Orange County NC Website
D R A F T <br />385 <br />Tim Smith: I apologize. I forgot to introduce the developer who is here tonight, Mr. Jim Parker. I’m not sure there’s 386 <br />any direct market that they’re targeting. 387 <br />388 <br />Jim Parker: The builder for these lots will be Drees Homes who has built a lot of homes in Orange County. The 389 <br />homes will be similar to those that they have been building here. I would estimate your price range is about right.390 <br />391 <br />Jessica Aguilar: That’s my concern. People in my situation, my socio-economic strata, are being edged out. We’re 392 <br />looking for a home right now and we can’t find anything affordable in this area. We are at risk of having to move after 393 <br />being here for almost two decades because these kinds of developments are coming in and taking up lands that we394 <br />can’t even dream of being a part of. 395 <br />396 <br />Patrick Mallett: I would like to add on to the school comments. We have a fairly regimented system, database, and 397 <br />tracking system to verify if a project will or will not have an impact on school capacity issues. Our system, a copy of 398 <br />the report is contained within your packet, tells us if we are getting close to having a capacity issue. In this case, that 399 <br />CAPS form, and data is submitted to the school board for their review and processing as well. Bottom line is this 400 <br />project does not increase school capacity beyond what can be handled within existing facilities. There is no 401 <br />anticipated impact to the Orange County school system. We’ve done this prematurely to let them know this is being 402 <br />moved through the process and as they move through, this would get adjusted and tracked over time. The main 403 <br />point is the dashboard isn’t showing a red light or even yellow light yet.404 <br />405 <br />Randy Marshall: Is there anything in the Orange County UDO that requires affordable housing since I don’t see any 406 <br />reference to it? 407 <br />408 <br />Patrick Mallett: No, we don’t. What we’re focused on at this level is the process for the subdivision part of it. We 409 <br />cannot compel a developer to develop what is defined as affordable housing. There are incentive programs in the 410 <br />UDO to encourage the development of affordable housing, primarily through increases in allowable density, but this 411 <br />is not applicable to this project.412 <br />413 <br />Randy Marshall: Municipalities often require payment in lieu of recreational facilities. I don’t see any mini play 414 <br />grounds or recreational facilities within this development.415 <br />416 <br />Patrick Mallett: That we can require and we do collect. We still collect a Park and Recreation fee based on the park 417 <br />district that they are in. It’s in the $455 range times each lot. Most jurisdictions have realized that it doesn’t pay in 418 <br />the public sense to put hundreds of little parks that are public parks within smaller subdivisions. Park districts have 419 <br />been created and then that money is collected. You would have the open space for the project and then you have 420 <br />public recreation which is the park fee. 421 <br />422 <br />Michael Harvey: I wanted to expand on the answer of affordable housing. Orange County does indeed have a 423 <br />program that allows for density bonuses for projects that provide affordable housing units. The problem is those 424 <br />density bonuses are not applicable in watershed protection overlay districts. We establish density limitations as part 425 <br />of our watershed management program to control overall development of property and to ensure we are effective 426 <br />with managing water quality issues. You will recall from the concept plan meeting where we had discussed that the 427 <br />applicant had investigated the potential to maximize the total number of lots that could be developed on these 428 <br />properties, which would have been 27. The chief factors leading to the developer choosing not to develop the 27 429 <br />individual lots were concerns about well and septic system development, potential traffic impacts, the preservation of 430 <br />open space, and adjacent property owners concerns that 27 lots was too intensive of a development for the area.431 <br />From my standpoint all of these factors go into the development cost and the ultimate price point for the homes that 432 <br />will be developed on this property. There is not a lot of opportunity in the rural areas of the County where there’s not 433 <br />easy access to water, sewer, public utilities to have intensely developed projects that might be able to have a price 434 <br />point that could be construed as affordable based on applicable guidelines. Part of the duality in Orange County’s 435 <br />planning program is the need to properly manage or protect the natural environment and the tradeoff for that 436 <br />sometimes does result in projects that may not necessarily focus or factor on an addressing an affordability concern437 <br />due to the low densities of the project, larger lot sizes, and need to rely on private well and septic systems.438 <br />Ultimately this property will not yield sufficient density to make development of what some might construe an 439 <br />12