The council held a worksession this past Tuesday to discuss
a number of items to include a proposed increase to Cary’s Transportation
Development Fees (TDFs), Land Development Ordinance Text Amendments and updates
to the town’s Building Design Standards.
Council members Robinson and Smith were both absent from the
meeting.
Transportation Development Fees:
Town staff and consultants recently completed a
comprehensive study of Cary’s transportation development fees on the basis of
full cost recovery of thoroughfare improvements and presented their findings
and recommendation for a fee increase to council.
The two primary recommendations and discussion items were;
1)
Increase Cary’s TDFs to 60% of full cost
recovery. This represents an approximate 10% increase over Cary’s existing
TDFs.
2)
Continue to increase TDFs annually at a rate of
5% during the budget process.
Cary’s TDFs were last increased in 2013 and 2008
respectively.
Town staff and consultant’s justification for the proposed
increase include inflation and rising construction costs.
Current TDFs for a single family detached home in Cary are $1359.00.
The proposal would increase that amount to $1573.00. Raleigh currently charges
$1661.00 and Durham charges $1405.00 so while Cary’s fees would become higher
than Durham, we would still be lower than Raleigh.
The cost differentials remain about the same for
multi-family construction as well – Cary would still be lower than Raleigh but
higher than Durham.
Office and commercial construction is a different story.
TDFs for retail development in Cary are currently $1466.00
per 1000sq ft. The proposed increase would take that number to $1637.00.
Raleigh currently charges $2695.00 and Durham’s fees are $4423.00. Both Raleigh
and Durham’s fees would remain significantly higher than Cary.
TDFs for office development are currently $2004.00 per 1000
sq ft. The proposal would increase Cary’s fees to $2113.00. Raleigh’s fees are
currently $2055.00 and Durham’s are $3366.00. This would make Cary’s fees
higher than Raleigh, but lower than Durham….whose fees on commercial and office
are ridiculously high when compared to their neighbors.
Note – Cary’s numbers above apply to development outside the
central district (inside the Maynard Loop) Cary’s fees inside the Maynard Loop
are set lower to incent new development/redevelopment.
My concern(s) with the proposed fee increase pertains to the
commercial/office side more so than the residential. I struggle with increasing
costs on the job creators. You know, the folks like MetLife, Bass Pro Shops,
CBC Americas, Deutsche Bank, HCL, SAS and hundreds of small businesses; many of
which have fled high tax/fee states looking for a more business friendly climate
and highly educated and talented employees like we have here in Cary. Heck,
Cary was even one of two finalist cities for USA Tennis out of New York. Unfortunately
we lost out to Orlando on that one (tough to compete with Disney World, beaches
and year-round warm weather) but it’s just another example of what we have to
offer here in Cary and what employers and organizations are looking for.
Unfortunately (for me anyways) Cary does not have
legislative authority to only increase fees on say residential but not office
or commercial. If we choose to increase our TDFs, we must increase them across
the board.
So again, while I might could be ok with a TDF increase on
residential, I really struggle with increasing costs on businesses here in Cary.
Cary’s unemployment rate is around 3.5% which blows away
most everywhere else in the country. I want to keep it that way. So if lower
costs are an important factor in why many businesses are relocating to Cary,
why would we want to increase their costs? And when you consider that a number
of companies were provided city, county and state financial incentives, well, I
just don’t see how increased costs compliment our job recruitment efforts.
Building Design Standards
Much of the discussion centered around the proposed changes
for building materials in downtown and Cary’s Historic Districts.
Cary’s design standards throughout town call for a minimum
of 35% masonry material on new construction of commercial or attached residential. In 2012 the council raised the
masonry requirement for downtown to 75%. The thinking was that the increased standard
would result in higher quality development downtown.
The result? No development.
Quality projects such as Samuel’s Keep, The Townes of Madison,
Highland Village and my personal favorite – Frantz Automotive Center ;-) were
developed under Cary’s 35% masonry standard and have added value to our
downtown. We have not seen a new project like those since the masonry requirement
was raised to 75%. It simply increases costs to the point where projects are no
longer financially viable. Look at the two images below. Neither of them meet the current design standards of 75%. Why would we want to discourage any more development like this in downtown?
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| Samuel's Keep |
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| Townes of Madison |
Just so we are clear, a 35% requirement doesn’t mean that is
all you get. Samuel’s Keep for example is roughly 42% masonry. It is simply the
minimum that would be allowed.
I am pleased that at our worksession the council supported
reducing the requirement back to 35%. Town staff and Cary’s Downtown
Development manager, Ted Boyd also supported a reduction in the masonry requirement. There will be a public hearing prior to official action by the council.
In regards to Cary’s historic districts – Downtown,
Carpenter and Green Level – the thinking was a little different. In downtown
for example, many buildings have some amount of brick, while in Carpenter, most
buildings are completely wood. To require a brick building in an area such as
Carpenter would be very much out of character. In downtown however, a partially
brick building would be in character with its surroundings. So, we decided to
continue to require the 35% masonry in the downtown historic district while
allowing for all wood construction in Carpenter and Green Level.
I am hopeful the proposed changes will spur more of the
private investment in our downtown we are looking for. Time will tell.
That’s all for this post. As always, thanks for reading!