Cortlandville town attorney John DelVecchio at a recent town board meeting. (Photo Source: Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
A new local law could have important ramifications to the way the Cortlandville town board is able to adjust fees.
The changes were suggested by town attorney John DelVecchio on Wednesday, who said he has heard from residents regarding the fees associated with the vacant property law adopted in July of this year.
“The purpose of the (conversations between Cortlandville Fire Department and the Building Code Department) basically aimed at trying to come up with a way for the town to address these buildings and put first responders on notice where there is a vacant and potentially hazardous building,” DelVecchio said at a previous meeting regarding the vacant property law. “We don’t have anything in our code to do that. For the language of the local legislation, I pieced together language from laws found in several other municipalities.”
Through the proposed ordinance, residents can file complaints with the town’s Building Code Office to declare a property as vacant. Property owners are to register a vacant building with the Building Code Office no later than 30 days after the building is deemed vacant, or no later than 30 days after the owner has been notified by a code enforcement officer of the requirement to register, the proposed law states. The annual registration fee, as written in the local ordinance, is $500 for a residential building and $1,000 for a commercial building.
“There are many people who have told me that those are high,” DelVecchio said Wednesday. “And so I think the board should consider reducing those fees. What I did is put together a proposed local law that, if you adopt it, will allow the town board to address any fees in the entire town code with a resolution.”
By adopting DelVecchio’s proposed local law, the town wouldn’t have to pass subsequent local laws to reduce fees tied to town code.
“It basically says all fees adopted by the town of Cortlandville town board may be amended by town board resolution, and be available on file at the town of Cortlandville,” he said.
Town Board member Jeff Guido praised the proposed local law.
“It makes me feel surprised that it hasn't been done prior to this,” he said. “It seems a rather clunky way of trying to roll with the changes.”
The town scheduled a public hearing in January for DelVecchio’s proposed local law.
