2023 New York Laws › TWN - Town › Article 4 - Town Boards › 64-EE - Peconic Bay Region Septic System Replacement Loan Program.

§ 64-ee. Peconic Bay region septic system replacement loan program. 1.
As  used  in  this section, the following words and terms shall have the
following meanings:
(a) "Peconic Bay region" means the towns of East  Hampton,  Riverhead,
Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold.
(b)  "Cesspool" means a drywell that receives untreated sanitary waste
containing human excreta, which sometimes  has  an  open  bottom  and/or
perforated sides.
(c)  "Septic  system"  means  a system that provides for the treatment
and/or disposition of the combination of human and sanitary  waste  with
water  not  exceeding  one  thousand  gallons  per day, serving a single
parcel of land.
(d) "Septic system project" means the replacement of a cesspool with a
septic system, the installation, replacement  or  upgrade  of  a  septic
system   or  septic  system  components,  or  installation  of  enhanced
treatment technologies, including an advanced nitrogen  removal  system,
to  significantly  and  quantifiably  reduce environmental and/or public
health impacts associated with effluent from a cesspool or septic system
to groundwater used as drinking water, or a threatened  or  an  impaired
waterbody.
(e)  "Fund"  means the community preservation fund created pursuant to
subdivision two of section sixty-four-e of this article.
2. The town board of any town in the Peconic Bay region may, by  local
law,  establish a septic system replacement loan program using a portion
of the water quality improvement  monies  from  the  fund,  pursuant  to
paragraph  (e)  of  subdivision  three  of  section sixty-four-e of this
article.
3. Such program may make loans to the owners of real property  located
within  the  town to finance the installation of septic system projects.
The town shall establish priority areas within  the  town,  which  would
receive  water  quality and public health benefits from the installation
of  septic  system  projects,  for  such  loans  in  order  to  maximize
environmental and public health benefits.
4.  To  be  eligible  for  a loan pursuant to this section, the septic
system project shall be listed as an approved water quality  improvement
project  in  the  town's community preservation project plan pursuant to
subdivision six of section sixty-four-e of this article and be  proposed
for  real  property  located  within an established priority area of the
town. Monies from the fund may only be loaned for  projects  which  have
been  included  in such plan and shall not include costs associated with
routine maintenance such as a pump out of a septic tank.
5. A local law establishing the septic system replacement loan program
shall provide for the criteria for making such loans and the  terms  and
conditions for repayment of such loans provided that:
(a)  For  loans made to an owner of real property that is a commercial
entity, not-for-profit organization, or entity other than an individual,
the town  board  shall  have  the  authority  by  local  law  to  impose
requirements  on  the  maximum  amount that may be borrowed through such
loan, which may consider  factors  including  but  not  limited  to  the
property  value,  expected  environmental  and water quality benefit and
existing indebtedness secured by such property.
(b) For loans made to an owner of real property who is an  individual,
the  principal  amount  of each such loan, excluding interest, shall not
exceed the lesser of ten percent of the appraised real property value or
the actual cost of the septic system  project  including  the  costs  of
installation, necessary equipment, materials, and labor.
(c)  No such loan shall be made unless such septic system project will
significantly and quantifiably reduce environmental and/or public health

impacts associated with effluent from a cesspool or septic  system  from
the  proposed  real property site to groundwater used as drinking water,
or a threatened or an impaired waterbody.
6.  Every  loan  made under the septic system replacement loan program
shall be repaid over a term not to exceed ten years. The town shall  set
a  fixed  rate  of interest for the repayment of the principal amount of
each loan at the time the loan is made provided that  no  interest  rate
shall  exceed  two and one-half percent and no applicant shall receive a
loan more than once in any five-year period.
7. The principal amount of each such loan, excluding  interest,  shall
not  exceed  the  actual  cost  of installing the septic system project,
including the costs of necessary equipment, materials, and labor.
8. No such loan shall be made for a septic system replacement  project
unless  such  system  is  approved  by  the Suffolk County Department of
Health Services.
9. The loan made under the  septic  system  replacement  loan  program
shall constitute a lien upon the real property benefitted by such loan.
10.  The  town  may require the loan made under the septic system loan
program to be repaid by the property owner through a charge on the  real
property  benefitted  by  such  loan.  Such  charge shall be on the real
property and shall be levied and collected at the same time and  in  the
same manner as town taxes, provided that such charge shall be separately
listed  on  the  tax  bill,  and provided further that in the event such
charge should not be  paid  in  a  timely  manner,  no  other  municipal
corporation  shall  be  required  to  credit  or otherwise guarantee the
amount  of  such  unpaid  charge  to  the  municipal  corporation  which
authorized  the  loan,  notwithstanding  any  provision  of  law  to the
contrary.
11. All revenues received by the town  from  the  repayment  of  loans
shall be deposited in the fund.