Minutes 05-12-2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Price asked if the price range for the homes is known, and if there is an effort to make it affordable to seniors. The developer said keeping the housing affordable would be desirable, but it is difficult to achieve in Chapel Hill. He said the goal is to keep costs as low as possible, likely in the $300,OOOs. Commissioner Jacobs said this is age restrictive housing, which will likely not have children, versus a single family home that can be sold to those who may have children. He said that the label of age restriction does not mean that there will not be any children, noting that there is an increasing trend of grandparents raising grandchildren. Chair McKee said he is opposed to impact fees, period. He said they adversely affect the affordability of all housing and that with lower-cost housing, the fees can total 10 to 20 percent of the cost of the house. Commissioner Rich said it is time to gather data again and see what happens with the non-generation of students. Commissioner Jacobs said Orange County's payment in lieu policy for Parks and Recreation needs to be reviewed. The developer said he is confident of what the data will report. He said the only concern for them is the timing. He said he understands from the discussion that Orange County will help them work with Chapel Hill to allow construction to begin and act on the results of the data as they are obtained. Chair McKee said the Board can indicate to staff to start the study. Craig Benedict said the study can be paid for either by the County or the developer. Chair McKee said for Orange County to pay for this study. Commissioner Rich said the study should be broad. Chair McKee said to move forward with the study, to work with Chapel Hill to allow the project to move forward, and to assess fees at the CO stage versus the permit stage. 5. Follow-up Discussion on Board Rules of Procedures - Petitions Process Chair McKee said that Commissioner Jacobs petitioned the Board to review the petition process. He said at their places is an excerpt from the January 30, 2015 Retreat Minutes. Chair McKee said there have been more petitions in the past 6 to 12 months, and some of these are requests for information and not petitions, and these should be sent to the Manager to distribute to staff for responses. He gave some examples of petitions from Board members from past meetings in order to see the difference between information requests versus policy information/requests. Chair McKee said he does not know if he, as Chair, or the Manager needed to address these information requests more proactively at meetings. Commissioner Jacobs said having a trusted Manager, who will do what the Board asks, should be enough. He suggested Board members still be able to petition for all types of information, but it should be Manager's responsibility to determine what she can simply have staff answer versus what needs to go through the Chair and Vice Chair. He said it takes the burden off the Chair of having to respond to so many requests while also relieving Board members from worrying about the phrasing of their petitions, and allowing each member to know what the others are considering. Commissioner Rich said this process is a good idea but sometimes petitions come to her while she is talking to others and she adds it to her petition list. She said, however, most are not petitions, but rather information requests.