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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 03-27-2017 1 APPROVED 4/4/2017 MINUTES BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Legislative Breakfast March 27, 2017 8:30 a.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a breakfast meeting with the Orange County Legislative Delegation on Monday, March 27, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. at the Solid Waste Administrative Offices in Chapel Hill, N.C. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Commissioners Mia Burroughs, Barry Jacobs, Mark Marcoplos, Earl McKee, Renee Price and Penny Rich COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Chair Dorosin COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Bonnie Hammersley, Deputy County Manager Travis Myren, Clerk to the Board Donna Baker, Assistant to Manager for Legislative Affairs Greg Wilder (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION PRESENT: Senator Valerie Foushee, Representative Verla Insko, Representative Graig Meyer Commissioner Rich called the meeting to order at 8:37 a.m. Commissioner Rich said Chair Dorosin would be unable to attend. Commissioner Rich said she would like to add the discussion of Bills 406 and 436 bills to the agenda. Commissioner Rich said she is part of TJCOG and at the end of their meeting last week, Dustin Tripp from Knightdale started talking about Bill 436 and as a Republican he was furious ( even though the COG is a non-partisan group). Mr. Tripp said he is tired of the General Assembly's stance on issues. She said the COG got in touch with the managers about the millions in loss if House Bill 436 were to pass. County Attorney John Roberts said Bill 406 that was currently filed focused on taking away Orange County's authority to enact impact fees. He said the next day, Bill 436 was filed and it had the same connotations but is broader in scope in that it affects other counties, including Orange County and municipalities. It was mentioned that Bill Faison asked Rep. Sarah Stevens to file this bill. Commissioner Rich said the Board of Commissioners would like to know what the next steps are. Representative Insko said she talked with Rep. Stevens and Rep. Stevens talked about jurisdictions that enacted fees without authority but Representative Insko pointed out that Orange County has authority. She said she does not know if this is a demonstrative action or of the legislature will pass this bill and she said she understood that the developers are supporting this bill. 2 Commissioner Price said before these two bills were filed, the NCACC had mentioned that impact fees were under fire across the state. Representative Insko said Bill 436 has one co- sponsor and Bill 406 has no additional sponsors. Representative Meyer said he is on the finance committee and will hear it if these bills go there. Representative Insko said this bill is just in in the House and not yet in the Senate. John Roberts said the NCLM (North Carolina League of Municipalities) is opposed to both bills. Commissioner Jacobs asked if the Legislature knew that both Chatham and Orange Counties have authority to enact these impact fees. Senator Foushee arrived at 8:48am. John Roberts said many entities that have been charging fees without authority are now repealing their ordinances. Commissioner Rich said impact fees go to toward school construction costs and she said they can send the Delegation some solid numbers to help fight against these bills. Commissioner Rich said there is a letter to the editors that was written after their COG meeting (she distributed this it) and she asked the Delegation does the BOCC fight this in the media. Representative Insko said the School Boards and Superintendents also need to be vocal. Representative Insko said is the current developer that is challenging the impact fees in Orange County an anomaly. John Roberts said this developer has already been scheduled to be considered to be grandfathered in on the impact fees and they are aware of this situation. Bonnie Hammersley said the appeals process is for a developer to bring an appeal forward to the Planning director and planning staff with consultation with the County Attorney's office. After review, the appeals will be brought forward to the BOCC. The staff is currently prepared to provide a recommendation in reference to grandfathering in of the Grove Park project in Chapel Hill. John Roberts said developers had met with planning staff but stopped communicating with the planning department after initial meetings and that is why there is a delay. Commissioner Jacobs said they are committed to exemptions with senior housing and can do the same for student housing. Representative Meyer said he understood that this developer is a family owned business and wanted to do self-financing of their project and thus the impact fee would directly affect their personal financing. Commissioner Rich referred to the proposed draft letter to the Editor of the local newspaper (that she had distributed earlier) and asked for feedback from the Delegation. 