Agenda - 04-07-20; 8-a - Minutes

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27 1 Commissioner Price referred to the parking, and asked if it is based on Carrboro's 2 existing zoning. She asked if there has been any thought of modifying that requirement, and 3 encouraging people to use the public transportation. 4 Travis Myren said there has been a specific conversation about library parking, and 5 there are 50 spaces dedicated to the library, which is in the development agreement. He said if 6 the Board wanted to re-visit this issue, it could do so. 7 Commissioner Price asked if parking will be needed for the Skills Development Center. 8 Travis Myren asked Steve Arndt, Asset Management Services Director, if the 33 spaces 9 for the Skills Development Center are based on town ordinance. 10 Steve Arndt said the 33 spaces will only serve a small fraction of the Skills Center's 11 attendees, but many students take public transportation, and ongoing access to this is 12 important. 13 Bonnie Hammersley said one of the things that have held up this project is parking, but 14 Carrboro has decided not to hold up the project with its townwide parking needs. She said 15 there was a plan for underground parking, but it was cost prohibitive. She said the plan is to 16 build a parking deck adjacent to the building. She said Carrboro wants to replace the parking it 17 is losing (as this is being built on an existing lost), and there is a required amount of parking 18 spots for the library (-50) and the Skills Center (-33). She said the parking that will be built will 19 serve this building, as opposed to being town wide parking. 20 Commissioner Marcoplos said the building will have other uses. 21 Bonnie Hammersley said the parking deck will be —150 spaces, and the other spaces 22 are being paid for by the Town of Carrboro. 23 Commissioner Bedford referred to the chart with the increase of$8.8 million, which 24 includes the Skills Center, and said if she subtracts the increase of$2.4 million (without the 25 Skills Center), she is left with $6.37 million. She asked if she can subtract $3.75 million, of the 26 debt repayment, if everything goes according to plan, to get to a net of$2.62 million. She said 27 this would be only $200,000 more than if they do not do it. 28 Travis Myren said this is not a net number, and the $3.75 million would come in 29 regardless. 30 Commissioner Bedford said it could be used of other things, such as opportunity costs. 31 She said when she voted to consider the WELL project, it was part of her thought that there 32 would be a revenue stream that could help support the design of this building. She said she is 33 leaning towards doing it. She said she understands there is a risk, and the $4 million might not 34 happen, and the whole thing could implode at any time. 35 Commissioner Greene said if the Board does not do the Skills Center, it is just kicking a 36 problem down the road. She said to put the Skills Center there, and even if it is relocated at 37 some point, this is a good infrastructure investment for the County, in a critical location in down 38 town Carrboro, 39 Commissioner Marcoplos said, in terms of transit, it is much better for public 40 transportation than the Europa building. 41 Commissioner McKee said he finds it interesting that this project has gone from a simple 42 library to this bigger project. He said he understands the arguments being made, but it 43 concerns him greatly because the costs have more than doubled. He asked staff if there is a 44 reason that figures for furniture, etc. were not included in the original proposal. 45 Travis Myren said there were monies ($750,000 for the library) that were programmed in 46 the future, but not yet authorized. He said $6.79 million has been authorized, and he did not 47 include anything that was in the future capital investment plan (CIP) at some point. 48 Commissioner McKee said the County has a lot of construction projects going forward, 49 and he needs total actual costs, not draft numbers. He said he is not sure that he will vote for 50 this, as he has watched it grow and grow and grow. He said the Link building needs to be