HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 08-20-1996 - VIII-H 1
Orange County
Board of County Commissioners
Action Agenda
Item No _V=-J4 Action Agenda Item Abstract
Meeting Date: August 20, 1996
Subject: Impact Fee Reimbursement- Habitat for Humanity
Department Public Hearing Yes No
Manager's Office Budget Amendment
Needed Yes-X—No
Attachment(s) Information Contact
Letter from J. Robert Dieter, President County Manager-ext. 2300
Habitat for Humanity
Telephone and Extension Number
Hillsborough 732-8181
Chapel Hill 968-4501
Durham 688-7331
Mebane 227-2031
Purpose
To consider a request from Habitat for Humanity for reimbursement of Impact Fees for
projects planned for the 1996-97 fiscal year.
Background
The Board of Commissioners established a contingency account to reimburse impact
fees for affordable housing projects. To date, $9,750 has been spent out of the total
account of$15,046. The available balance is $5,296.
Habitat for Humanity is planning 10 projects during the 1996-97 fiscal year. These
include:
August 5 units Culbreth Park $15,000
November 1 unit Perry Hills $750
March 2 units Chestnut Oaks $1,500
May 2 units Efland Estates $1,500
Total 10 units $18,750
If all the planned project reimbursements are funded, the total amount of new funding
would be $13,454. However, because there are several factors that could impact when
projects are actually started and completed, the Board of Commissioners could consider
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funding just those projects planned immediately, which includes the 5 projects in
Culbreth Park. These projects, totaling $15,000 would require additional funding totaling
$9,704. The source of funding that is recommended is the Board of Commissioners'
contingency account which has a current balance of$100,000.
Recommendation
The Manager recommends that the Board of Commissioners appropriate $9,704 from
the Board of Commissioners' Contingency Account to reimburse Habitat for Humanity
for the costs of impact fees for 5 homes to be constructed in Culbreth Park.
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Habitat for Humanity
I I Orange County,North Carolina,Inc.
June 20, 1996
Moses Carey, Jr., Chairman
Orange County Board of Commissioners
P.O. Box 8181
Hillsborugh, NC 27278
Dear Mr. Carey:
As you are aware, the Board of Commissioners recently increased the Impact Fee for
a home built in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District to $3,000. You and other
Commissioners expressed concern about the effect this increase will have on the production
of affordable housing. We share your concern, particularly since we plan to build five
homes in Chapel Hill this Fall, all for families who earn less than fifty percent of the area
median income. With impact fees of$3,000 per home, this will cost us (and the
homebuyers) an additional $15,000. That figure represents a third of what it costs us to
build one home. For Habitat and for the homebuyers we serve, paying an impact fee of
$3,000 per home is a significant challenge. Over time, the Impact Fee will reduce the
number of homes we are able to build, and thus the number of very low income households
we are able to serve.
Last November, the Commissioners passed an Impact Fee Reimbursement Policy that
allows any non-profit organization that develops single family housing for first-time
homebuyers with incomes below 80% of the area median to submit a request for
reimbursement for impact fees paid. There was a pool of funds totaling approximately
$13,000 designated for these reimbursements, to be used until the funds ran out. To date,
Habitat has applied for $6,750 in reimbursements for impact fees on eight homes built or
under construction during the 1995-96 fiscal year: We plan to complete at least eight more
homes in the 1996-97 fiscal year, five of them in Chapel Hill. This will mean that Habitat
will pay a total of$17,250 in impact fees in the upcoming fiscal year. Even if no other non-
profit organizations apply for impact fee reimbursements, the original pool of funds is not
adequate to reimburse Habitat for the fees we will pay in 1996-97.
To our knowledge, once the original pool of funds is depleted, no new source of
funds has been identified and designated for reimbursing impact fees under the policy
adopted by the Commisioners last November. Especially in light of the recent hike in the fee
for homes built in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, we feel that it is imperative that the Commissioners
identify and designate a source of funds to reimburse impact fees under the policy they
adopted last November. Producing decent, low cost housing that is affordable to very low
200 Davis Road ♦ Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 ♦ 919-732-6767
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Moses Carey, Jr. page two
income households is already a challenge for us without the additional burden of paying
impact fees. We use you to find the funds to implement the impact fee reimbursement
policy you adopted last year so that we can continue to serve the County and its residents to
our highest potential.
Sincerely,
J. PJr DieterPPr id ent
for the Board of Directors
cc: William J. Crowther
Alice M. Gordon
Stephen H. Halkiotis
Don Wilhoit
John Link, County Manager I�j
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