WAWARSING – With a full agenda and some contentious applicants, last Tuesday's meeting of the planning board provided plenty of challenge for Brian Schug, who led his first meeting as the board's chair. But if he gets his way, Schug will help make it so there are fewer challenges in the days ahead for developers and applicants who come before the board.

Towards the end of last week's meeting, Schug talked about how he'd like to offer some suggestions to the town board regarding the fees required by the municipality, as spelled out in town code.

"What I'd like to see changed is that some discretion or some latitude be allowed by the building department and the planning board to determine those fees, rather than just putting some hard numbers in place," said Schug in a phone interview this week.

The situation that inspired the call for greater control over fees was that of White Wolf-owner Jim Maloney, whose plans to build a banquet hall extension to his Napanoch-restaurant have been reportedly stymied by the high fees required of him by town code. The Town of Wawarsing required Maloney to provide cash up front in the form of a $5,000 performance bond, and $11,000 for an escrow account for inspection fees for town engineering firm, Lanc &Tully.

Having the bond fees in place would allow for the town to recoup the costs of cleaning up an applicant's mess, should the project somehow negatively affect another property-owner — and if that developer refused to pay the costs.

"To me, it's like a doomsday scenario," said Schug. "If he's in the process of excavating for the foundation of his banquet hall addition, and we get a torrential rainstorm, and silt and sand wash onto adjoining properties, or town roads, or state highways, then if he doesn't clean up the mess, then the town would have to go out there and clean it up at the town's expense. With that bond in place, they would be able to recoup some of that money."

However, Schug wants the planning board to take an applicant's history into account. "To me, track record says a lot when you come to develop anywhere," he said, adding that if an applicant has a history of being a responsible developer in town, some of the "just in case" fees could be reduced. Inspection fees could be likewise shrunk in favor of a system which may not cost as much up front.

"I would say to put $2,500 put up front, have Lanc & Tully come and do their inspections, and if it gets close to that $2,500 being used, tell him that we can't come out and do any more inspections until we get the escrow account refunded. That's typically how I've seen it done in the past."

Currently, Schug is looking over a list of other municipalities' fees for consulting, escrow, permits, etc., so he can "have some recommendations at next month's meeting for the town to look into."

Town Supervisor Lenny Distel, whose administration appointed Schug as chair of the planning board at the beginning of January, believes that removing roadblocks to development in practical situations is a plus for the town.

"In general, if we want development in the Town of Wawarsing, I think we should make it a little bit easier for developers to come in based on what they want to do," said Distel. "If you want to establish a business someplace here, it seems like over the years our regulations were too stringent."

The planning board will likely continue to discuss the matter at their next meeting on February 23.

"I just want the word to get out to people that the planning board is here to get projects in and out the door," said Schug. "I think we're going to continue to strive towards having projects processed as quickly as the law allows."