NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 21, 2000

TAX BREAKS FOR PROPERTY OWNERS, VENTURE CAPITAL IDEAS FOR NEW SCHOOLS, LIMITING SPRAWL THROUGH INFILL, AND INCREASES IN OPEN SPACE

TOP LIST OF COUNCIL RETREAT PRIORITIES

CARY, NC – Innovation, preservation, and comprehensive action were the watchwords of the annual Council-staff planning retreat for the Town of Cary. Over the three-day weekend meeting in Wrightsville Beach, NC, the Cary Town Council directed staff to investigate a number of innovations designed to increase the quality of life for existing citizens while assuring that development continues to strengthen the local economy, add new schools, and pay for its own impacts to infrastructure expansion.

One idea from the retreat that staff is now examining is allowing property owners to deduct from their income taxes the fees paid to the Town for water and solid waste collection. Currently, these charges are collected in the form of fees that citizens pay monthly. If those same charges could be rolled into their property tax bills, homeowners that itemize their annual income tax filings could deduct those costs at the end of the year—actual charges for services stay the same, but itemizing them puts 33% back in the pocket of taxpayers.

For example, property owners who now pay $138 annually for garbage collection fees could itemize this cost on their income tax filing as property taxes paid, saving $48 in state and federal deductions through itemizing. This means that the cost for services effectively drops from $138 to $90 annually. For citizens who choose not to itemize their income tax filings, the net result would be no change in service charges; that is, at the end of the year, they would have paid the same amount of money to the Town, it’s just that in the future, it would be shown in their property tax bills instead of as a monthly fee.

Another focus of the retreat was schools. While Cary continues to make steady progress in having new public and private schools sited in Western Wake County, the Cary Council remains very concerned about the lack of community schools, busing, and overcrowding. Under a new idea proposed by Mayor Glen Lang, the Cary Town Council might be able to work with developers to get more new schools in the region by creating non-profit corporations—such as 501(C)(3)—where developers could set aside money that would have been used to extend Town infrastructure such as water, sewer, and roads. In exchange for the donation for new schools, the Town would use its public position to borrow money for the infrastructure extensions at a lower interest rate than the private developer could. The Town would extend the infrastructure to the development and assess the developer for those extensions. The land to be developed would be used as collateral until the assessment recouped the Town’s outlay to eliminate any risks to the government if the development failed. The net result of this "venture capital" type of approach is a new school for the region without additional costs to developers or risk to the Town. This approach has been successfully used in the construction of infrastructure in Asheville and Winston-Salem but it has not been used for school construction in NC.

This weekend, Town of Cary officials also continued their discussion of existing annexation policies and how these rules might be changed to protect existing citizens and limit sprawl. One issue is the number of "doughnut holes" in Cary—lots that are surrounded by Town property but which remain in the county because property owners have not requested annexation into Cary. In addition to a number of commercial sites, there are about 1400 single family home lots 3 acres or less in size, the vast majority of which have houses on them.

These citizens don’t pay Cary taxes but have access to many Town resources. Currently, the Town does not forcibly annex property. But this might change pending staff analysis of what it is costing the Town to support this policy versus what it might cost to bring these properties into Town.

Another annexation issue being examined is the Town’s current policy to extend water and/or sewer to citizens outside Town limits whose county systems fail. These emergency extensions are often made without requiring the citizens to annex into the Town. As with the doughnut holes, staff is analyzing this practice in terms of its costs to existing citizens and comparing it to the costs of requiring annexation for emergency infrastructure extensions.

But never far away from any topic of discussion at the retreat was the issue of preserving open space and Council’s commitment to be North Carolina’s green leader. Under a proposal by Council member Nels Roseland, Cary may set aside up to $15 million to support Cary Preservation 2000—a new Town program to purchase critical natural areas to protect the region’s water supply and wildlife habitat as well as provide recreational opportunities for existing citizens. The money, which could come from existing Town reserves, might be used to buy property outright and to purchase development rights from landowners. Grants and conservation tax credits might also play a role. Once purchased, these open spaces could be as small as paths linking subdivisions or greenways to large expanses of natural areas that would buffer the effects of development.

Other items discussed at the retreat include:

• Preferred development zones where the Town could offer incentives for certain types of preferred future growth;
  
• A request by Council Member Jennifer Robinson for the Town to work to help preserve the Carpenter hamlet. Robinson wants to make sure that the characteristics of the unique, rural area are preserved as the region becomes more and more urbanized;

• Creating a new Western Wake Metropolitan Planning Organization or a Western Wake-Durham-Chatham MPO, or even a Cary-only MPO to allow more state and federal money to be directed at road projects important to the Cary area such as Davis Drive, Hwy 55, and the Western Wake Expressway. Because of its large population relative to other members of the Capital Area MPO (CAMPO), Raleigh can greatly influence which projects get sent forward to funding authorities. With the amount of needs Raleigh has, many of the Western Wake needs may get left behind. By separating, Cary may be able to help move forward the projects of the western region;

• Putting the final touches on the final version of the roads adequate public facility ordinance (APFO); The current interim ordinance has been in place for some time;
  
• Analyzing the aging infrastructure in Old Cary and making plans to improve it, including streets, sidewalks, and storm water collection.

Council action on all of these ideas will wait as staff analyzes short and long-term impacts as well as legal issues that may have to be resolved before the Council can move forward. Timeframes for this analysis are project dependent and range from a few weeks to several months. Once approved by Council, the complete minutes of the annual retreat will be available on the Town’s website.

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