3 Representative Meyer suggested that they do not use the verbiage "being rushed"in the opening statement first. Senator Foushee said they only know that the bill has been introduced. Representative Meyer said he would like to know the "whys" of impact fees and he asked why the assessment of the impact fees is important. Travis Myren said every few years there is study of student generation fees and these were indicated recently and these new developments were showing more students and he said the largest increase in fees was in apartment buildings. Representative Insko said she heard that this development in Chapel Hill was only for UNC students. Commissioner Rich said a lot of the impact fees decreased in this study and where the fees increased were in the multifamily home dwellings, Representative Insko said if she were the Commissioners, she would focus on how to respond to the huge increase in the impact fees for this one development. She suggested starting the letter by saying that many fees went decreased. She also suggested adding in that any large unit can appeal these impact fees. Representative Meyer said he understood that with this particular project in Chapel Hill that the increase of impact fees for it increased from $100,000 to $1.2 m and in the Board's proposed letter they it states that these bills will take away $2.8m in impact fees for Orange County. The perception is that this one project is paying over 1/2 of all of the impact fees that Orange County will be collecting. Travis Myren referred to the back sheet of the hand out at their places-Historical Impact Fee Activity. Commissioner Rich added that impact fees have not increased since 2008. Representative Meyer said their impact fee structure will make housing that much more expensive. Commissioner Rich said impact fees are not an affordable housing tool. Commissioner Burroughs said the unattended consequences are that developers are not interested in affordable housing and this is outside of the impact fees. Commissioner Burroughs said that the impact fee does not have the unintended consequences of slowing the growth of the stock of affordable housing because developers are not offering affordable housing unless they are responding to other tools to incentivize affordable housing. Representative Insko said this whole current issue had become a public relations problem. Representative Meyer said the increases in impact fees will slow or stop the growth of larger housing complexes and this will affect the housing market. 4 Commissioner Jacobs said they hired a consultant that did the impact fee analysis and the Board picked a mid-point as to the enactment of the impact fees and they understand the impact of their decision. He said state and federal governments are not helping local governments build schools. Orange County is trying to balance the competing interests and if a development is joining our community, it needs to help the impact they are creating. The board's decision was to create a balance. Representative Meyer said he supported the Board's right to enact impact fees and they as a Delegation will help fight these bills but the perception is that this one developer will be paying up to 50% of all their impact fees. This will get labeled that this will hurt affordable housing and this is a messy issue in Orange County as well as for them as legislators. Representative Insko said they are worried about the public's perception. Senator Foushee said they need to know how to defend this in the legislature. It looks as if Orange County is gunning for one particular developer and with that perception, then the developers will be pushing back. Commissioner Burroughs said they need to "tweak" their public message. She asked the Delegation what the regional strategy is going forward. Representative Insko said the republicans need to take the lead and Representative Meyer agreed. Commissioner Marcoplos said the developer abandoned the appeals process and so they don't know what their projected impact fee would have been. Representative Insko said they don't need to blame the developer in the public arena. Representative Insko said the appeals process is still on going and she asked the Board to tell the public and them what they have done on other appeals. Travis Myren said Carraway Village is an example and Representative Insko said to use that example in their letter. PRIORITY DISCUSSION TOPICS Raise Age for Juvenile Jurisdiction in Criminal Court- Commissioner Price Support legislation and funding to raise the Age of Juvenile Jurisdiction from 16 to 18. Item#6 in the attached Board of Commissioners' Statewide Issues Resolution (Page 3) * See also the attached North Carolina Association of County Commissioners 2017-18 Legislative Goals Senator Foushee said this one is done. Voter Registration and Voting- Commissioner Burroughs Support legislation to: 1) maintain same day voter registration, early voting and Sunday voting provisions, and the pre-registration of 16 and 17 year olds in preparation for voting; 2) restore straight party ticket voting, the validity of out of precinct provisional ballots, and the public financing of judicial elections; and 3) eliminate all photo identification requirements. Item#15 in the Board of Commissioners' Statewide Issues Resolution 5 Commissioner Burroughs asked if this was still in the courts and the Delegation agreed. Representative Meyer said they don't know the court timing and they don't know any other Republican restrictions that may come forward. Representative Insko said they are supportive of on line registration. Representative Insko said all of this is in the context that the Republicans have the vote. Commissioner Rich said is there an update on the 2017 special elections. Representative Meyer said it is still in the Supreme Court. Senator