures and work effi ciently. Th e court found that this was a rational exercise of home ule authority. ith this finding, 161 governments an feel confident hen modifying / updating fee structures so long as the modification is rationally related to the costs associated with the permit.