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3 <br />INTERIM REPORT <br />TO: range County Board of Commissioners <br />FROM: od Visser, Assistant County Manager <br />DATE: April 16, 1992 <br />RE: School Impact Fee Implementation <br />During joint meetings in January, the orange County Board of <br />Commissioners, the Chapel Hill - Carrboro Board of Education, and the <br />orange County Board of Education reached agreement on a $55 million <br />proposal for school capital improvements. This package included $15 <br />million each for new Chapel Hill - Carrboro and Orange County middle <br />schools, $23 million -for a new, jointly planned high school in the <br />Chapel Hill- Carrboro district, and $2 million towards technology <br />improvements in the Orange County Schools. <br />Of this total, $52 million would be funded through bonds to be <br />submitted for voter approval in a November 1992 referendum. The other <br />$3 million would come from school impact fees to be dedicated towards <br />$1 million of the construction costs of each of the three new schools <br />included in the bond package. It is important to note that the impact <br />fees for the two school systems would be dedicated to "brick and <br />mortar" projects that increase school capacity, rather than for <br />renovations or to raise existing facility standards. <br />Also in January, Planning Director Marvin Collins presented a <br />comprehensive draft technical report on school impact fees. This was <br />an important step towards meeting the Board's adopted goal for 1992 -93 <br />of implementing an appropriate set of school impact fees effective <br />July 1, 1992. A detailed explanation of the methodology for <br />calculating impact fees, with supporting data, is included in the <br />draft technical report. <br />Tables 24 and 25 from that report (Attachments 1A and 1B) reflect the <br />amounts of impact fee revenue that could be generated during the next <br />six years, if new housing increased at projected annual growth rates <br />and fees were set at the maximum level. For Chapel Hill- Carrboro, <br />impact fee revenue could amount to $13.2 million, and for orange <br />County Schools, to $8.8 million. The crucial decision facing the <br />Board is at what level should impact fees be set? This question was <br />the main focus in preliminary discussions in early April between <br />members of the County staff and representatives of school and <br />municipal staffs, the Chambers of Commerce, the Homebuilders <br />Association, the Board of Realtors, and Orange Community Housing <br />Corporation. <br />