Minutes 12-06-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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thoughts set forth in paragraph 6 did not occur to me until after our meeting, and therefore have not been endorsed by the other attorneys: 1. Statutory authority exists for the towns and the county to cooperate in operating funding a community center located in the Rogers Road area, and there are a number of ways in which this could be accomplished. However, as we understand it, the current proposal is that the county and/or the towns would pay Habitat$500,000 to construct the facility, on land provided by habitat, and then Habitat would lease the center to RENA, who would operate it, presumably in accordance with RENA Neighborhood Center Business Plan (Attachment B to the Agenda Item). The attorneys do not believe it is legally permissible for the county or the towns to expend public funds to fund the construction of a building on land the county does not own, under circumstances where the building would then be leased to a private organization that would use the facility to run programs of its choosing. The county could, of course, construct a community center on land it owned or leased, but it would have to put the project out for bids in accordance with applicable statutes. The operation of a community center would require annual appropriations. The county could provide staffing through its own employees or it could contract with an organization such as RENA to run programs, but these would have to be open to the general public. In short, there are many options for legally accomplishing the objective of providing a community center that would benefit the residents of Rogers Road, but the current proposal is not one of them. 2. Orange County, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill, as owners of the Greene Tract, and the County, as owner of other property used for solid waste disposal, could petition Chapel Hill to annex any properties owned by these governmental entities within the portion of the Rogers Road area that is located in Chapel Hill's ETJ of Joint Planning Area, and Chapel Hill could do so (subject to the possible exception that, if the area to be annexed was not contiguous to the existing town limits, than no lots within a subdivision could be annexed unless the entire subdivision was annexed). However, this would enable Chapel Hill to extend sewer lines only to those areas so annexed. 3. The $900,000 that Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County agreed to pay to the Landfill Fund for the 100+ acres of the Greene Tract that were not conveyed to Orange County cannot be used to pay for either the construction of a community center or the extension of sewer lines to the Rogers Road area. The Greene Tract was acquired using landfill funds, and the $900,000 is being paid back to this enterprise fund. Such funds can only be expended to cover the costs associated with the operation and maintenance of the landfill. 4. Proceeds from the sale of the 100+ acre portion of the Greene Tract now owned jointly by Orange County, CB, and CH can be used in the same manner as other unrestricted general funds. Thus, Carrboro could use these funds to extend sewer lines to unserved areas within Carrboro's corporate limits. 5. The towns and the county could appropriate funds to subsidize the cost of actually connecting homes to a sewer line, once that line has been constructed. In order to be able to point to specific statutory authority to provide such subsidies, it would be preferable to limit the availability of such subsidies to low and moderate income property owners. The attorneys do not recommend that the contractor engaged by the county and/or the towns to extend the lines be directed to construct lines connecting individuals' properties to the public lines because this work involves actually getting into the plumbing systems within individuals homes and poses significant risks of unexpected complications and claims of damages.