HARTWICK - The Hartwick town board listened to comments Monday night regarding a proposed local law governing reimbursement of consulting costs in regard to the planning board's review of development proposals.

The law, entitled Reimbursement of Fees and Expenses to the Town of Hartwick, would require developers, or applicants to deposit money in an escrow at the time they submit their application to the planning board. As costs are incurred, the supervisor would pay them from the money in the account. If, as the bills are paid, the amount on deposit is insufficient, any review or approval may be withheld until new funds are deposited.

Vincent Rozella, whose Hartwick Highlands campground was approved by the planning board earlier this year, told the board he had concerns about the law stemming, in part, from his experience.

Rozella stills owes the town money for costs from the review of his project by the planning board's engineers, Stearns and Wheler. He has stated his willingness to settle up with the town and has worked for months to try and resolve what he calls "discrep-ancies" in the bill, but has not been successful.

By requiring a developer to deposit money in an escrow account, it allows someone else to be in control of the money and "spend it at will."

"They can call in any consultant they want, even if it's not necessary," he said.

Planning board member Orrin Higgins said he believed it would be a good idea to stipulate in the definitions of applicant and developer that they must be either a land owner, or hold a lease or option to land in the town.

"So they would have standing in the town to even be an applicant. It would make them a bona fide developer or applicant," he said.

But town attorney Lynn Green said he believed it would be more appropriate to address that in the site plan review law and leave the new law as broad as possible to recover all costs.

Higgins, who is also a former co-chairman of the planning board, added that he believes the law is "long over-due because we have lived and learned from our mistakes. This will help insure we don't repeat them. It spells out plainly what is expected of developers."

Keith Parr, president of the Concerned Citizens of Hartwick, added, "I think it's a very smart thing the town is doing."

The law does not spell out is how much money developers will be asked to deposit when they submit an application, but provides for a schedule of deposits to be established by the town board and Monday night the board had a draft of a resolution to do so.

The resolution states that the planning board shall set the amount at no less than one percent of the estimated cost of the entire project and no more than five percent.

The town hired an environmental attorney and an engineering firm to assist the planning board in the more technical aspects of the site plan review process. And in the process, the town ran up a bill of more than $85,000 since the first of the year. Some of that expense can be attributed to help of a general nature and not related to a specific development proposal.

But the majority of the bill has to do with specific projects and should be reimbursed by the developers.

The town's site plan review law allows it to bill developers for costs incurred during the review of a project.

The board did not take action on the law or the resolution, but both will be on the agenda for its regular monthly meeting next Monday night, December 11.