P-0155 - A Lands Legacy Program for Orange County 04-04-2000

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10 . 1 ~ Commissioner Gordon suggested including in the motion that this program would be evaluated 2 within two years with a report of all of the transactions that take place. 3 The motion is to approve the Long Term Housing Affordability Policy, to adopt the 99-year 4 policy for the impact fee reimbursement, and include an evaluation of the program by the end of two years. 5 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 8 John Link explained the sequence of issues regarding affordable housing that the Board would 9 be discussing in the coming month. 10 Commissioner Brown mentioned that she needed to meet with Commissioner Jacobs to discuss 11 the results of the housing summit and try to come up with an organization of the comments that were made. 12 13 b. Community Revitalization Program 14 The Board considered approving revised operational guidelines for the community revitalization 15 loan program. 16 Tara Fikes said that the guidelines for this program were brought to the Board in February, 17 suggesting some revisions to the Community Revitalization Loan Program. This program provides funding 18 for acquisition and rehabilitation of existing properties. This funding rolls over into a direct second mortgage 19 for the qualified homebuyers. This program has been funded in the past using HOME money. She said that 20 in February the Board asked for some additional information and she explained the four points that are in 21 the agenda abstract. She said that the County has spent approximately $240,000 to date on this program. 22 Commissioner Gordon asked about the affordability period. There were places on pages three, 23 four, and five that had the affordability period as 20 years and 40 years. 24 Tara Fikes said that the original affordability period was 20 years in the guidelines. She went 25 back into the document and changed it to 40 years and overlooked some corrections that needed to be 26 made. 27 Commissioner Gordon said that the period of affordability should be 99 years if it is consistent 28 with the policy that was just approved. 29 Tara Fikes verified that she would change the document to say that the period of affordability 30 would be 99 years with a 40-year deferred loan with a deed of trust and promissory note. 31 Commissioner Gordon made reference to page six under "Property Value" and read the sentence, "The value of the identified property to be acquired by a homebuyer must have a value that does not exceed 95°!0 of the area median purchase price for that type of housing." She said that this value could be very expensive. 35 Tara Fikes said that the rates were set by HUD. 36 Commissioner Brown said that she was interested in the environmental issues. Her concern is 37 that these issues will be ignored. 38 Commissioner Brown asked about the list of properties that were renovated. 39 Tara Fikes said that the level of rehabilitation varied with each property. 40 Commissioner Brown clarified that EmPOWERment and Orange Community Housing 41 Corporation were the only two organizations that applied for this program. 42 Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page six and suggested a sentence to add to the 43 deconstruction portion as follows: "In the case of rehabilitation projects, deconstruction methods will be 44 considered to capture the greatest possible amount of materials for reuse in that or other projects." 45 There was a consensus that the revisions will be incorporated and brought back to the County 46 Commissioners for further review as soon as possible. 47 Myles Presley thanked the County Commissioners for allowing EmPOWERment to use these f8 funds. He asked that the County Commissioners act quickly to approve this plan so that HOME funds could t9 be released. He encouraged the Commissioners to consider raising the income limit to 80% of median io income. it ~2 ~ e. A Lands Legacv Program for Orange County +3 The Board considered adopting a policy to provide a program for natural and cultural resource ~4 land acquisitions. ~5 Environmental and Resource Conservation Director David Stanch gave an overview of the ~6 Lands Legacy Program. He noted that this is a voluntary program where staff will be looking for willing 7 sellers. He explained why this program is important. The County has lost as much as 25°!0 of prime forest land since 1980. Farming land and natural areas have been lost in the County to development. He fisted the larger landowners in Orange County including Duke University, OWASA, UNC, Eno River State Park,