Orange County NC Website
~ Y <br />2 <br />Commissioner Willhoit would like to see this within the Chapel <br />Hill/Carrboro planning jurisdiction, joint planning and beyond. <br />However, there is probably very little in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro <br />district that is beyond the joint planning area. <br />Marvin Collins said that much of the data is from within the Joint <br />Planning Area, particularly from Chapel Hill/Carrboro's ETJ. He noted <br />that the closer to the urbanized area, the greater the student <br />generation rates. <br />Commissioner Willhoit asked to see the data for the Rural Buffer <br />and Joint Planning Area including Carrboro's Transitional Area. He said <br />that for the County School district, it would be helpful to see the <br />data for the Hillsborough jurisdiction and thus know which areas are <br />generating students. <br />In answer to a question from Commissioner Halkiotis, Marvin <br />Collins said that no one in the state is using impact fees to finance <br />school construction cost except Orange County. There are many other <br />localities around the country which have adopted impact fees. Many are <br />using sliding scales and have gone through a process similar to what <br />Orange County is doing. Some use a combination of dwelling types and <br />number of bedrooms as a basis for the sliding scale. Some fees are <br />based on square footage in the structure. <br />In answer to a question from Commissioner Halkiotis about relating <br />the impact fee back to student generation rates, Geof Gledhill said <br />that there is a two part test. The one part is a rough-proportionality <br />test where there must be some relationship between the fee and the <br />impact. If a larger fee is charged for a bigger house, then there must <br />be some data that shows that bigger houses generate more children and <br />have more of an impact on schools. That is why these exercises have <br />been done. First, there must be some idea that new housing has an <br />impact on schools and then some idea about what impact different types <br />of housing have on schools before there can be a different fee. It is <br />the difference between a fee and a tax. <br />Commissioner Crowther made reference to the bubble effect about <br />the students in elementary school and asked if this bubble could <br />continue into the middle school and high school. Marvin Collins said <br />that it is "like a wave". It is one of the reasons for reviewing the <br />technical report on an annual basis to see if revisions are necessary. <br />The "wave" effect is one reason why the technical report needs to be <br />revisited to see if it is necessary to adjust the impact fees based on <br />higher or lower student generation rates or construction costs. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that there are two sizable <br />developments getting ready to develop in the northern end of the <br />County, with a potential of 200 homes, which could really change the <br />report. Marvin Collins said that is another reason for reviewing the <br />report on an annual basis. Over a two to three year period, single- <br />family dwellings could flatten out and more emphasis given to <br />construction of apartments or condominiums. Such a situation needs to <br />be considered annually in the technical report update. <br />