§ 6083a. Act 250 fees

(a) All applicants for a land use permit under section 6086 of this title shall be directly responsible for the costs involved in the publication of notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the area of the proposed development or subdivision and the costs incurred in recording any permit or permit amendment in the land records. In addition, applicants shall be subject to the following fees for the purpose of compensating the State of Vermont for the direct and indirect costs incurred with respect to the administration of the Act 250 program:

(1) For projects involving construction, $6.65 for each $1,000.00 of the first $15,000,000.00 of construction costs, and $3.12 for each $1,000.00 of construction costs above $15,000,000.00. An additional $0.75 for each $1,000.00 of the first $15,000,000.00 of construction costs shall be paid to the Agency of National Resources to account for the Agency of Natural Resources' review of Act 250 applications.

(2) For projects involving the creation of lots, $125.00 for each lot.

(3) For projects involving exploration for or removal of oil, gas, and fissionable source materials, a fee as determined under subdivision (1) of this subsection or $1,000.00 for each day of Commission hearings required for such projects, whichever is greater.

(4) For projects involving the extraction of earth resources, including sand, gravel, peat, topsoil, crushed stone, or quarried material, the greater of: a fee as determined under subdivision (1) of this subsection; or a fee equivalent to the rate of $0.02 per cubic yard of the first million cubic yards of the total volume of earth resources to be extracted over the life of the permit, and $.01 per cubic yard of any such earth resource extraction above one million cubic yards. Extracted material that is not sold or does not otherwise enter the commercial marketplace shall not be subject to the fee. The fee assessed under this subdivision for an amendment to a permit shall be based solely upon any additional volume of earth resources to be extracted under the amendment.

(5) For projects involving the review of a master plan, a fee equivalent to $0.10 per $1,000.00 of total estimated construction costs in current dollars in addition to the fee established in subdivision (1) of this subsection for any portion of the project seeing construction approval

(6) In no event shall a permit application fee exceed $165,000.00.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, there shall be a minimum fee of $187.50 for original applications and $62.50 for amendment applications, in addition to publication and recording costs. These costs shall be in addition to any other fee established by statute, unless otherwise expressly stated.

(c) Fees shall not be required for projects undertaken by municipal agencies or by State governmental agencies, except for publication and recording costs.

(d) Neighborhood development area fees. Fees for residential development in a Vermont neighborhood or neighborhood development area designated according to 24 V.S.A. § 2793e shall be no more than 50 percent of the fee otherwise charged under this section. The fee shall be paid within 30 days after the permit is issued or denied.

(e) A written request for an application fee refund shall be submitted to the District Commission to which the fee was paid within 90 days of the withdrawal of the application.

(1) In the event that an application is withdrawn prior to the convening of a hearing, the District Commission shall, upon request of the applicant, refund 50 percent of the fee paid between $100.00 and $5,000.00, and all of that portion of the fee paid in excess of $5,000.00 except that the District Commission may decrease the amount of the refund if the direct and indirect costs incurred by the State of Vermont with respect to the administration of the Act 250 program clearly and unreasonably exceed the fee that would otherwise be retained by the District Commission.

(2) In the event that an application is withdrawn after a hearing, the District Commission shall, upon request of the applicant, refund 25 percent of the fee paid between $100.00 and $10,000.00 and all of that portion of the fee paid in excess of $10,000.00 except that the District Commission may decrease the amount of the refund if the direct and indirect costs incurred by the State of Vermont with respect to the administration of the Act 250 program clearly and unreasonably exceed the fee that would otherwise be retained by the District Commission.

(3) The District Commission shall, upon request of the applicant, increase the amount of the refund if the application of subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection clearly would result in a fee that unreasonably exceeds the direct and indirect costs incurred by the State of Vermont with respect to the administration of the Act 250 program.

(4) District Commission decisions regarding application fee refunds may be appealed to the Natural Resources Board in accordance with Board rules.

(5) For the purposes of this section, a "hearing" is a duly warned meeting concerning an application convened by a quorum of the District Commission, at which parties may be present. However, a hearing does not include a prehearing conference.

(6) In no event may an application fee or a portion thereof be refunded after a District Commission has issued a final decision on the merits of an application.

(7) In no event may an application fee refund include the payment of interest on the application fee.

(f) In the event that an application involves a project or project impacts that previously have been reviewed, the applicant may petition the Chair of the District Commission to waive all or part of the application fee. If an application fee was paid previously in accordance with subdivisions (a)(1) through (4) of this section, the Chair may waive all or part of the fee for a new or revised project if the Chair finds that the impacts of the project have been reviewed in an applicable master permit application, or that the project is not significantly altered from a project previously reviewed, or that there will be substantial savings in the review process due to the scope of review of the previous applications.

(g) A Commission or the Natural Resources Board may require any permittee to file a certification of actual construction costs and may direct the payment of a supplemental fee in the event that an application understated a project's construction costs. Failure to file a certification or to pay a supplemental fee shall be grounds for permit revocation.

(h) The costs of republishing a notice due to a scheduling change requested by a party shall be borne by the party requesting the change. (Added 1997, No. 155 (Adj. Sess.), § 27; amended 2003, No. 163 (Adj. Sess.), § 26; 2003, No. 115 (Adj. Sess.), § 53, eff. Jan. 31, 2005; 2007, No. 176 (Adj. Sess.), § 8; 2009, No. 134 (Adj. Sess.), § 33; 2011, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 8; 2013, No. 11, § 25; 2013, No. 59, § 12; 2015, No. 57, § 18.)