Agenda - 10-21-2003-9b - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 Date: September 15, 2003 To: Orange County Board of Commissioners Chapel Hill Town Council Carrboro Board of Aldermen Hillsborough Town Board From: Wayne Kuncl, Board President of Orange Community Housing and Land Trust The board of directors of Orange Community Housing and Land Trust (OCHLT) has approved the attached Mission Statement, Guiding Principles and Organizational Goals. We would like each of the local governments to formally endorse these organizational tenets, in order to establish shared expectations. We are particularly interested in each local governing board approving our Organizational Goals, which define who we are. The staff and board devoted considerable time to this document because it's important as we plan for future development activities. The board considered opinions that were expressed by several elected officials whom we met with earlier this year. The specific questions that we discussed were the following: I. Should OCHLT continue to develop housing? It has been suggested that we focus our efforts on marketing the affordable homes built by private sector developers rather than develop homes ourselves. It is the Board's opinion that the organization should continue to pursue both strategies. The Town of Chapel Hill's policy of asking private sector developers to produce affordable housing for the Land Trust has proven an effective way to rapidly increase the county's permanently affordable housing stock We feel strongly that this strategy should be pursued at every opportunity, and, in all planning jurisdictions. However, depending upon the private sector ma.y preclude us from certain opportunities (such as participating with Habitat for Humanity on the Sunrise property). We believe that it will be important for OCHLT to be able to serve as an independent, non-profit developer that can flexibly meet affordable housing needs that are not addressed by the private sector. Also, OCHLT strives to produce high quality homes that will be attractive, energy efficient, a:nd affordable to maintain over time. The Board believes that OCHLT should continue to produce this type of durable, quality construction, rather than simply market homes that are produced by the private sector. II. Should OCHLT shift its emphasis from producing homeownership opportunities to producing rental and special needs housing? We are clearly not experts in the needs of special needs populations.