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He said this developer asked for age restrictive housing to be categorized into a multi-family impact fee category. He said the assumption, that the age restrictions for development would be similar to that of multi-family, may be a lot to ask. He said the approved age restrictions for 90 percent of the development state that one person within the household must be over the age of 55. He said this age restriction does not exclude people under the age of 55 also living in the properties. He said the remaining 10 percent of the development does not have age restrictions. He said in the abstract is some background information (below) and some possible options for the Board's consideration. He said they looked at some projects throughout the United States which gave them enough information to do some research in Orange County and maybe surrounding counties. BACKGROUND: Orange County is one of the few counties in North Carolina that can impose school impact fees because the County obtained special local enabling legislation from the State in 1987. In 1993, the County acted upon this authority and, in collaboration with the Towns and School Districts, began the fee assessment. Since then, the County has occasionally (every few years) updated the fees based on school costs, categories of housing, etc. Findings of impact, benefit, and proportionality must be shown to form a good methodology and legal basis. The Ordinance requires impact fees be paid for new residential construction in order to assist with educational impact costs associated with new students. A developer has recently approached staff to request that an exception be created for age-restricted housing, i.e. housing that would be limited by deed or covenant restrictions to housing for persons over a minimum age (see attached letter). The developer prefers the exception be created as quickly as possible. If the Board is interested in pursuing an amendment to the Ordinance, Planning staff recommends that the decision be based on relevant data because of the requirements necessary to set impact fee levels. There are two possible methods to achieve data needs: 1. Require the developer requesting this exception provide information about other age restricted projects in a specific geographic area (to be determined) and have staff evaluate the data to determine probable impacts. 2. Conduct a student generation rate study specifically for age-restricted housing and assess the fee accordingly. Historically, such studies have been completed by a consultant with data supplied by the local governments. (This method is preferable due to the enhanced ability to defend the outcome of the study). It should be noted that a new impact fee study (which includes the accompanying student generation rate analysis) has been requested by Planning in the department's FY 2015-16 Budget (approximately $70,000) since the last study was completed in 2007. If recommended by the Manager and approved by the Board, the new impact fee study would disaggregate housing types by number of bedrooms (similar to the 2014 study which evaluated only housing that had been constructed in the past 10 years; impact fees must be based on the entire housing stock). It would be possible to include age-restricted housing as a housing type in this new study, but the results of the study would likely not be available until early 2016 and would then have to be adopted. This timeframe may be longer than the developer would prefer. It should be noted that the Educational Facilities Impact Fee Ordinance (EFIFO) is independent from the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO) with only the student generation rates having a common data ingredient. Because the special local enabling legislation for the EFIFO is grounded in land use and zoning authority, any changes to the