ATTACHMENT 1

From:                     Gene Poveromo

To:                         Gene Poveromo

Subject:                 FW: Some assistance for local businesses

Date:                      Friday, March 27, 2009 12:43:49 PM

----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Patterson"

To: "Kevin Foy" <[email protected]>; "Bill Strom" <[email protected]>;

<[email protected]>; "Mark Kleinschmidt" <[email protected]>

Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 2:15 PM

Subject: Some assistance for local businesses

Gentlemen,

I am writing to you because it seems that you are the most likely

Council members to understand the pressures facing builders and

developers in today’s market. Due to the extraordinary state of the

real estate and financial markets for the last twelve months, many of

us been unable to move forward with projects for which Site Plan

Approvals, SUPs, or ZCPs were issued some time ago. This is a result

of an inability to meet pre-sale requirements or to arrange financing

at all. This situation is unlikely to improve in the next twelve months.

Generally approvals allow for two year construction commencement dates

and a three year completion dates (from the date of approval),

therefore, due to market conditions, most projects will not be viable

(or finance-able) prior to the expiration of their approved

commencement date nor complete-able prior to their approved completion

date.

While LUMO does allow the Staff to approve an extension of the

commencement date, the completion date can only be extended within 60

days of the original completion date, and such an extension is totally

discretionary. So, even if the Staff did approve a one year extension

of the commencement date, it would likely coincide with the completion

date.

This is a huge problem for those of us who must decide whether to

extend options or who wish to negotiate with lenders or investors. No

one will commit to any project that does not have realistic committed

commencement and completion dates.

The Staff takes the position that both commencement dates and

completion dates can be modified by going back through the approval

process. This requires a new fee to be paid as well as the investment

of a substantial amount of time by both the applicant and the staff.

Given the current economic environment, most builders cannot afford to

put more money into uncertain projects, nor does the staff, the

advisory boards, nor the Council need the extra work load involved in

modifying approvals and permits.

A simple solution would be for the Council grant blanket extensions of

18 months to both the commencement and completion dates of all

projects that have existing approved site plans, SUPs or ZCPs. All of

these projects have been fully vetted by the approval process, so no

oversight is lost. You would simply be granting necessary relief to

local businesses that are suffering from conditions beyond their

control. The federal government is taking extraordinary steps to help

businesses. I hope our local government can show its support for local

businesses with this simple solution to our problem.

If you think this is something you would consider, I would be happy to

formally petition the Council, or to leave it in your hands to pursue.

I would appreciate your thoughts in any case.

Thanks for your time.

Joe Patterson

Joe Patterson

7 Cobb Terrace

Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Tel # 919 933-5488

Fax # 919 933-0266