Orange County NC Website
M <br />1 Chair Jacobs asked, given the planned 1,000 residential units, how this plan <br />2 incorporates school sites per the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Act (SAPFO). <br />3 Roger Stancil said staff has been talking with Todd Lofriese from Chapel Hill Carrboro <br />4 School System (CHCCS), and he will be at the April 9th work session to assist them. <br />5 Chair Jacobs asked if there will be a certain threshold for this or if a site will be <br />6 determined. <br />7 Mayor Kleinschmidt said no site has been identified for a school within this district. He <br />8 said there are school sites that have been identified nearby, such as Legion Hall. <br />9 Council Member Harrison said the American Legion area asked them to take the school <br />10 off, and the likely land usage for this is actually athletic fields or a park. <br />11 Chair Jacobs said the town may want to invite Craig Benedict to attend their next <br />12 meeting, as he is familiar with student generation rates. He said if no site is identified, it will <br />13 have to be acquired, and it is much easier to identify it. <br />14 Mayor Kleinschmidt asked why a school would be required within this district. <br />15 Chair Jacobs said it doesn't have to be within the district, but in the past developers <br />16 have been required to set aside a site for a school. <br />17 Town Council Member Palmer said this is not a new development; it is a re- <br />18 development. She said the town has Ephesus Elementary within this area. She said this area <br />19 is expected to grow gradually over the next 20 years and the demographics are going to <br />20 change. She said the first thing to be re- developed will be the apartments, which will then be <br />21 more upscale, and this will likely mean fewer children. <br />22 Commissioner Pelissier said an important point for her is that the first 10 years appear <br />23 to have mostly multi - family home development. She said the County has to look at how much <br />24 of the tax revenue is coming from residential versus commercial. She said when the County <br />25 foregoes revenue, this affects the school funding, and she questioned whether the entire <br />26 County might be paying for these additional school children in one district. <br />27 Commissioner Gordon asked what the transportation improvements are going for, and <br />28 how transit will figure into this area along 15 -501. <br />29 Roger Stancil said the transit improvements are included in the development regulations <br />30 and will be part of the regular development process. He said the transit director has been <br />31 involved in this conversation. He said the numbers shown do not reflect the pennies that the <br />32 town dedicates to transit service. He said the town is doing a sustainability study of the transit <br />33 system and how to plan for this future. He said that study will complement this plan. <br />34 Commissioner Gordon referred to the form based code information and she asked if the <br />35 school system has to issue a certificate of adequate public facilities when a residential element <br />36 comes in. <br />37 Mayor Kleinschmidt said the form based would not be exempt from other existing laws, <br />38 like SAPFO. <br />39 Commissioner Gordon asked if form based code means that what can go in is set and <br />40 predictable and can be approved at the staff level. <br />41 Mayor Kleinschmidt said to imagine if the town behaved like most other communities <br />42 and laid out zones, and then most development occurred by right. He said developers in many <br />43 towns look at zones to determine what can be built and then decide what they want to build. He <br />44 said these developers can usually just go through staff as long as they comply with the zones <br />45 and permitted uses. He said the form based code idea is to create a zone that defines the <br />46 appropriate frontage, number of stories, transitions in intensity, street appearance, and transit <br />47 planning. He said that is how this would work. He said it gets ahead by looking at what the <br />48 town wants the new development to look like and then allowing the developers to move forward <br />49 as long as they comply. <br />