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Reconsidering <br />Value <br />n o "the difference <br />between land -use efficiency and height <br />alone. The one and two story building <br />along Franklin Street or the Commercia <br />portion of Meadowmont outperform <br />much taller buildings such as Granvill <br />Towers, because of their relative lack o <br />surface parking and efficient use of land. <br />Height alone does not ensure "value" <br />but when practically all of a site is used <br />and built to several stories such as 140 <br />West Franklin, the ability to produce <br />taxes increases exponentially. Small <br />scale buildings, if built to their full extent <br />of their surrounding space, can produce <br />extraordinarily high value. The list of <br />Chapel Hill's best performing property <br />contains not only high profile projects but <br />also many one story buildings. Thoug <br />humble in scale, these buildings are <br />highly efficient tax producers by utilizing <br />space efficiently. This lesson bodes well <br />for the conversion of Granville Towers, , <br />as it continues its plans to add density <br />to its site. Any conversation about height "w. <br />should take into account the density <br />and thus revenue that is lost when more <br />open space is required on development <br />sites either as surface parking or open <br />space. <br />0 <br />To understand the value of different development patterns Urban3 <br />compared the value per acre of various building formats. The resulting <br />pattern for Orange County is consistent with pattern of towns with a <br />hierarchy based on population. For each town, there are similarities in <br />patterns with a concentrated core, and commercial corridors extending <br />to the edges of the municipality. Commercial development is generally <br />more valuable than residential development, small downtown historic <br />buildings are more valuable than newer auto- oriented development, and <br />new infill residential is by far the most valuable. If Chapel Hill wishes <br />to increase its tax revenue, and in doing so maintain its high standard of <br />services, it should seek opportunities to develop projects that produce <br />revenue productivity to equal the community's municipal commitment. <br />A major lesson from this analysis is that tax efficiency, land use <br />efficiency, and parking policy are inexorably linked. For property, <br />larger parcels of land tend to be valued less on a per acre basis, so the <br />bigger the parcel, the less the per unit productivity. Couple that policy <br />with fact that parking is a low level of improvement value on land, <br />than say, a building and it has a direct effect on overall valuation. The <br />amount of off- street surface parking installed at a property directly <br />influences its ability to produce taxes. Another way of thinking about <br />this is to consider the hypothetical difference between two retail sites <br />with and without dedicated parking. When required to include on -site <br />parking the value of the property becomes diluted. If instead the entire <br />site was utilized either for some kind of structured parking or simply <br />as additional built space the Town receives significantly more tax <br />revenue which could be used to support coordinated /shared parking, <br />transit, affordable housing, or other services. Development sites, such <br />as shopping centers and big box retail, which contain a large area of <br />surface parking demonstrate this diluted value. One lesson to consider, <br />however, is that as much as compact downtown development outpaced <br />the older auto- oriented commercial property along East Franklin St. and <br />North MLK St.; those strip properties still outperform the residential <br />development which surrounds it. 7 <br />