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Site plan guarantee/surety bonds

SteveHarveyOswald

SteveHarveyOswald

Cyburbian
Messages
60
Points
4
When does your municipality require a site plan guarantee/surety bond (or letter of credit, etc.) to be posted? For example, do you require a performance guarantee for any level of site improvements requiring a site plan application, or do you have a threshold based upon the intensity/level of site improvements (e.g. Minor vs Major Site Plan application)?
 
Anytime offsite improvements or landscaping are required we want a surety bond. That's usually with the site plan or plat step of the game.
 
Always thought prior to building permit issuance was the norm pretty much everywhere for anything that requires an actual site plan. With tranches of the PG handed back gradually per an agreed upon schedule as site improvements are constructed, and the remaining dollars potentially held until well after C of O issuance depending on what's needed for the final punch list.
 
Any time we have "required improvements," meaning anything you have to install to comply with the zoning. On site, off-site, to become publicly-owned , or private. For big ones we do a phased return as phases of the improvement are completed and inspected (mostly for street construction).

We look for it after final plan and plat approval and before permits, but lately DPW has been pushing to get it squared away prior to final plan.
 
JNA said:
Letter of credit for subdivision improvements.
Our form - https://www.evansvillegov.org/egov/documents/1676567094_31739.pdf

Do you have a specific form that the bank must follow ?
Does your's have a time limit & amount ?

When I was in charge of them - I had returned a few for not following our form & drew on a few also.
Click to expand...
We had to draw on a guarantee once for a stormwater pond that wasn't put in properly. The HOA had taken the turnover from the developer and he was demanding his $ back, via a note on the literal back of a napkin "with 12% interest" which was not the term of the guarantee (municipality keeps any interest). Instead we spent his money making the neighborhood whole.

We do three years. Getting better about "all permits and COs in the subdivision stop if the three-year term runs out and escrow is not renewed."
 
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