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10 <br />that the County Commissioners recommend to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools <br />that they fully implement the recommendations of the Panessi report and help <br />eliminate overcrowding. She stressed creative solutions and noted that <br />charter schools would completely eliminate the overcrowding in the Chapel <br />Hill-Carrboro City school system. <br />NOTE: AT THIS POINT IN THE AGENDA, THERE WAS A FIVE MINUTE BREAK BEFORE <br />REPORTS A & B WERE HEARD. PUBLIC COMMENTS CONTINUE BELOW. <br />JOE CAPOWSKI, speaking as a private citizen, asked that the County <br />increase the impact fee from $750 to $1, 000 and borrow money to build the <br />necessary schools and pay for them from the district tax. This way, the ones <br />who benefit will be the ones who pay. <br />DAN COLEMAN spoke on behalf of the Orange County Greens. They support <br />increasing the impact fee and feel it should increase relative to the cost. <br />They support a sliding scale and a property tax credit for affordable housing. <br />ALEX ZAFFRON supports a sliding scale on the basis of square footage. <br />He asked that the Board be sure that the emphasis is there to be sure that any <br />kind of levy placed on new development does not exclude a group of people from <br />living in this community because of their socioeconomic status. He feels that <br />public education is a system designed to meet the needs of all people <br />regardless of income. He suggested that the Board try to put together another <br />structure or system to offset the impact fee on low and moderate homebuyers <br />in the form of a homestead opportunity credit which would be applied to the <br />property tax for the first or first and second year of homeownership for <br />people who purchase homes who fit into the category of affordability. He <br />distributed a statement from the Affordable Housing Coalition of Orange County <br />which supports the positions stated above. <br />MARK MARCOPLOS talked about his own personal situation. He lives in <br />a mobile home and hopes to build a house in the future. They home school <br />which saves the. school system $9,000 - $15,000 by teaching their children at <br />home. He feels there is a flaw in the system. He talked about the new <br />McDougle School and feels there is waste in the structure of the school which <br />is not energy efficient. He would feel better about paying an impact fee if <br />the schools were built more efficiently. He would like to see a commitment <br />to the taxpayers of this County to cut some of the costs which are obvious and <br />take advantage of the gold mine that energy efficiency can provide. <br />KEITH COOK spoke as a private citizen saying that he does support the <br />increase of up to $1,000 for the fee because they in northern Orange need to <br />increase the capital they have for schools. People come to this community for <br />the quality of life and quality of education. He is not in favor of a fee <br />higher than $1,000. If it goes higher, he favors separating the northern part <br />of the County from the southern part. He wants to be sure that those <br />individuals that fall under the 60% of medium income are exempt from the fee. <br />He suggested that the School Boardsand the Planning Department communicate so <br />they know where development will occur. <br />KEITH ALDRIDGE, Chair of the Orange Community Housing Corporation, does <br />