There was another well attended meetingĀ at lunch about Ephesus Fordham today. I asked questions about the projected differences in available Affordable Housing from Form Based Code vs. current Special Use Permit system for the area (they will respond later). I also asked if the property owners would have to pay a new stormwater fee (yes) and if the project could be developed to reduce the amount of stormwater run off. Currently the stated goals are to improve the water quality (reduce nutrients and dissolved solids) and maintain OR reduce the current amount of runoff. A number of neighbors are concerned about the increase in flooding. The watershed map shows the the Ef area is a relatively small amout of the watershed and probably is not the cause of the recent increase in flooding. There is probably some potential for reducing runoff with redevelopment as opposed to status quo. It sounds like there will be a town wide effort to increase the number of raingardens and other features to reduce runoff. (Something I promoted while running for Council.) There were a number of questions about runoff, flooding, traffic, greenspace, protection of current businesses and financing. One person thought that redevelop would result in more cars and thus more air pollution but you could argue that if cars stayed in Chapel Hill rather than driving to Durham that would reduce the total amount of air pollution. The current value of the area is $150 million and 3 anticipated commercial projects would produce $160 million in value and $800,000 year in revenue which would be used to pay the debt to develop the new road improvements and stormwater control. Town Hall would be used as collateral for the projects. (The fancy name for the financing would be "Synthetic Tax Increment Financing") One person asked what would happen if the projects did not occur. (My answer is that taxes would have to be raised to finance the debt.) Over the next month there will be more meetings and a vote.
Issues: