Minutes - 06-21-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

would consider stooping to this level. This is a perfect example of how you can choke a town with traffic. He does have a high degree of respect far the Town Commissioners. He would start out with making a statement about the purpose of the EDD and that traffic is a concern, and that this development does not adequately address traffic concerns. He thinks it is a goad idea to reduce this project by 150,000 square feet. He would like to make the statement to encourage Hillsborough to carefully examine the environmental effects of this development, particularly the reduction of buffers and the increase in impervious surface. He thinks that we would have concerns that this will undermine the viability of a larger EDD. He made some editorial changes on page five, which were sa noted by Craig Benedict. Chair Halkiotis authorized Craig Benedict to go forth and speak on his behalf. There was a consensus to empower Craig Benedict to go forth and present these paints an June 25th to the Hillsborough Tawn Board. Commissioner Brown asked if Hillsborough was desperate to get some kind of retail development and was therefore willing to settle for something like this. Chair Halkiotis said that he thinks the Town is desperate for something to increase the tax base and that the developers realize this. 3. Additions, Deletions and Other Modifications to the Manager's Recommended 2001-02 Operating Budget John Link made reference to the buff-colored copy of the budgetlband materials. He suggested an order of discussion for each of the issues. He reminded the Board that the recommendation for the countywide tax rate is 81.5, which is a real tax increase of 3 cents after revaluation. The recommendation for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district tax is a real tax increase of 2 cents after revaluation, which is 20.2 cents. Commissioner Gordon asked if it was appropriate tonight to discuss impact fees and Chair Halkiotis said that he is in favor of discussing it tonight and the Board decided to discuss the impact fee at or near the beginning of the agenda. School Funding and CHCCS District Tax John Link made reference to the two scenarios for school funding and said that he was not able to reach either superintendent to get a response. Nick Didow, Chair of the Chapel Hill Carrboro City School Board, said that option two in the County Manager's letter of June 19th would be the preferred. They would certainly not stand in the way of the Orange County system to do what they need to do. In answer to a question from Commissioner Jacobs about fund balance, Nick Didow said that they are willing to spend their fund balance down to the 5.5% level. The original budget proposal to the County Commissioners was to spend about $900,000 of that fund balance toward annual operating expenses this year. They are comfortable with spending it down to 5.5°/a. The vast majority of the additional funds beyond $900,000 would be spent on renovation and capital projects depending on the amount of local and state funding. If the County Commissioners have some particular endorsement of capital projects they would like to call to the school board's attention, the school board would welcome that input. Commissioner Jacobs suggested spending some of the fund balance for planning for the Elementary School #10. Nick Didow said that one of the highest priority capital projects for using those funds would be to use it for that reason. In answer to a question from Commissioner Carey, Nick Didow said that the $900,000 was not earmarked for any particular project. In answer to a question from Commissioner Gordon about $6,000,000 for the high school space as recommended by the Capital Needs task force, Nick Didow said that the School Board endorsed the Task Farce recommendation for high school space and said that the $6,000,000 would be used for planning High School #3 and for the other items in the Task Force recommendations to accommodate the increase in high school enrollment. Impact Fees John Link recommends as requested by the Orange County school system $3,000 far single family detached and $1,420 for all other residential. For the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City system, it would