AGENDA #9
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Manager
SUBJECT: Response to Orange County Request for Town Recreation Project Priorities for Bond Sales Planned by County
DATE: March 4, 2002
The attached resolution would prioritize the Town’s request to Orange County for the phased sale of County bonds allocated for parks and recreation and greenways projects to be carried out in the Town of Chapel Hill. The resolution would request that the County consider a preliminary funding schedule for Town projects as follows:
· about $200,000 in initial planning and design funding for greenways in the first planned sale.
· all of the $3.5 million allocated for an aquatic center and about $100,000 for greenways in the second sale.
· the balance of $2.7 million allocated for greenways and the Southern Community Park to be divided equally between the last two sales.
In November 2001, voters in Orange County approved a General Obligation bond issue totaling $75,000,000, with an allocation of $55 million for schools and other projects, and $20,000,000 for a variety of projects for Parks and Recreation, Open Space, and Greenways in various locations in the County. The Town’s allocation of the $20,000,000 included $3.5 million for an aquatic center, $2 million for development of the Southern Community Park and $1 million for construction of greenways.
The Orange County Commissioners have presented and discussed a tentative four-year phased plan and schedule for the sale of these General Obligation bonds and for the issuance of other debt planned by the County. The tentative schedule calls for a sale each year over the next four years, with an allocation for Parks and Recreation and Open Space Bonds in each sale. The initial schedule discussed by the County calls for the first sale of bonds to begin in July 2002, followed by additional sales in July 2003, January 2005, and January 2006. (A copy of the tentative scheduled discussed by the County is attached.)
Due to the budget considerations resulting from the Governor’s actions to address the State’s budget crisis and the uncertainty surrounding next year’s budget, we understand that the Commissioners also discussed revising the phased schedule to begin the bond sales in January 2003 instead of July 2002.
The County Commissioners have requested proposed priorities from the bond the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro that would be used to determine how these priorities fit into the County’s overall proposed bond sale plan.
The County’s preliminary schedule calls for the sale of Parks and Recreation and Open Space Bonds for the County and bond partners over the four year period, beginning with $2.05 million in the first sale, $5.85 million in the second, $5 million in the third, and $7.1 million in the fourth and final sale.
The Town’s projects for these bonds include the aquatic center, Southern Community Park, and greenways. The County has already sold and allocated funding to the Town for the aquatic center and Southern Community Park based on their 1997 bond issue. Of this allocation, about $800,000 is available from the County for each of these two projects after the Town incurs costs. Therefore, no additional funding is needed for these projects in the first bond sale. There is funding currently available in each project to proceed with planning and design work.
For the first bond issue of $2.05 million proposed by the County, we recommend the Council request funding of about $100,000 to $200,000 for greenways projects from the first sale. This allocation would allow initial planning and design for new greenways as decided by the Council. We also believe that planning for our greenways projects needs to coincide with Carrboro’s planning for its portion of greenways projects, and believe it is important that Carrboro request funding from the County at the same time.
Total funding for the aquatic center would include the Town’s own bonds of about $1.2 million not yet sold, about $800,000 from the County’s previous bond allocation, and $3.5 million from the new bonds approved in 2001. We believe that, if progress continues on the aquatic center design and special use permit application as planned over the next year and a half, we could be ready to begin construction of this project within two years. In order to bid the project and have adequate funding to start construction, we believe we would need to combine all available funding for this project at that time. Therefore, we recommend that the Council request an allocation from the County’s second bond sale for the entire $3.5 million allocated for the aquatic center as the first priority. The Town would also plan to sell its bonds at the same time. This approach would consolidate funding from all sources for this project so that we would be in a position to award construction bids and begin construction at that time.
If the County’s total allocation for Parks and Recreation for the second sale is limited to about $5.85 million, no additional funding may be available for greenway projects or the Southern Community Park from this sale. If additional funding were available, we recommend the Council request funding for greenways projects.
For the third and fourth bond sales by the County, we recommend the Council request funding for the balance of allocations for greenways and for the Southern Community Park. As a tentative plan, we believe it would be reasonable to request that the balance of funding for these two projects could be split evenly over the last two issues. Based on these preliminary priorities, a proposed request to the County by year for the phased issuance of the Town’s bonds would be as follow:
Bond Sales 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year
Total County Parks &
Recreation/Open Space 2,050,000 5,850,000 5,000,000 7,100,000
Greenways 200,000 100,000 350,000 350,000
Aquatic Center - 3,500,000
Southern Community Park - - 1,000,000 1,000,000
This is a potential schedule we could recommend to the County. However, we believe other potential schedules would be possible depending on the Council’s priorities, and on the Council’s perceived need to move forward on any specific project at a different time. We believe it is also likely that opportunities would exist over this time frame for the Council to change or amend its request for these last two sales, depending on actual progress on these two projects.
We recommend the potential schedule above as the priorities to be incorporated into the County’s proposed bond sale schedule. We recommend that the Council adopt the attached resolution requesting the County’s considerations of these priorities in planning its bond sales over the proposed four-year schedule.
A RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE COUNTY’S CONSIDERATION OF TOWN PRIORITIES FOR SCHEDULING BOND SALES OVER A PROPOSED FOUR-YEAR PERIOD (2002-03-04/R-9)
WHEREAS, the Orange Commissioners have tentatively proposed the sale of bonds approved by the voters in November, 2001 in phases over a four-year period; and
WHEREAS, $6.5 million of these bonds are allocated for Town Parks and Recreation projects and greenways; and
WHEREAS, the County Commissioners have requested that the Town prioritize its funding request for the issuance of bonds for these projects over the next four years based on a preliminary schedule proposed by the County;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the Town of Chapel Hill that the Council hereby requests consideration by the County of the Town’s preliminary priorities for the sale of bonds in accord with the schedule below:
Bond Sales 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year
Total County Parks &
Recreation/Open Space 2,050,000 5,850,000 5,000,000 7,100,000
Greenways 200,000 100,000 350,000 350,000
Aquatic Center - 3,500,000
Southern Community Park - - 1,000,000 1,000,000
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council requests that the County give consideration to potential changes to this schedule based on changing priorities by the Council that could be mutually negotiated with the County over the proposed four-year period.
This the 4th day of March, 2002.