Minutes - 02-26-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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absolutely fair to increase the impact fee to $3,000, especially if we can show that most of these fees are being paid by new citizens in the County. Nick Tennyson, Executive Vice President of the Homebuilder's Association of Durham and Orange Counties, said that public school impact fees are not philosophically the right thing to do. He said that public school education was an indivisible public good. He said that the Homebuilder's Association did support some types of impact fees, such as water and sewer and transportation, but it is impossible to sort out anyone who benefits more from having an excellent public education system. Vic Knight is opposed to an increase in the impact fee. He said that if the $3,000 impact fee were impaled, a person would have to increase their income more than 3% to be able to afford a home costing $100,000. He does not feel this is a fair way of doing this. He supports an assessment on the property tax. He said that mast people who are in favor of the increased impact fee are people who already live here and have purchased a home. People who have not moved here yet are not represented because mast of them probably do not know if they will live here or nat. He asked the Commissioners to consider limiting the impact fee to the current rate, if anything at all. Doug Stewart who lives in Hillsborough asked the County Commissioners to consider mitigating the impact fee, which seems bound to pass, by considering the allocation of 10°~ of the total bond funds for affordable housing units. He said that UNC-CH would be adding thousands of jobs, many of them low-paying jobs, with the planned expansion in the next 5-6 years. He said that the crisis of affordable housing, especially in southern Orange County, could be mitigated through the use of land banking. He suggested using a land bank method and using more of the bond money to buy land that would be put aside for affordable housing. If the southern part of Orange County were going to have new jobs, it would be reasonable to have those people live near their jobs. Anne Neville VIlilliams lives in Chapel Hill Township and pays taxes for Chapel Hill- Carrboro City School. She said that her family has been there for over 100 years. Her son built a home on the farm, on which her ancestors paid the taxes. Before her son could build his home on the farm, he had to pay the $3,000 impact fee. She made reference to the waiver for affordable housing and asked for consideration of a waiver for owners of farmland. Craig Benedict said that any additional comments could be made in writing to himself or the Clerk to the Board. This information can be put on the public record prior to the next Planning Board meeting. The testimony from this public hearing will be considered by the Planning Board next month for a recommendation, and then back to the County Commissioners for a consideration for an amendment to the educational impact fee ordinance within two months. Information from both school districts will also be considered with the public comment. Nicole Gooding-Ray asked if there has been any study done on charging an impact fee by using a percentage of the total purchase price instead of a fixed fee or flat amount. Craig Benedict said that the Planning Board could discuss this issue next month. Paul Tischler reiterated that this is a fee and not a tax. Commissioner Brown asked for the number of new houses that have been sold for $100,000 in Orange County within the last five years. Craig Benedict will bring back the cost of housing from new construction that has occurred over the last five years. Commissioner Jacobs asked for a report about reimbursement and how many people get this waiver, how we let people know that they may qualify for the waiver, how they do quality, etc. Craig Benedict will work with Housing and Community Development Director Tara Fikes on the history of reimbursements of impact fees. Commissioner Brown asked Paul Tischler if there is anyplace in the United States that levies impact taxes and he said that there are excise taxes, which go into a broader pot of money. Orange County does not have this type of legislation available. Hunter Schofield asked Paul Tischler if he was familiar with any system where a waiver was provided when the applicant was constructing a new residence for an immediate family member and Paul Tischler said no. Paul Tischler said that if a jurisdiction wanted to waive the fee for such a party, they would have to provide reimbursement. Any exemptions granted would have to be replaced by the amount of money that was waived. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Brown to refer the public school impact fee to the Orange County Planning Board along with the information and