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DATE: |
March 20, 2007 |
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TO: |
Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager |
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FROM: |
J.B. Culpepper, Planning Director |
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SUBJECT: |
March 19, 2007, Council Committee Meeting: The Residences at Chapel Hill North |
The following provides a brief summary of the March 19, 2007 Council Committee meeting:
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Members Present: |
Sally Greene, Cam Hill, and Mark Kleinschmidt |
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Staff Present: |
J.B. Culpepper, Ralph Karpinos, Gene Poveromo |
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Others: |
Robert Dowling, Scott Radway, David Raven, Dick Wasicko |
The meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m.
The Council Committee continued discussion of the affordable housing plan issues identified at the February 12 Council meeting regarding the Special Use Permit application which proposes a multi-family development: The Residences at Chapel Hill North.
Because a Council policy regarding affordable rentals is not in place, the Committee asked the applicant to consider alternate proposals that would either provide 1) a lower percentage of affordable units as well as lower rental rate; or 2) consider an annual payment-in-lieu to the Town to be used toward affordable housing needs. The applicant provided information about both a lower percentage and a payment-in-lieu. The applicant also indicated consideration of for-sale units.
The lower percentage option dropped the percentage of affordable units by 50% (to 7 ½ %) at 65% of the median income. Because many of the older apartment complexes in town offer rent at a rate lower than this figure, this option was not considered further.
The payment-in-lieu option for this particular development proposal was determined by the Committee to be the most viable though as a one-time payment rather than annually. Through discussions with the applicant, because rental unit considerations are very different, the rental payment figure was suggested to be between $20,000 and $25,000 per unit. At $22,000/unit, the payment amount to the Town fund for 15% of the units would be $411,000.
Discussion continued regarding possible conversion of the project at a later date to condominiums. Because a payment-in-lieu of providing rental units is proposed, a formula will be necessary to determine the number of dwelling units that would need to be made permanently affordable, if the project is converted to condominium units, at a date in the future. The Committee intends to develop a detailed affordable housing stipulation to offer the full Council. Because time is needed to develop and discuss the specific language of an affordable housing stipulation, the Committee set a time to meet again on April 3rd.
The applicant and the Committee agreed that additional time was needed to develop specific language and, therefore, consideration of the Special Use Permit application should be continued to the April 11 Council meeting. It was suggested that the Hearings be reopened at the March 26 Council meeting and recessed to the April 11 Council meeting.
The Council Committee meeting was recessed to 4:00 p.m. on April 3, 2007, Human Resources Conference Room, second floor, at Town Hall. The meeting adjourned at 5:40 p.m.