Orange County NC Website
D. ORANGE COUNTY EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IMPACT FEE ORDINANCE <br />AMENDMENTS (BOCC Public Hearina] <br />1. Amendments to Orange County Educational Facilities Impact Fee Ordinance <br />Amend Section 2 -Definitions, for consistency with the State Building Code and to <br />provide definitions and examples for the following terms: single family detached, all <br />other residential types, and new residential dwelling unit. <br />Amend Section 4 -Public School Impact Fee Exceptions, to add an impact fee <br />exception when a dwelling unit is moved to a new lot. <br />Craig Benedict said that this is a public hearing on the Orange County Educational <br />Facilities Impact Fee Ordinance. The original ordinance was put into effect in the early 90's and <br />has been modified occasionally. The changes tonight have to do with definitions and the <br />exceptions. He made reference to page three of the ordinance and the areas in red, which is <br />the suggested new language for definitions. The exception section is on page six of the <br />abstract. He explained the two items in red on page six. <br />Chair Jacobs said that no member of the public has signed up to speak to this item. <br />Allan Rosen said that he would like for the County Commissioners to pay particular <br />attention to those situations of an efficiency apartment on an R1 or single-family lot and that it <br />also not require a 100°~ impact fee in specific situations {mother-in-law apartments or other <br />extended family members). <br />Craig Benedict said that when the original impact fee study was done, there was not a <br />clear differentiation of all the different categories. He said that the efficiency apartment would <br />be clustered as another residential unit, which would be $1,420 per unit in Orange County and <br />$1,979 in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. If there can be credible information about different types of units <br />and different definitions, they can more clearly assess the impacts of how many children come <br />forward from these types of apartments. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to the moving of the lots and said that it is missing one <br />permutation - if someone moves a building from a lot and they have already paid an impact fee <br />and they move it to a new spat, he sees no logic in extinguishing the development rights on the <br />lot they left in order to preclude them from having to pay an impact fee again. He said that if a <br />new structure is built an the lot they left, it seems logical that the new structure would have an <br />impact fee associated with it. He does not understand why this is not the most logical <br />possibility. <br />Geaf Gledhill said that the reason that the recommendation is the other way is that <br />impact fees are land use regulations that run with the land and not with the buildings. Anew <br />house on a lot that had a house on it before would not trigger an impact fee. <br />Chair Jacobs asked for something in writing analyzing this. He thinks that this is <br />unnecessarily restrictive. <br />Commissioner Gordon made reference to page six, item `d', and said that it does not <br />make clear that the person doing this has any say in whether the development rights are <br />extinguished or not. She suggested rewording it so that the development rights are not <br />accidentally extinguished. Geof Gledhill agreed with the suggestion and said that one of the <br />premises of the whole analysis is that the reason why the house is available is because of some <br />change in the property and there will be something else going on. He will try and make this <br />clearer and provide an analysis for Chair Jacobs. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to the comments by Allan Rosen and asked <br />what prompted the staff to come back with the efficiency apartment piece. Craig Benedict said <br />that there have been requests more recently from Carrboro that allow for these apartments to <br />