Minutes - 19950525 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

5 impact of new rapid development on the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City School System and that an increased impact fee is an important part of the revenue mix. They support raising the fee to $1,500 and separating Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Orange County fees. They support the impact fee study which is being done at this time. ALAN BELCH talked about bets being made on how high the impact fee will be raised. He said that new schools are needed and there is no question that the County must pay for these new schools. What increases the need for schools is children and unless there is a head tax on every new child coming into either of the school systems, there is no fairness to what is really happening. He stated that a $1,500 impact fee will cost homebuyers $3,000 in payments. He believes the cost of housing will continue to rise while the real issue of creating a bigger business base will suffer. He said that it concerns many in the County that significantly inappropriate figures have been used by various citizens groups to justify a larger increase and the press and the public seem to buy the numbers without question. GLORIA FALEY, resident for seventeen years and a volunteer in the schools, supports the Board of County Commissioners ten-point plan. She supports the $1,500 impact fee and encourages implementing a sliding scale based on number of bedrooms per square footage which will insure the diversity and richness of the community. She said that the bulk of the homes being built and sold in Chapel Hill are not affordable housing but $150,000 plus. She supports building and maintaining a working team of the Chapel Hill Council, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and the School Boards to insure that any land use plan includes the children's education and a plan that requires responsibility for existing and new residents of the schools and responsibility of the developers who will sell their homes because of the high quality of our schools. She feels that the roots of the American dream lie in a good public education. KEN SCOTT said he feels that $1,500 is a large figure. Orange County has 5,400 students now compared to twenty-five years ago when they had 5,000 students. KAREN BARROWS spoke in support of the impact fee. She feels it is good budget management and that developers will absorb some of the cost as well as citizens. She noted that borrowed money cost more. She supports a sliding scale. Education cost more money today as well as constructing new schools cost more today. EARL DAVIS is against the impact fee and against any more taxes in this County. He feels the County does not care about the low income population. MARY JO BATEMAN, parent of three children in the Chapel Hill- Carrboro schools, read a letter from Livy Ludington who supports the increase to $1,500 for the school impact fee. In summary, she said that the schools are severely overcrowded and action must be