Agenda - 01-22-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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I Clarence Grier said these are funds that have been expended, year to date. 2 Commissioner Price asked about the reason why the economic development portion 3 has not been fully used. 4 Steve Brantley said once they begin to market the grant program, there will no longer be 5 unallocated money in those categories. He hopes the towns will help market this. 6 Chair Jacobs said Steve Brantley is in the process of hiring a business retention person 7 who will be able to provide outreach to existing businesses and be available to meet with people 8 to try and bring them into these programs. He said, once adopted, the policies can be 9 distributed to the towns. 10 Steve Brantley said the County Manager met with the economic advisory board and 11 charged them to have their report ready by Dec. 1. He said the department has also recently 12 hired an agricultural economic development specialist who will be a resource for the County and 13 the towns. 14 Alderman Slade asked if there is a plan to weigh the economic impact of these different 15 investments and their return on investment. 16 Steve Brantley said when the County was successful with Morinaga, their initial $48 17 million propelled that company to the number one corporate taxpayer. He said when utilities 18 are put in the EDD it maximizes the ability to attract such companies, and this creates the 19 biggest hit or success for the County. He said many of the impoverished residents of the 20 County can benefit immediately by working for these new businesses. 21 Alderman Slade said this gives a sense of the impact, but he would like to know if there 22 are plans of measuring it compared to the other pieces of the pie. 23 Steve Brantley said the incentives would not be paid by the community unless the 24 company shows that it actually created jobs or made the capital investment. He said the 25 County might also have a good idea of the expansion capabilities. He said a company in 26 Mebane might be using Carrboro companies that do web design, or attorneys or banks. He 27 said there need to be more quantitative opportunities to show this. 28 Steve Brantley said the Wal -Mart in Hillsborough generates 12 percent of the retail sales 29 tax, and you can see the measures for this retail tax. He said there are measures to show the 30 net value of soccer tournaments to the community. He said there are various ways to see what 31 is generated in terms of job base and sales tax, and staff will do their best to quantify that 32 information. 33 34 2. Affordable Housing 35 a. Community Home Trust Charter Status Report 36 Commissioner Rich reviewed some of the following information from the abstract: 37 The Community Home Trust (CHT) is an affordable housing provider whose clientele includes 38 first -time homebuyers earning less than 80 percent of the area median income. CHT was 39 created by the local governments in 1990 to further the County -wide affordable housing 40 priorities and has served as an essential vehicle for implementing inclusionary housing policies 41 in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. As such, several families have realized the dream of purchasing a 42 home through CHT's land trust model. 43 44 CHT has determined that the current funding arrangement with the County and Town 45 governments is not sustainable. CHT currently receives the following financial support from the 46 local governments: 47 Chapel Hill: $200,000 48 Orange County: $149,000 49 Carrboro: $35,000 50 Hillsborough: $2,500