Agenda - 05-07-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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14 1 6. Chapel Hill Development Agreement Process Update for Homestead Road Campus 2 3 Mayor Kleinschmidt said last week the town began creation of a development 4 agreement process for large scale, long term development projects. He said this agreement 5 would require 25 acres or more, could reach out 25 years, and is free of quasi-judicial 6 restrictions normally associated with permitting. He said it allows for incorporation of 7 community and government elected officials to come to the table in meaningful conversations. 8 He said the staff's proposal for how this will work has been adopted and will be applied 9 to the Southern Human Services Center expansion/master plan. He said it does cost more on 10 the front end, but in the end it is less expensive than going one permit at a time. 11 Town Manager Roger Stancil said the next step would be for the town staff to meet with 12 the county staff and explain the process and make a recommendation. 13 Mayor Kleinschmidt said both parties would have a period of evaluating if this 14 agreement should be done, before coming together to see if this is the best model for both. 15 Chair Jacobs asked if there could be negotiation around spreading the fees over the 16 lifetime of the project. 17 Council Member Jim Ward said everything is negotiable. 18 Commissioner Gordon said she would like to underscore this cooperation. She said this 19 campus is a place to offer consolidated and coordinated services and provide access to many 20 county services at once. She said she would love to see this move forward. 21 22 7. INFORMATION ITEMS 23 24 a) Memorandum with Update on Town and County Library Activities 25 No discussion 26 27 b) Visitors Bureau Update 28 29 Council Member Jim Ward suggested Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau 30 Director Laurie Paolicelli be given a chance to speak on this update. 31 32 Laurie Paolicelli said, of the ten hotels in Chapel Hill, one of the biggest things is that 33 weekends are selling out. She noted that only 25 cents of every business dollar is left at the 34 hotel. She said travelers don't just come to pay for a hotel, but they come for another purpose. 35 She said that the economy is starting to dip mid-week and this is the business that pays the 36 higher rate. 37 Laurie Paolicelli said the challenge regarding the hospitality industry was to come up 38 with a campaign to stimulate mid-week business. She said it was realized that new audience 39 needs to be cultivated in order to prevent taking away business from one hotel to another. This 40 led to the placement of ads in the New Yorker, Wired, Golf Digest, etc. She said that rates are 41 increasing and this is a good metric for success, even better than occupancy. She said that 42 rates and revenues are up. She noted that Carolina Inn is suffering a bit. 43 She said a study done recently asked what would make people most likely to come to 44 the area. She said the respondents wanted to know about food, nightlife, economy, and 45 entertainment, outside of the University. She said it was clear that Chapel Hill needs to be 46 more in the foodie and music business. 47 Laurie Paolicelli said the Visitors Bureau has partnered with UNC to create a national 48 music campaign called Listen, and there will be much more coming out from a music 49 standpoint. She said the bureau continues to work on the parking problems and there is some