Town board adopts new building fees

By NEAL RENTZ

The Lewisboro Town Board voted unanimously Feb. 24 to approve new building department fees, which include a plan to extend the timeframe for permits from the previous one year to three years to complete construction. 

Under the new fee schedule, property owners getting a permit will have three years to obtain a certificate of occupancy. If that is not possible, a one-year permit could be obtained by paying a fee to the building department. 

A major topic of discussion prior to the vote was expired building permit renewal fees.

“There would be no cutoff,” Supervisor Tony Gonçalves said at the meeting.

Councilwoman Andrea Rendo said several homeowners have thought they had a certificate of occupancy but did not. The legislation approved this week will allow homeowners to obtain a CO without a financial penalty.

Building Inspector Kevin Kelly said that under the approved legislation, the renewal fee will be no more than $1,000 for a residence and a maximum of $5,000 for businesses.

“Before, the fees were more excessive to renew when you had an expired permit,” Rendo said. 

Prior to the new legislation, a property owner was required to pay 125 percent of the original permit fee.

“We had talked about an amnesty period, so this in essence would be the new amnesty period,” Gonçalves said. 

“People that want to renew, whose permits have expired, they can do so at the new renewal fee,” Gonçalves said.

Some of the other aspects of the new building department fees include: the blasting/chipping fee rising from $150 to $500; the  modification of an approved plan review fee went from no cost to $500; the landlord registration fee went from no charge to $200; and the stop work order removal/lifted fee will now be imposed at a cost of $1,000.

Bathhouse project

Also at this week’s meeting, the board discussed bids for the town swimming pool bathhouse project.

The town went out to bid for the project, but there will be another bid for the structure’s timber frame, Gonçalves said. The new bids were submitted at a lower cost than the first bid, he noted. 

Darren Mercer, the architect for the bathhouse project, told the town board, “We gave the bidders an opportunity to bid on either the general contractor portion of it, the timber (frame) portion or both.”

The two low bidders for the timber had some deficiencies in their bid documents, Mercer said. The third bidder sought a contract for both the timber and the general contractor duties, he said. “That number was much higher than the other two bidders,” he said.

The next bid was just for the timber frame, Mercer said. One of the bids for the timber was $428,127 and the other bid was for about $100,000 more, he said. The general contractor bid is for $750,000, Gonçalves said, adding the total cost is $1,272,400, including $94,400 in soft costs. 

“We’re not going to make a decision tonight,” Gonçalves said. “I just wanted the board to take this information and give it some thought.”

The cost could be paid for a bond of $600,000 previously approved by the board and the rest could be borrowed or taken from the fund balance. Gonçalves said.

The town is seeking to have the new bathhouse in place by the start of the town’s swimming pool season in late May 2026.