 | | This month's featured "grant" is chef and food science geek Grant Achatz. |
April 2013 Grants Update
With the start of Spring and the reappearance of Sandhills Farm to Table boxes it seemed fitting to select a "foodie" chef as our "Grant of the Month." Chef Grant Achatz started the Alinea restaurant in Chicago where diners are served around 18 courses of small plate food. Achatz is known for dishes that push the limits of food and science, a recent selection on his menu was labelled "Balloon" with the ingredients being helium and green apple. Chef Achatz is remarkable, in part, for surviving tongue cancer that temporarily left him unable to taste food. This remarkable food pioneer is certainly one of our most interesting "Grants of the Month." Community development staff was engaged with all three of its active housing rehab grants this month. Work on two homes served under the County's Economic Recovery Program CDBG (CDBG ERP) was substantially completed in April. This leaves the County with four homes remaining to be served under this grant. A Notice to Proceed was issued on one of those homes for May 27th and another for June 24th. The final two homes to be served under this grant were bid on April 24th and bids will be received by noon on May 3rd. Contractors were made aware at the pre-bid meeting that all homes will need to receive a Notice to Proceed no later than July 15th so the County can fulfill its obligations under this grant program. The April 24th bid also featured five homes to be served under the County's 2012 Urgent Repair Program (URP12.) These homes are located in Southern Pines or Aberdeen. Whenever possible, community development staff try and serve homes in one area all at once. This makes it easier to schedule multiple inspections of homes when the rehab work begins. Staff spent dozens of hours in April at homes in Aberdeen and Vass being served under the County's 2011 Single Family Rehab (SFR) grant. One of those homes passed its blower door testing. The other home will be ready shortly as well. Work will start on a third home, in Southern Pines in early May. Staff is hopeful of serving more than three homes under this grant. The first two need to be completed and the third substantially complete before the County can seek assistance for a fourth home. In total, there are now eight homes under contract to be served under the County's CDBG ERP, URP12 or SFR11 grants. One of these contracts may be vacated due to a disagreement between the homeowner and staff regarding the work to be performed on the home. The staff and a neighbor of the homeowner worked with the potential beneficiary on the best plan for a ramp to run from their kitchen out to where they park their car. This is the main method of ingress/egress for the home. After staff generated the work writeup, received approval from the homeowner, bid the work and had contracts signed (by homeowner) we were informed that the neighbor was no longer working with the homeowner and that the homeowner now wanted the ramp located at a different exterior door further from their parking space. Staff decided that this was not a good use of housing rehab dollars and will wait a while yet before canceling the contract in case the homeowner changes their mind. The County received the Grant Agreement and Funding Approval for its 2012 Scattered Site Housing CDBG. Staff is moving ahead to prepare staff reports for board approval. At this time, we have not scheduled an open application period. BudgetWhys Individual Development Account (IDA) program at the Northern Moore Family Resource Center shared some good news this month. Habitat for Humanity has indicated it would like to work with the program to help it serve some of their clients. Of course, you don't need to be a client of Habitat for Humanity in order to be served by this program. First time home buyers interested in owning a home in the northern part of Moore County should contact Marsae Stone at the Center directly at 948-4324. |
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Board of Commissioners
(05.07.2013) @ 5:00PM
(05.21.2013) @ 6:00PM
Location:
Moore County Historical
Courthouse
Planning Board
(05.09.2013) @ 6:00PM
Location:
Moore County Historical
Courthouse
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Greetings!
