Agenda - 10-01-2003-9e - Laserfiche WebLink

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Timing is a fairly serious issue insofar as developing a school in the EDD is concerned. The Orange County School Board hopes to open a new middle school in the fall of 2006. In the interim, it must secure the site, the have the site and school designed, approved and constructed. If the Buckhorn site does not prove to be suitable for any number of reasons, including the unavailability of utility service, a new site must be secured (and the school designed, approved and constructed). Insofar as the Efland/Buckhorn utility project is concerned, the time frame required for consultant selection, surveying, design, bidding, construction, etc., is approximately 30 months from the time that the BOCC gives staff the go ahead to proceed with consultant selection. Assuming that BOCC authorization comes in mid- September 2003, the soonest utilities will be available adjacent to the Buckhorn EDD school site is mid-March 2006. G. Land Use and Potential Annexation Issues In addition to its interests in securing utility service for the Buckhorn community and EDD, the County has an overarching interest in ensuring that the EDD and adjacent land develop in accordance with the County's Land Use Plan and EDD development standards. The City of Mebane has an interest in tying utility service extension and annexation issues together (municipal utilities typically require that the owners of all properties that are to receive municipal utility services sign a voluntary annexation agreement as a condition of receiving those services). Furthermore, the City will want to assume ownership of the utility extensions (insuring the continuity of system design, operation and maintenance standards and simplifying billing/rate issues). Accordingly, the County and the City must be able to reach accord on the coordination of land use, development standards, utility extension and annexation issues. H. Sewer Service Implementation It is possible for wastewater collection service to be extended to the Buckhorn EDD through a connection to the existing Efland sewer system. It is unlikely that the Buckhorn community can be served by connection to the existing Efland system, at least in the near term or with the funds available through the EPA grant. In any event, connecting the Buckhorn EDD and community to the Efland system would be much more expensive to the County in terms of costs for constructing, operating and maintaining the system. Other costs that must be considered relative to the extension of sewer service from Mebane or Efland is the cost of the County's ongoing subsidization of Efland sewer rates. Currently the County is subsidizing as much as 75% of the actual operational costs for the Efland system (that is, the sewer rates would have to quadruple for the system to be financed through the rate structure). Adding the sewer service for the Buckhorn EDD and community to that situation only exacerbates that problem. In comparison to the necessity of developing interlocal agreements with Mebane for the Buckhorn EDD and community, the situation in central Efland is very simple. The central Efland area has long been master planned; the BOCC has approved the service area delineation; and no other local government is involved. The complexities facing the central Efland portion of the project involve construction activities adjacent to and amid developed small lot properties, occupied homes and existing transportation and utility (water, power, telephone, etc.) networks. However, utility construction in such conditions is not unusual and the residents of the proposed construction area have a generally positive outlook on the project.