Agenda - 11-15-2016 - 7-b - Chapel Hill Town Hall Study Committee

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5 Attachment 3 Commissioners by October 6, 2015, if not before. The Board would then consider establishing potential bond categories and amounts and consider staffs initial estimate of the potential tax rate impacts from the debt service of approximately $125 million for the total bond package. Staff will provide any other information at the meeting, and the governing boards can discuss issues related to this item as necessary. No Attachments 2. Discussion on Town and County Properties a) Town Hall/Visitors Bureau/Skills Development Center Beginning in 2012, the Town of Chapel Hill began exploring its real property holdings to determine if there were any properties that could be used differently to meet a community need or were potentially disposable. One of the properties identified was the former Town Hall located at 100 W. Rosemary Street. Town staff has explored a variety of options for how the property could be repurposed when its current tenants, the Inter-Faith Council, relocated its shelter and community kitchen. Options included selling the property to a developer, engaging a private sector partner to potentially redevelop the property and surrounding properties for public and/or private use, or repurposing the building to serve other community functions and making the building a "destination point." The Chapel Hill Town Council expressed interest in determining what other potential community purposes the building might serve, specifically discussing the possibility of partnering with Orange County and to use a portion of the building to house the Visitors Bureau. The idea is that a more central downtown location in the historic building might be a more attractive and easy to find destination for visitors to Chapel Hill and Orange County. If the County and Town decide to pursue partnering in this way and the Visitors Bureau relocated, the County and Town would also have an opportunity to rethink how the vacated space at the Skills Development Center could be used. One possibility that has been discussed is using the space to expand LaUNCh, the downtown start-up accelerator. The County's Space Study Work Group is assessing its properties in part to inform the ongoing Capital Investment Planning process, including the Visitor's Bureau and Skills Development properties. It will present its findings and recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners in April of this year. Staff will provide any other information at the meeting, and the governing boards can discuss issues related to this item as necessary. No Attachments