The azaleas have bloomed and the farmers have been preparing their fields; I believe Spring has finally arrived, or Summer (depending on the temperature outside!) We have several items to share with you this month, so let's get to it. In this issue of the Moore County Planning and Community Development newsletter, we have included two different articles, one from Community Development focusing on affordable housing options in Moore County, and another from Current Planning discussing Conditional Uses. As always, we have included some information from our building inspectors. Affordable housing was a recent topic of discussion as staff has worked on the Moore County Land Use Plan. Affordable housing must begin with an understanding for whom the housing is intended for, what housing options are currently available, and what will be necessary in the future. The article below focuses on affordabe housing specifically for seniors in Moore County, not requiring assisted living. All senior housing must take the challenges of aging into consideration. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a guideline for how to best serve those who may have a disability. ADA requires commercial buildings to provide handicap accessibility, ranging from handicap ramps and handrails to parking. This is something our building inspectors encounter daily throughout the county. In this issue, our inspectors will provide a brief overview on specific design/construction standards as it relates to ramps for single-family dwellings. On the Current Planning side, staff has focused its attention on Conditonal Uses for this issue. In past articles, we have touched on various uses that would require a conditional use permit, but never discussed in detail the process. We hope you enjoy the May Newsletter! Regards, |
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Meet the Staff
In this month's 'Meet the Staff', we would like to introduce another staff member of the Planning & Community Development Department, Stephanie Cormack.
Stephanie started with the Plannin g and Community Development Department in October 2011. Stephanie works as a part-time administrative assistant to the Community Development Division and provides assistance to grant management activities.
Stephanie was born in Colorado and raised in both Arkansas & Colorado, and currently lives in Whispering Pines. Stephanie is married with one child and in her spare time enjoys gardening, fishing, hiking and snow skiing. |
Inspector's Corner
Welcome to the Inspector's Corner! In this series, the Moore County building inspectors will provide input on items that are encountered on the job site and have the opportunity to offer other valuable information to our readers.
Residential Handicap Accessibility
The requirements for the construction of an exterior ramp at a one and two family dwelling under the North Carolina Residential Code are different than the requirements for the construction of a ramp in a commercial setting. A ramp in a typical single-family dwelling only requires a handrail on one side as opposed to a ramp constructed for commercial purposes, which would require a handrail on each side. The 36" X 36" landing size is smaller for a single-family dwelling ramp and edge guard is not required if the ramp is less than 30" above grade. The maximum slope for a single-family dwelling ramp is 8.3 percent (1 unit vertical in 12 units horizontal - 1:12) with the exception of a 12.5 percent slope when site constraints make the 8.3 percent slope infeasible.
Remember, the code is only a minimum, so one could build a ramp to exceed the requirements of a current code to meet their particular needs. There are several other ADA requirements that provide handicap accessibility to sidewalks, parking and ingress/egress of buildings. These standards are more commercial oriented, but still are required as part of the North Carolina Building Code when dealing with new site development projects. We hope to discuss these further in future issues.
For more information on handicap accessibility, ADA, and/or other building code matters please contact the Moore County Building Inspection staff at (910) 947-2221. If you are planning on constructing a ramp, you can reach our permitting technicians at the number above to obtain proper building permits or you can print a copy of the application ( click here).
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Affordable Housing Options for Seniors
by Tim Emmert/Daniel Martin
Community development staff recently researched the affordable housing market for seniors in Moore County. The term "Affordability", by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) standards, is "for a household to pay no more than 30 percent of its annual income on housing. Families who pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing are considered cost burdened and may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care". The research, as stated above, was targeted to the elderly population; staff first documented the existing options in the County then proceeded to project additional need opportunities for this specific group.
There are two basic types of affordable housing opportunities for seniors in Moore County not requiring assisted living. One type is place-based, this is housing with property management and, in some instances, management of the community of persons living at the property. Place-based assistance has age limits attached to it. The federal agencies providing the funding for affordable senior housing, including HUD and the Rural Development branch of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), both have 62 years of age as a minimum age of admittance to their place based affordable senior housing. The chart shown below illustrates the existing place-based affordable housing opportunities in the County.
Another type of opportunity available in the County is tenant-based housing. This option is a voucher system that is not age restricted, but which persons of any age (including seniors) can access. The two organizations currently providing this option are the Sandhills Community Action Program (SCAP) and the Southern Pines Housing Authority.
After noting the available affordable housing options for seniors, community development staff analyzed the current elderly demographics and organized the information into a chart that exemplifies the need for additional opportunities. In doing so, staff was confronted with different challenges. First, the American Community Survey (ACS) reports poverty data for persons from 55 to 64 and from age 65 and older. This spans the 62 years of age threshold provided by the affordable place-based housing in the area and means that some residents in place-based housing are located in the 55 to 64 bracket and others in the 65 and older bracket. Second, the ACS does not indicate homeownership as a qualifier in its data for poverty and age. Some in these age and income brackets are homeowners. As a result we use a conservative estimate (below) to determine those that are not homeowners and are living in poverty.
