Development fees totaling $417,294 due to the town from N-Shea Group for the Park Place development on the Avenue of the Fountains are long past due.

The fees, by statute due at the time building permits are issued, are still delinquent, according to Town Manager Grady Miller.

Miller told The Times that the permits were issued in error by Willdan, a third party consulting firm hired to do the inspections on the project. Such a large project is beyond the staff resources of the town to keep up with the inspection process.

Willdan issued the building permits without collecting the development fees and without the town’s knowledge.

The town sent N-Shea Group President Bart Shea a letter in February outlining the error and requested that the fees be paid.

A second letter followed in May after the fees had still not been paid. Miller states in that letter that the delinquent fees must be paid by June 30, or the town would stop construction on the project.

Miller said that is still an option, but he chose not to close the project due to consequences of that action.

“There would be significant legal costs for the town, and at this point I would like to resolve the issue administratively,” Miller said.

He also said he does not want to impact the planning of potential tenants for the development. He said the fees must be paid before the town will issue a certificate of occupancy for the buildings.

Shea told the town and confirmed for The Times that he does not believe he owes the fees. He said that since the fees were not included in the development agreement he believes they are waived.

Miller said he understands the confusion, but it would work just the opposite of that. If the fees had been waived that would be a provision included in the development agreement.

“We negotiated everything that went into this agreement in great detail,” Shea said. “Even the placement of signs and landscaping.”

He also said the development has addressed drainage issues and is addressing power and landscaping items on the Avenue at no cost to the town.

In his May letter Miller states, “The development agreement…contains specific exceptions to town codes, ordinances, zoning and other items that benefitted the Park Place development; there is no reference to delayed development fees in the development agreement.”

All development requirements in state statute and town codes apply unless specifically called out in the agreement, according to Miller.

He also said that the town would not waive development fees for any project. According to state law any development fees waived for a project must still be reimbursed by the municipality from another source.

Miller said that is certainly a cost the town would not want to incur.

Both Miller and Shea say they want to resolve the issue and will continue discussions.

“I will continue to bring things to our town,” Shea said. “I will continue to work with Grady and the council to get this resolved.”

At this point it appears that it would be early 2018 before any certificate of occupancy needs to be issued on the project.