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asked the Committee how they would like to proceed - if they wanted to look at <br />different types of infill for example. <br /> <br />David asked why there wasn't more infill development occurring in Concord. <br />Carlos stated that other areas use tax incentives to encourage infill development. <br />He said that the Carolina Rehab Code of 2002, which has been adopted by <br />Cabarrus County, has been used a couple of times (i.e. at Plant 5 or 10). He <br />said that it allows more relaxed standards but it ensures that safety issues and <br />the accessibility Code are addressed. Jeff said that that was a good point and <br />that it relates to various impediments. For example, he said that a change in use <br />becomes an impediment when you are going from a house to a commercial <br />building. This would require the Building Code to be complied with and <br />sometimes the cost to do the improvements was justifiable but sometimes, on <br />smaller project, it was not. <br /> <br />Jeff said that local governments in North Carolina cannot waive taxes and asked <br />the Committee if they wanted to recommend some sort of financial incentive in <br />their recommendation to Council. For example, if a company like S & D does an <br />expansion, and it is over a certain dollar amount, it could kick in an incentive and <br />after the company has paid it's City and Council taxes, the City and County <br />would each reimburse the company for 25% of what the taxes were for a period <br />of 5 years or so. Jeff asked if this was the type of program the Committee <br />wanted to consider. <br /> <br />Ted suggested that the discussion on infill was off to a good start. He said that <br />the City's current willingness to consider changes and incentives is going to be <br />very helpful to the development community and to the general public. He asked <br />what Jeff's feelings were in terms of how flexible the City would be. He said that <br />this was one area our City can realize an immediate visual impact. He added <br />that putting in sidewalks or buffers are nice and they are important but they do <br />not have as much of an impact as cleaning up the vacant and abandoned <br />properties. He said that having the City willing to accommodate some incentives <br />would be extremely beneficial. Jeff replied by saying that having this directive <br />from City Council indicates their openness to re-examine what the City should do <br />with the issue of infill development and redevelopment. <br /> <br />Jeff added that by mixing businesses and residential uses as much as possible <br />will also help. We need to get a handle on what policy changes we should make <br />in terms of allowing the mixing of uses and density increases. Our current zoning <br />districts do not really allow for this. It is often more difficult for developers to <br />tackle an infill site because the development fees are the same for remodeling <br />buildings as they are for new construction which takes some of the incentive <br />away from dealing with infill sites and you usually have to deal with existing <br />neighbors as well, which, as we all know, can be difficult. <br /> <br />LIDO ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES OF MARCH 26, 2003 <br /> Page 3 of 6 <br /> <br /> <br />