Orange County NC Website
18 <br /> 1 Travis Myren cautioned that the measures should be controllable by the county. <br /> 2 Commissioner McKee asked if the first step would be to isolate down to county only rather <br /> 3 than county and towns. <br /> 4 Travis Myren said they can control what the county invests in affordable housing. <br /> 5 Commissioner McKee asked how much of the housing gap is in the county and how much <br /> 6 is in the towns. He said that 9,000 does not seem realistic either and he would like to know what <br /> 7 number they need to contribute for affordable housing and what that might cost. <br /> 8 Travis Myren said they would get an estimate to the Board. <br /> 9 Vice-Chair Hamilton said the amount of housing in the county is determined by the market <br /> 10 and developers. She said the Board is not the major driver of housing in the county. She said it <br /> 11 makes sense to think about what the county has control over when creating performance <br /> 12 measures. She said the "how" is not in the measures. She said that will come in the budget, and <br /> 13 they will have hard decisions to make. She said that the measures lay out what the Board would <br /> 14 like, but some of them may not happen. <br /> 15 Commissioner Portie-Ascott said that when revising the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, <br /> 16 the Board is creating the conditions that lead to housing. She said that with the funding the county <br /> 17 has, could the county do more than 10 units a year. <br /> 18 Commissioner Fowler said she also worked alongside with the development of the <br /> 19 performance measures and item one was looking at what they can achieve as the county. She <br /> 20 said they were looking into if there were ways for developers to go more efficiently through the <br /> 21 development planning phases. <br /> 22 Commissioner Carter clarified that the housing gap described by Commissioner Portie- <br /> 23 Ascott is for owners and renters making less than 50% of AMI. <br /> 24 Vice-Chair Hamilton said even with the land use plan, there is always tension between <br /> 25 open land and housing. She said what is nice is all of the stuff is coming together but the reality <br /> 26 is that it will not be easy to address that number, and they have to be realistic about that. <br /> 27 Commissioner Greene said one way to fund affordable housing is through the CIP and <br /> 28 through money through a competitive process that goes to non-profits. She said they are <br /> 29 spreading their funding across multiple units. She said this sounds like it is housing 100% funded <br /> 30 by Orange County and she is not sure if they have ever done that because it would involve building <br /> 31 their own housing. She said that the housing gap described by Commissioner Carter and <br /> 32 Commissioner Portie-Ascott would need to be in the municipalities because of the support <br /> 33 services they would need access to. <br /> 34 Commissioner McKee said what he struggles with is the projected borrowing over the next <br /> 35 ten years. He said the scale of payback went up to $74 million a year and that number is 1/3 of <br /> 36 the current budget. He said he has a hard time incorporating that reality into what they know they <br /> 37 need. He said that regardless of what it is, that payment comes off the top. <br /> 38 Chair Bedford said she thinks the current projections in the CIP are doable, but they also <br /> 39 need to focus on the rehabbing and keeping the existing units. She said this needs to be flagged. <br /> 40 Commissioner McKee said that there are people from other states who can purchase <br /> 41 larger properties and pay less in taxes when coming to Orange County. <br /> 42 Commissioner Portie-Ascott said for performance measure 2, there are people in the <br /> 43 community who do not feel welcome when accessing cold weather cots. <br /> 44 Travis Myren said he would look into that. <br /> 45 Caitlin Fenhagen asked if the cold weather cot issues were at IFC or with the county site. <br /> 46 Commissioner Portie-Ascott said she thought it was at the IFC. <br /> 47 Caitlin Fenhagen said that they have heard comments about the IFC cold weather cots <br /> 48 and that they have discussed the issue with IFC. She said they have spoken with IFC about those <br /> 49 concerns, and they are hopeful they will see change. <br /> 50 <br /> 51 Slide #17 <br />