The Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school boards OK'd the Schools' Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, which would give local school boards the power to force developers to wait for the county to build new schools before receiving permits for construction.
The problem, as some local officials see it, is the potential effect on affordable housing in Orange County if school boards hold development permits for months or years. "My worry is what is going to happen to the stock of affordable housing during that time," said Carrboro Alderman Mark Dorosin.
And if the legislature approves the Smart Growth Committee recommendation that municipalities and counties be given the right to levy taxes without having to seek permission from the state, Dorosin said the ordinance might become an even less appealing alternative. "One of the reasons that the school ordinance was developed is because we don't have the power (to tax)," Dorosin said.
But most local officials, including Dorosin, feel the legislature will resist farming out its taxing authority.
"That's probably not going to happen in your lifetime or mine," said Steve Scroggs, assistant superintendent for support services in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
And local officials remain divided over whether an alternative to the ordinance is necessary at all. Chapel Hill Town Council member Bill Strom said concerns about affordable housing costs are exaggerated. "There is no direct correlation between the number of overall houses being built in Orange County and the number of affordable housing units being built," Strom said. "The affordable units are the result of arm twisting the developers, and I think that arm twisting must continue."
Strom also said the benefits of the ordinance outweigh any potential problems. "It would be a shame if Carrboro torpedoed an ordinance which could help us with controlling our taxes," he said. "We would not have these tax spikes to build schools."
The ordinance originally was written with an exception for affordable housing, but lawyers for the school boards said the exception was not legal. "The section about low-income housing in the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance has been totally removed," Scroggs said.
But both the Orange County and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school boards passed versions of the ordinance that included letters of support for affordable housing in place of the exception. Scroggs expects the Town Council and aldermen to see the same document. "If we don't do something we're going to be blown out of the water," Scroggs said.
