Orange County NC Website
homes coming into the Orange County school district, including Corbin Downs. They are feeling extreme <br />pressure to plan for new schools, especially a new middle school. <br />3. PRESENTATION OF PROPOSED CORBIN DOWNS DEVELOPMENT <br />Boots Elam, land planner for this proposed development, said that he feels the input he has received has <br />made this a better project. He wants to be a good neighbor, not only to Hillsborough, but also to Orange County. <br />The project name was changed from Hillsborough Place to Corbin Downs by request from the Town. This name <br />was derived from the man who first surveyed the town of Hillsborough. <br />He made reference to several maps. He said that the project is located at the intersection of 1-40 and Old <br />North Carolina 86 with frontage on new North Carolina 86 to the east. The project consists of 337.7 acres. Their <br />goal in establishing this project is to try to establish a project that meets the goals of the Economic Development <br />District (EDD). His firm wants to create an employment center with a living center attached to it. They want to <br />create a living center that could cover all facets of housing, from assisted living, to retirement, to family housing, to <br />apartments, to town homes. All of this would be developed in a village atmosphere based around an employment <br />center. <br />He said that the newspaper always has articles about parking problems in the Triangle area. He said there <br />has been a focus in a lot of the metropolitan areas to provide a housing base located within employment centers. <br />Corbin Downs would provide places to live near places to work. In the beginning they went through a land <br />analysis. The first map they analyzed was the slope of the property to understand the character of the property as <br />it related to the typography. Another map was a soil map that helped in anticipation of erosion and in identifying <br />other techniques that may need to be utilized. Another map was the hydrology map that indicates the location of <br />any flood prone areas and how the site was being drained naturally. Another map was the vegetation map. They <br />felt it important to save as much of the vegetation as possible during the project. They overlaid all the maps using <br />a filter mapping process to come up with a development suitability map. From there, using the goals and objectives <br />of the project, a number of sketch master plans were derived and a master plan was proposed. This master plan <br />broke the property down into areas that would be single family and office flex-business park, assisted living, <br />retirement, apartments, town homes, office, wholesale, retail, a transit stop, and a daycare Montessori school <br />located on the site. In reviewing the EDD and how they derived the land use plans, they worked with their <br />transportation engineers to come up with routes that would lead back to old and new 86. They then derived a plan <br />that sets up the basic schematics of how they envision the project to develop. <br />On a map, Mr. Elam showed what they did to carry out the theme of the history and character of the <br />existing town. Also, they looked at the entrances to the property and then prepared the document which went to <br />public hearing. They received a lot of input from citizens, staff, and town board members at the public hearing. <br />They took the input and revised the plan. The Planning Board reviewed the plan and had another work session with <br />the Town Commissioners to go over the design. The developer said that they also met with the Superintendent of <br />schools and have indicated to Orange County that they maybe able to help with a school site. It is their position <br />that they will work with Orange County either at this site or another site. The developer will provide a school site. <br />Currently they understand that there is an impact fee of $750.00 per unit and they are proposing to add an <br />additional $100 per unit so they will pay $850.00 per unit to the school system. Also, based on the input received, <br />there are 100-foot buffers around the perimeters of the property. They will have ball fields and soccer fields that will <br />be available to all citizens in the community. They had proposed a public safety facility that would be in the eastern <br />part of the property. The Town has requested that it be relocated. They will give five acres plus $300,000 to the <br />Town for that facility. The developers will pay approximately $1,000,000 for waterlines to the development. They <br />have tried to take all the pubic comment into consideration in the plan. They do not see this as an adversary role, <br />but as fulfilling a goal in development of this EDD. <br />4. REVIEW SUMMARY BY STAFF <br />a. Town - Operational and Fiscal Impacts <br />Town Manager Eric Peterson focused on the financial and operational impacts related to the Town of <br />Hillsborough. The most important issues and impacts occur during the first three years. Year one, there will be a <br />deficit. In years two and three the deficits are significant and this needs a lot of thought. If the Board decided to <br />annex this area, they would need to resolve these deficit issues. He said that 77% of the total costs allocated to <br />the Corbin Downs development is public safety related - fire and police. One of the most important points that the <br />Town Board will need to evaluate is the investment in locating a fire and police department in that area. It is <br />evident that development is going to come to this area, it is just a matter of when. As other development occurs, <br />there is an economy of scale, regardless if this area is annexed. He talked about the benefit to the Town by <br />providing water to this area. He said that the Town will not need any more personnel as a result of this project. <br />There would be a deficit the first year in the water fund, but the second and third years the Town would have a <br />surplus. The Town's major concern is making sure that any new development pays for itself. He said that one of <br />the other benefits of this project would be that the EDD would be open for other development. The Town would <br />benefit whether or not the property is annexed. He said there is risk by trying to do this. If the property is annexed