Agenda 7-b - Millhouse Road Park Affordable Housing Options Feasibility Update

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Division of Water Resources (“NCDWR”). The proximity of existing sanitary sewer mains (within an estimated 1,200 feet) at the Town of Chapel Hill Town Operations Center would likely be a strong contributing factor against NCDWR issuing a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) discharge permit for a free-standing innovative package treatment facility on this site. Significant ongoing operation, maintenance, and reporting are required for this type of treatment facility, should such a permit be obtained. Conceptual Land Planning. Attachment 3, ”Conceptual Land Plans”, illustrates two “bubble plan” options for the layout of the site. These illustrations depict areas that would support approximately 28 mobile home park lots, a soccer park area generally contemplated by the Orange County-Town of Chapel Hill partnership, and required development features supporting these uses. Note that the delineated wetlands in plan option 3b would reduce the acreage available for soccer use by approximately 30%. Availability of OWASA Water and Sewer Service. Adequate water and sewer capacity is located on the adjacent parcel east of the County parcel assembly; however, current land use and utility extension policies prohibit the extension of these facilities. Land Use Considerations; Orange County Unified Development Ordinance (“UDO”); Joint Planning Area Assessment. The parcels are located within the Rural Buffer as designated in the Joint Planning Land Use Plan and on the County’s Future Land Use Map and Zoning Atlas. Site-built residential uses in the Rural Buffer must adhere to a minimum lot size of 2 acres per unit. Housing units may be clustered while still adhering to a 2-acre per unit density requirement which would yield up to 34 housing units on the site. Development of a home park will require a rezoning to the Home Park – Conditional Zoning (“HP-CZ”) district and the standards for home parks in section 5.5.4 of the Unified Development Ordinance (“UDO”) will have to be met. The Joint Planning Land Use Plan designates the area in which the parcels are located as the “Joint Courtesy Review Area” which means that the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro must be provided the opportunity to review and comment upon development proposals. Final approval authority rests solely with Orange County. On-site Public Well Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment Limiting Factor Comparison. Note Attachment 4, “Infrastructure Limiting Factor Comparison”. This summary provides a comparative view of the feasibility of the Millhouse Road Park site across four constraining factors for the development of a manufactured home park on this site: 1) community public well water supply; 2) subsurface septic installation; 3) innovative sewer treatment package installation with discharge; and 4) extending OWASA water and sewer services. The comparative illustration also provides estimated timelines for entitlement and construction as well as associated costs. FINANCIAL IMPACT: The feasibility analysis cost to date is $25,700. Conceptual cost estimates for site planning options are illustrated in Attachment 4, with estimated design and construction costs for the home park use within both land planning configurations as well as within both the well/package sewer scenario and OWASA services scenario. Repayment to the Lands Legacy Program for lands repurposed for housing use, based on the original purchase price from Parks Bond funds, would be $18,500 per acre. SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: The following Orange County Social Justice Goals are applicable to this item: 3