Foushee said they will probably know something in June. Bona Fide Farm Use- Commissioner Marcoplos Support legislation clarifying that the farm use and agriculture exemption of 153A-340 that restricts local zoning authority applies only to property on which the production of crops or livestock is the primary use. Clarify that marketing and agritourism activities must be secondary uses of the property and do not qualify for the exemption in the absence of the production of crops or livestock. Item#24 in the Board of Commissioners' Statewide Issues Resolution Commissioner Marcoplos said he is assuming this is happening all over the state and he listed the reasons to be certified as a bona fide farm. Representative Insko said you can have primary uses of farm uses and also have a wedding venue so how do you determine what is primary. Commissioner Marcoplos said there is a listing of uses and so this needs to be consistent with their agri- support initiatives. Representative Meyer said this is not an issue all over the state. He said many want to supplement their farms' income and he said there are two issues: the ability for counties and cities to control zoning in these areas and also there is the fire code issue. A barn is not set to the same fire codes as a barn being used for a wedding. The fire marshals are very involved in this issue and they are trying to work with those involved to work this out. He said the word "primary"is the main word. Commissioner Marcoplos said they may just have a farm first, and then eclipse with agri-support enterprises. John Roberts said one of the issues is that N.C.'s definition of agritourism is a part of the farm activities definition and that is the problem of challenging this, Representative Meyer said no one is interested in doing a separate bill and when the Farm Act of 2017 goes through this provision may be added. Commissioner McKee said this all centers around the urbanization of counties and it is not just around the Chapel Hill area. There are farms all over the county who have a problem with urban transplants. This is going to be a continuing issue. 6 Representative Meyer said this is going to turn into a property rights issue and will be hard to win in the legislature. But to add fire codes will restrict who will be able to add these structures to their farms. Commissioner McKee said for a major venue it is important but not so much for minor farms. It will come down as to who will be able to afford to do this, to be able to add in the necessary fire codes. Commissioner Price said this may end up being a local bill at some point. Senator Foushee said it may be good if the Board could send that language to them so they can be prepared for the Farm Act of 2017 and they may be able to add a revision. Commissioner Jacobs said the Delegation may want to talk with Council Member Tim Bradley on the Mebane City Council since his area of expertise is with fire marshals/fire codes. Representative Meyer left at 9:30am. Agriculture— Support Conservation of Working Lands and Farmland Preservation- Commissioner McKee Support a revision to the revenue and acreage requirements of the Use Value Program to reduce acreage requirements and increase the income threshold. Item#29 in the Board of Commissioners' Statewide Issues Resolution Commissioner McKee said may farms are small nowadays and any support of reducing this affects these smaller farms and will reduce the tax burden. Representative Insko said she met with the Food Council and most of these are small farms and she will look into this. Commissioner Jacobs said this is worthwhile for Orange County and that is why the Board supports it. * Transportation Funding- Commissioner Jacobs Support increased state funding for transportation construction and maintenance needs, and support legislation to ensure that the STI funding formula recognizes that one size does not fit all and that projects in both rural and urban areas are prioritized and funded, and eliminate the cap on light rail funding. Item#34 in the Board of Commissioners' Statewide Issues Resolution * Also part of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners 2017-18 Legislative Goals — Commissioner Jacobs said most of this language is NCACC's language with the exception of the last part- eliminating the cap on light rail. He said this cap has put light rail on life support. They need to decide something soon and the essence is that Go Triangle is that they try to convince the FTA of the largest numbers in order to get more money and at the local level how do they make this up and the local transit sales tax may not be enough. The board does not want to jeopardize the county's long term financial situation. Commissioner Jacobs said that is where they are now and does the Delegation see any relenting on the cap. 7 Representative Insko and Senator Foushee said they do not. Commissioner Jacobs said they have to decide in the next 4 weeks so if the Delegation sees the cap going down to please let the Board know. Senator Foushee said the last time this was discussed in the Legislature there was a lot of finger pointing on both sides of the aisle but she will do some research. Commissioner Price asked if they heard anything from Congressman Price on this issue and Senator Foushee said no. Commissioner Rich thanked the delegates for their time, openness and availability. The meeting adjourned at 9:48a.m. Penny Rich, Vice Chair Donna Baker, Clerk to the Board