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Topic Description:
The Virginia Code authorizes
high growth jurisdictions such as Fauquier County to accept
cash proffers in association with rezonings. Proffers are
voluntary for developers. Fauquier County developed a
proffer policy to guide development considerations of
proffers in 2002. The Board of Supervisors’ Proffer Policy
requires a periodic review of the section associated with
cash contributions per unit for residential rezoning
applications. The cash contribution guidelines were last
updated in December 2005 and currently stand at $28,503 for
a single-family detached unit. The purpose of this agenda
item is to amend the Proffer Policy to include a cash
contribution amount for the Fauquier County Animal Shelter
of Casanova, Virginia.
Table 1 shows the total cash
proffers collected over the last four years for all
agencies.
|
Table 1: Total
Cash Proffers Collected |
|
(Fiscal Years
2005-08) |
|
FY2005 |
FY2006 |
FY2007 |
FY2008 |
|
$501,535 |
$615,863 |
$385,331 |
$71,093 |
Staff
Analysis:
With the growing population,
Fauquier County’s public services need to expand at times in
order to maintain a certain level of service to the public,
including libraries, schools, parks and recreation,
emergency services, sheriff, and environmental services.
These facilities are already accounted for in the County’s
Proffer Policy. However, the Fauquier County Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is not included
in the adopted Proffer Policy.
The Fauquier County SPCA is
a non-profit organization that provides a necessary public
service. The organization is self-described as “…a private,
501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing a
temporary refuge for stray, homeless and abandoned animals,
and to place such animals in a caring, appropriate home
whenever possible.” On September 11, 2008 the Board of
Supervisors passed a resolution authorizing the County
Administrator to execute a memorandum of understanding with
The Fauquier SPCA, Inc. concerning a donation to the SPCA on
the order of $400,000 this fiscal year, with a possibility
of $938,000 in total for the construction of a new intake
building, according to County Administration. Even though
the SPCA is not a public agency, this County financial
support justifies an update to the proffer policy.
The cash proffers are
determined using a simple model that calculates the cost per
residential unit to replace public capital in order to
maintain an existing level of service. Existing capital
here is defined as land, building, vehicle and contents
values. The animal shelter’s existing capital is
estimated at over $1.2 million. The Model also uses the
capital costs of new facilities on a five year horizon. The
animal shelter has plans to build an addition to the
existing building that will cost $1.4 million. Using these
figures, as well as County population and an average persons
per household figure, the cash proffer for the shelter
should be $128 per residential unit. |
