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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: December 5, 2016 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 6-i <br /> SUBJECT: Technical Resolution Regarding Grandfathering of Projects for School Impact <br /> Fee Collection Purposes <br /> DEPARTMENT: Planning and Inspections <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: (919) <br /> 1. Resolution Craig Benedict, Planning Director, 245- <br /> 2. Adopted School Impact Fee Levels 2592 <br /> 3. Flowcharts Perdita Holtz, Planner III, 245-2578 <br /> PURPOSE: To consider adoption of a technical resolution regarding grandfathering of projects <br /> for collection of recently adopted updates to school impact fees. <br /> BACKGROUND: On November 15 the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) adopted <br /> updated school impact fees which will become effective January 1, 2017 (see Attachment 2) <br /> with incremental increases each year through 2021. This represented a starting point of 43% of <br /> the "maximum supportable impact fee" (MSIF) with increases of 7.5 percentage points each <br /> year for four years. <br /> At the time of adoption, the BOCC directed staff to return with language that would allow for <br /> projects that have reached certain project development milestones prior to January 1, 2017 to <br /> be "grandfathered" for the 2016 fee levels but to have an outer time limit for the grandfathering. <br /> This provision was requested primarily by multi-family developers because the impact fee for <br /> multi-family units with 3+ bedrooms will increase on January 1, 2017 by $6,847 per unit in the <br /> Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district (CHCCS) and by $8,596 per unit in the Orange <br /> County Schools district (OCS). Developers are concerned that projects that have already gone <br /> through a lengthy project approval process but are not yet ready to begin construction will be <br /> adversely impacted by these increases because financial analyses of these projects took into <br /> account the existing impact fee levels ($1,286 in CHCCS and $1,743 in OCS). <br /> The attached resolution would allow "grandfathering" for the 2016 fee levels if a building permit <br /> application is submitted prior to January 1, 2017, the permit is issued within 180 days, and a <br /> Certificate of Compliance (aka, Certificate of Occupancy) is issued within 365 days of building <br /> permit issuance. This essentially gives builders one year after a building permit is issued to <br /> complete construction and qualify for the 2016 fee levels. (This provision is applicable for any <br /> projects that do not have an approved Zoning Compliance Permit - see paragraph below.) <br /> Also within the attached resolution, projects with an approved Zoning Compliance Permit (ZCP) <br /> would be given until December 31, 2017 to apply for a building permit(s) and a Certificate of <br /> Compliance would have to be issued within 365 days of building permit issuance in order to <br />