Agenda - 09-01-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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17 1 United States which gave them enough information to do some research in Orange County and 2 maybe surrounding counties. 3 4 BACKGROUND: Orange County is one of the few counties in North Carolina that can impose 5 school impact fees because the County obtained special local enabling legislation from the 6 State in 1987. In 1993, the County acted upon this authority and, in collaboration with the 7 Towns and School Districts, began the fee assessment. Since then, the County has 8 occasionally (every few years) updated the fees based on school costs, categories of housing, 9 etc. Findings of impact, benefit, and proportionality must be shown to form a good methodology 10 and legal basis. 11 12 The Ordinance requires impact fees be paid for new residential construction in order to assist 13 with educational impact costs associated with new students. A developer has recently 14 approached staff to request that an exception be created for age-restricted housing, i.e. 15 housing that would be limited by deed or covenant restrictions to housing for persons over a 16 minimum age (see attached letter). The developer prefers the exception be created as quickly 17 as possible. If the Board is interested in pursuing an amendment to the Ordinance, Planning 18 staff recommends that the decision be based on relevant data because of the requirements 19 necessary to set impact fee levels. There are two possible methods to achieve data needs: 20 1. Require the developer requesting this exception provide information about other age 21 restricted projects in a specific geographic area (to be determined) and have staff evaluate the 22 data to determine probable impacts. 23 2. Conduct a student generation rate study specifically for age-restricted housing and assess 24 the fee accordingly. Historically, such studies have been completed by a consultant with data 25 supplied by the local governments. (This method is preferable due to the enhanced ability to 26 defend the outcome of the study). 27 28 It should be noted that a new impact fee study (which includes the accompanying student 29 generation rate analysis) has been requested by Planning in the department's FY 2015-16 30 Budget (approximately $70,000) since the last study was completed in 2007. If recommended 31 by the Manager and approved by the Board, the new impact fee study would disaggregate 32 housing types by number of bedrooms (similar to the 2014 study which evaluated only housing 33 that had been constructed in the past 10 years; impact fees must be based on the entire 34 housing stock). It would be possible to include age-restricted housing as a housing type in this 35 new study, but the results of the study would likely not be available until early 2016 and would 36 then have to be adopted. This timeframe may be longer than the developer would prefer. It 37 should be noted that the Educational Facilities Impact Fee Ordinance (EFIFO) is independent 38 from the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO) with only the student 39 generation rates having a common data ingredient. Because the special local enabling 40 legislation for the EFIFO is grounded in land use and zoning authority, any changes to the 41 Ordinance must be advertised in accordance with statute requirements and must be heard at a 42 public hearing. The public hearing can be on a regular BOCC meeting agenda (e.g., it is not 43 restricted to only the quarterly public hearings). 44 45 A student generation rate study specifically for age-restricted housing (Option #2 above) would 46 likely cost approximately $15,000 and would require staff time from all of the local governments 47 within Orange County and the school districts to compile raw data. 48 49 Option #1 would require County staff time to evaluate the information provided by the 50 developer. If the ordinance is amended, there would likely be a reduction in impact fees