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'c'al arrus eyes cap on home building · Task force created to look at idea &limiting new housing to l~revent overload on schools, county services. By GAlL SMITH CONCORD -- In an e/fort to control school crowding, the barrus County commissioners day took a first tentative step toward capping residential growth. At a retreat Friday. commission- ers endorsed the idea al creating a task force that would consider placing a cap on the number o! new homes, mobile homes apartments that can be built C.abarms each year. '~. The commis$ione~ also said the Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City school systems should merge. Cabarrus in 1994 approved building permits for 1,785 new hou$Jng unit~ la$t year. compared with 1,200 in 1993, said Jerry ager for planning and develop- Newton, who proposed the Iorce. said lhe surge in new homes at Ihe elementary but also at Ihe middle school level as children move up thc education ladder. In other suburban counties around Charlotte, residential growth has begun to outpace the ability to provide services. Last year. Union County had to set a couldn't keep up. Cabarru$ commissioner Sue Casper said thc task force is "a grea[ idea" but said she'd like il to consider all alternatives for con- trolling growlh. Commissioner Frank Nlblock Jr., who hosted Ihe retreat al his family's Zemosa Acres Farm. also liked the idea. But he said builders would hal want the caps to apply to expansion Of existing develop- apartments should be included in "That's going to impact the schools even more," said Niblock, a retired pediatrician and former Please see Cabarrus./page 4C mera tapes Task 'force to c0mider cap on new housing in county Cabarrus Continued from page residential developer whose sons operate Niblock Development Corp., one of the county's largest home builders. The lask' force would include representatives from business, de- velopment and real estate, as well as public planners, planning and zoning commission members. lawn. cily and courtly ollicials and school hoard members. · The task force could be asked to recommend housing cap figures by Oct. l, and a three-year pro- gram could Mart as early as Jan. l, 1996. The commissioners also said the Kannapolis schools should merge with the county schools for the good of both systems. "1 don't .see any other answer," said commissioners chairman Jeff Bamhart. 'lite Kannal-,olis school board on Wednesday created a two-member committee that will meet with representatives of Cabarrus and Rowan school boards [o discu~ merger and olher options for sav- ing the financially strapped Kan- napolis system. On school funding. Niblock said he had doubts that Ihe N.C. Gen- eral Assembly will approve coun- ties' request for a local sales tax option for schools. But Casper said she believed the tax "has a fine chance" of passing. The commissioners discussed Ihe idea Of rolling back the prop; arty tax tale several cents to adjust for increases in taxable values resulting from the recent coolly- wide revaluation al property. But they left open the option of in- creasing lite rate slightly to raise school construction money. Commissioner Ken Olio-Mills suggested the counly could afford Io cut the tax rate even more because of $4 million thc counly will net in back tax money from Philip Morris U.S.A. C~per, however, called 'that proposal "a grandstand play."