Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
�IBR 23 <br /> l� Home Builders Association of Durham and Chapel Hill <br /> dDurtum88ChapelHill 20 W.Colony Place•Suite 180• Durham, North Carolina 27705 •Phone 919/493-8899• FAX 919/490-5905 <br /> COMMENTS AT PUBLIC HEARING <br /> MAY 25, 1995 <br /> The Home Builders Association of Durham& Orange Counties is opposed to school <br /> impact fees because they deny the fundamental truth that the public school system is an <br /> indivisible benefit of life in the community. By singling out one class of citizen--new <br /> home buyers--for additional expense, the County is inferring that new home buyers get a <br /> larger share of benefit from the school system than do other citizens. <br /> Starting down the road of trying to determine who gets the greatest benefit from schools <br /> leads almost immediately to assertions that childless citizens should not be paying for <br /> school capital facilities because they have no impact on the school system. Such a <br /> proposal would be considered preposterous in a community that understands the broad <br /> range of contributions and needs of its population and rises above attempts to calculate the <br /> value of an intangible like good education for the next generation. <br /> One need not consider for very long the alternatives to realize that a healthy construction <br /> industry is a critical component of a healthy community. A community which is not <br /> experiencing new construction is a community that is experiencing declining property <br /> values, declining tax base, and declining services. <br /> We find the study that justifies the proposed increase to be problematic on several <br /> grounds: <br /> a. There is no 0 growth scenario against which school capital expenditures <br /> are measured. What would be the effect if there were no new residences built in <br /> Orange County for the next 3 years? Would we still need the new school buildings <br /> that have been proposed? If so, doesn't it stand to reason that the community will <br /> be buying the schools in any case and that the cost of new students is less than the <br /> per capita share of the new building? In fact,the new students will increase the <br /> efficiency of the schools. <br /> If not, shouldn't the alternative of more temporary arrangements be analyzed as a <br /> possible school site answer? Are we making a wise choice when we build large, <br /> traditional school buildings, with no planned future conversion? Or,would we be <br /> better off utilizing agreements to lease buildings for a set period of time, after <br /> which the private owners would have the right to convert the property to other <br /> uses? <br /> � � —4n :—{"i&,tc of tQ c -4ssoei.uon of v4o—c lKild-, <br />