The major challenge in projecting the need for additional affordable housing opportunities for seniors is interpreting the qualification data. Place-based or tenant-based housing administrators determine eligibility by a percentage of the area's median income (AMI), which is determined for each county by HUD and is based on number of persons in the home; rather than the poverty threshold (which is the same for all 48 contiguous states). For example, the ACS indicates the povety threshold for one person in 2012 to be $11,170 and the lowest AMI threshold for Moore County to be $13,250. The data (shown in the chart below) indicates the amount of people living at the poverty threshold for ages 55 to 64 and those 65 and over. Also shown in the chart is the population that has incomes 125% and 150% of the poverty threshold. From the information gathered, approximately 2,500 Moore County citizens (ages 55 and over) have income below the poverty line.
In all there are 1,500 persons living in the County that are not homeowners and are in need of affordable housing options and less than a third of that need (423 persons) is currently being met. Further, there are no dedicated placed based affordable housing options for the 55 to 61 age group. Note, this research is directed at the elderly population and does not take into consideration other subsets of Moore County's population.
[1] American Community Survey 5-year estimates from 2007 to 2011. Table B17001. The 1230 persons over the age of 65 in poverty are comprised of 313 men and 917 women. The 1247 persons between the ages of 55 and 64 are comprised of 642 men and 605 women.
[2] Applied 40% rate of homeownership to total population in poverty based on findings in "Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America's Poor", Robert Rector & Rachel Sheffield: Heritage Foundation. September 13, 2011. The homeownership rate for all Americans is approximately 67%.
[3] 125% of the poverty threshold for a 1 person household is $13,883.
[4] 150% of the poverty threshold for a 1 person household is $16,660.
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Current Planning: Conditional Use Process
By Tim Garner
When zoning was first implemented in North Carolina land uses were either allowed or prohibited in a particular zoning district. Over the years local governments determined that some uses would not be suitable for an entire zoning district, but under a case by case review process the use could be allowed in some locations within various zoning districts. This became known as a Conditional Use Permit.
The conditional use permit process allows local governments to develop conditions limiting where in the zoning district the use would be allowed. The process also allows additional site specific conditions to be included, as long as both the local governing board charged with the review of Conditional Use Permits (in Moore County this is the Planning Board) and developer are in agreement. The local governing board reviewing the permit must hold a quasi-judicial public hearing where the public is invited to provide comments regarding the project. In these cases, the Planning Board acts like a judge by determining the legal rights, duties, and privileges of specific parties in the hearing (hence the term "quasi-judicial"). The fundamental purpose of a quasi-judicial hearing is to provide the affected parties due process. Due process requires notice of the proceedings and an opportunity to be heard. Since it is a quasi-judicial hearing all comments presented are under oath and are subject to cross-examination. The Board will review the submitted proposal and will render a decision based upon testimony and detailed information presented at the hearing explaining how the decision was reached.
In Moore County this process begins with the Zoning Ordinance Table of Uses, which lists the uses that require a Conditional Use Permit (listed as "C" for "Conditional Use") for each zoning district. Once this is determined, an application for a Conditional Use Permit must be submitted that includes a development site plan depicting how the site will be developed, including location of structures, parking spaces, screening/buffering and other requirements listed within the Conditional Uses Article of the Moore County Zoning Ordinance. Click here for the Conditional Use Permit application packet that includes a site plan checklist. A completed application will then move to the Planning Board for the quasi-judicial public hearing and decision. If approved the Conditional Use Permit is tied to the property not the land owner. A new permit is not necessary if a change of ownership occurs unless changes to the approved site plan are proposed. Amendments to a conditional use permit would require another review and approval by the Planning Board under the same procedures as outlined above.
If you would like additional information on conditional uses and the conditional use process, please contact our office at (910) 947-5010. The Table of Uses and Conditional Uses can be found in the Moore County Zoning Ordinance, which is available on the Moore County Planning and Community Development Department website.
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