Officials explore financial options for Carolina North

UNC officials are working to obtain a clearer model of the fiscal impact of Carolina North after local officials said the first model had several shortcomings.

A user-friendly model was requested by University officials to explore more scenarios particularly because the first model was based on a healthy economy.

Early Wednesday Chapel Hill officials met with Julie Herlands and Carson Bise of the Maryland-based TischlerBise Consultants who prepared the report. And in a separate Wednesday night meeting University and town staff answered residents' questions about the model.

Bise and Herlands said their models for projecting costs were reliable. They assured the Chapel Hill Town Council that figures would serve as an accurate baseline analysis for Carolina North which is planned for 2 miles north of the main campus.

Town council members said they were concerned about TischlerBise's methods of compiling the report especially calculations about the cost of police and fire services to Carolina North.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward said he is concerned that the cost to the town could be significantly higher than the report estimates.

Town Manager Roger Stancil who attended both meetings" said town departments had time to review the consultants' findings before the report was drafted.

""We worked very" very hard and took a whole lot of time to make sure department heads and those whose operations would be affected by Carolina North vetted and reviewed the information presented by the report" he said.

The consultants used reasonable assumptions ­— that the economy would be relatively unchanged from previous years — when writing the original model, Carolina North Executive Director Jack Evans said at the night meeting. The consultants did a good job" he said.

The initial report projects that the first 15 years of Carolina North development would leave the town with a deficit ranging from about $1 to $3 million.

Evans said the University would likely have to look at multiple scenarios for the fiscal impact of the satellite campus' development.

We may want to investigate a more conservative model or a more aggressive model compared to the first report" Evans said

There is no timeline as to when the new model would be available, Evans said.

The topic is on our immediate agenda.""


Contact the City Editor  at citydesk@unc.edu.