Building Impact Fees Would Be Revised

Solicitor William R. Cooper said the township also needed legal backing for the fees it has been charging. Although no developers have refused to pay impact fees, Cooper said several have noted that township zoning ordinances don't contain such a requirement.

"We want to standardize it," explained township manager Daniel P. Olpere. ''The bottom line is we want to be fair."

Development fees have been used to pay capital costs associated with snow removal, garbage pickup and parkland development - things not typically affected by commercial and industrial developments. Nonresidential fees probably would be reserved for financing road improvements and fire protection, Olpere said.

Olpere said the nonresidential fee would be set at between 16 and 60 cents per square foot.

In other business, supervisors debated about language in a land-development agreement for PineCrest, a proposed development of townhouses and single- family houses on the Montgomery Golf Course property. The board agreed to let the developer, The Klein Co., come back next week after the township solicitor and its attorney had worked out legal matters.

Klein has begun work on sample homes, but until the development agreement is approved, the developer cannot begin work on the rest of the site.