Agenda - 12-07-1999 - 9e - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

3 • Total estimated construction costs over 30 years for Orange County School District is therefore $128.,951,280, • Total estimated construction costs over 30 years for Chapel Hill/Carrboro School District is therefore $ $210,512,405. • Total estimated construction costs over 30 years to meet educational facility needs is therefore $339,463,685. Further, the County is facing significant construction needs of its own through its statutorily required support of court system facilities. Preliminary estimates equate the cost of the judicial facilities (without jail construction) with those of a new elementary school This brings the total potential 30-year construction outlay for education and judicial facilities to approximately $ 352,249,170. Projected costs of this magnitude create a considerable challenge to ensure that. construction and major renovation projects funded by the County are properly designed to meet both County and School needs within available resources. In addition, with the advent of the School Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO), now in development, the fiscal issues will-demand greater attention. As you .may know, the SAPFO will, among other things: • Define a level of service capacity, which each new school will be expected to meet. For example, if "X" number of units are approved for development within the County, then "Y° type of school (elementary, middle, high school) with "Z" capacity must be built within the next "N" .number of years; and • The SAPFO will allow schools to operate marginally over-capacity for only a limited period of time, thereby creating the necessity for school construction to be considered in a timely manner. A potential solution: This .look to the horizon tells us that the limited package of funding resources available to support construction.initiatives will not be sufficient to meet demand without very careful planning. Rather than to immediately raise the funding bar, and potentially the tax rate, it is prudent to consider cost efficiency measures that will provide functionally excellent facilities at a manageable cost. In the Spring/Summer 1999 the Board considered a value engineering option for County and school projects, in which each facility would be subject to a value engineering process in tandem with its design... This approach proved to be unsuitable, particularly for upcoming school construction projects, from a cost and timing point of view. Further discussion has prompted us to suggest an alternative approach that functions as a stand-alone process for County projects but creates a design standard overlay to the existing school construction standards. The process is outlined as follows: • A group similar to the school construction standards committee would be convened to review infrastructure items common to all buildings (HVAC, plumbing, finishes, window glass, etc.). This group would also include a third party consultant to add avalue-engineering component to the development of the standards (accurate cost projections, life cycle cost analysis, etc.) • Functional standards would be developed for each of these components. Examples of the functional standards might be: • The roofing standard for buildings will be metal (unless prohibited as may be the case in historic districts); or