Minutes 05-15-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1. Presentation on The Chapel Hill Report— The Dollars and $ense of Development Patterns Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Aaron Nelson said this analysis was completed in March 2014. He reviewed a series of PowerPoint maps, photos, and graphs. He said 92 percent of the land is in unincorporated Orange County. He said the assessed value of the County is $14.9 billion. He said 43 percent of this value is in Chapel Hill, 13 percent is in Carrboro, and 5 percent is in Hillsborough. Aaron Nelson said the purpose of this analysis was to determine what types of development deliver the most amount of assessed value and produce the most taxes collected. He reviewed the slides of individual sites and their assessed value. He noted that the East 54 Retail site is the highest assessed property in the County and produces $9.3 million an acre in assessed value. He said the theme is that the type and kind of development produces dramatically different results, particularly as properties get denser. He said the most expensive acre in Orange County is Greenbridge at $52 million. He noted that the higher value properties have a low number of public school children. Aaron Nelson reviewed the tax yield per acre and noted that the Greenbridge property and 140 West Franklin generate about $500,000 in property tax on an annual basis. He reviewed three dimensional maps of County value per acre. He said the County gets a higher return for denser property. He said the ratio of revenue for the highest density mixed use spaces (6 story mixed use) is 400:1. Aaron Nelson noted that the County invested $4,000 in this study, and he expressed his appreciation to for their support. Chair Jacobs said this is a good prelude to the discussion of the next item and the thinking about building up rather than out. . Commissioner Price asked what is being done with this report now that it is complete. Aaron Nelson said this has transformed their thinking. He said when choosing between a two or three story building, this shows that you can generate 40 percent more revenue by adding the third story. He said this has changed their view about the kind of development that is needed to generate the revenue to fund their schools and their government properly. 2. Ephesus Church Road-Fordham Boulevard Public Improvements Michael Talbert introduced Clarence Grier and said this item is a response to questions that came about after Chapel Hill's presentation on this project. Clarence Grier reviewed the following background information from the abstract: The Town of Chapel Hill at the March 27, 2014 Joint Meeting with the Board of County Commissioners presented an improvement project for the Ephesus Church Road — Fordham Boulevard area within the Town of Chapel Hill. In order to support the renewal of the Ephesus Fordham area, the Town of Chapel Hill must make investments in much needed traffic and stormwater capital improvements. The project would be financed with the use of Tax Increment Financing or Project Development Financing. Under this method of financing, economic development projects move forward by pledging the anticipated growth in tax base as a source of repayment. The theory is that the project being financed is enabling the tax growth and therefore the project is and will be self-financing because, if not for the project, the tax growth would not have occurred.