Agenda - 04-06-2021; 8-a - Minutes

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37 1 Commissioner Dorosin said the most important thing is the development agreement that 2 the County signed. He said he feels the County is bound to that agreement, and the County 3 has a long-term commitment to the project. He said there is an important racial equity aspect to 4 it. He said the property is currently used as a parking lot, so the parking needs are important to 5 the project. He said, with any delay, the County can expect the costs to go up. 6 Commissioner Dorosin said he was not sure how valuable the generator would be to the 7 courthouse, given that a power outage would affect many other people in the community. He 8 said almost half of the users of the Chapel Hill Library come from out of town. He said the 9 library has been closed the last year, but the County still gave over$500,000. He referred to 10 school capital projects, and said he will want to know how money was used last year, given the 11 absence of students from the buildings. He said he hopes that projects were addressed. He 12 said budget adjustments can be made throughout the year, and he felt that revenues will 13 improve. 14 Commissioner McKee asked if the liability of not meeting the March 7, 2021 deadline 15 could be identified. He said he feels that he is being rushed into making a decision, due to 16 Carrboro instructing the designer to go ahead with the design process. 17 Bonnie Hammersley said Carrboro has instructed the design process to proceed. 18 Commissioner McKee said he feels that his back is against the wall, and Carrboro made 19 a decision without talking to its partners. He asked if missing the September deadline would kill 20 the project. 21 Bonnie Hammersley said Carrboro does not want to abandon the project. She said staff 22 has been working for a while on various options for providing parking, and she apologized for 23 the Commissioners feeling rushed. 24 Commissioner McKee said he supports building the parking spaces and having a final 25 building constructed, rather than a shell building. He said he wants to wait until the guaranteed 26 maximum price is available, and look at the building with the other budget and CIP issues. He 27 said a delay at this point is not significant, given the length of time the project has been 28 discussed. 29 John Roberts said if a decision is not reached, both parties could walk away without any 30 penalties, and just responsible for their own costs. He said if neither party wants to walk away, 31 then there are fewer liability concerns. 32 Commissioner Greene said there is no desire to walk away from the project, and the 33 County entered into a development agreement. She said she feels the generator for the court 34 system is important, but it was added at the request of the new Clerk of Court, and she feels it 35 could be removed from the list. She referred to the conservation easements, and said she 36 would like to soften the blow by reducing the contingency fee. She referred to the windows, and 37 would be interested in option 2, knowing that windows can be replaced at a later time. She said 38 this option would bring the conservation easement down by a few hundred thousand dollars. 39 She said everyone wants to support this project, and, in general, this has been a good 40 partnership, and she wants the County to come to the table. 41 Commissioner Fowler said the rental income for the parking spaces would take 130 42 years to make up for the costs of the parking spaces, and this is an expensive way to increase 43 economic development. She said she would take funding from the conservation easements, as 44 well as the justice center generator, plus Option 1-rows 3, 4, and 5, which would leave $300,000 45 to be financed by debt. She said if the BOCC must make a decision tonight, she wants to 46 minimize the debt financing. She said this is a nice project, and something the County would 47 very much like to do, but the County has obligations, such as school construction. She said 48 she would like to reduce the amount of parking, in an effort to reduce the amount of cars, in 49 favor of public transportation and biking.