Last November, Fayetteville voters approved $97 million worth of bonds to go toward improvements in public safety, infrastructure and housing affordability.
The bonds were approved in separate packages for those categories by 62%, 67% and 59% of voters, respectively.
The breakdown of the bonds is $60 million for public safety, $25 million for infrastructure and $12 million for housing.
When the Fayetteville City Council approves next year’s budget in June, a tax increase will be required to account for the financing of the bonds. City officials have estimated that property taxes will increase by 4 cents per $100 of valuation. A household that owns a home valued at $200,000, for example, would see an annual tax increase of about $80 or an additional monthly cost of just under $7.
Last month during a City Council work session, city administrators presented their plans for the bond funding.
Public safety
The public safety bond package carries the most expensive price tag at $60 million. But city staff say the higher cost is necessary in part because of the expensive technology needed for the biggest component: a new $30 million 911 center.
“You have all the technology, all the connectivity, that needs to be integrated across all platforms,” Loren Bymer, the city’s marketing and communications director, said during an interview. “So police, fire, EMS — to ensure that everyone's speaking the same language at the same time. And the cost to do that is pretty high.”
Fayetteville’s current 911 center is housed on the second floor of city hall downtown. Assistant Fire Chief T.J. McLamb said in an interview that moving the center to a standalone building away from the flood zone surrounding the Cape Fear River will provide better access in and out of it. Flooding from Hurricane Matthew presented access problems to the center in 2016.
Construction is expected to begin in 2025, and the 911 center is estimated to start operation in 2027. The City Council hasn’t yet determined where the new center will be located. Cumberland County opened its own new 911 center late last year, CityView previously reported.
The rest of the $60 million will go toward the construction of three new fire stations.
Fire Station 16 will replace a temporary station in east Fayetteville. The new Station 9 will replace the current 47-year-old station at Santa Fe and Bonanza drives. The new Fire Station 2 will replace the 83-year-old-station in the Haymount area.
McLamb said the new fire stations will help update all technology in the facilities as well as have updated personal protective equipment and locker rooms.
Infrastructure
The $25 million infrastructure bond package will be used for street resurfacing, sidewalks, bike lanes and intersection improvements.
At $14 million in cost, a majority of the bond money will go toward street resurfacing. Construction will take place over the next three years with 17 miles resurfaced this year and 12 miles resurfaced in each of 2024 and 2025.
Construction for the first 17 miles will begin in the coming months, Byron Reeves, the city’s assistant public services director, said in an interview.
“We hope to have asphalt in the ground in August or September of this year,” Reeves said. “So we’re really trying to go ahead and move forward and start putting some of this investment back into the community.”
The next largest portion of the package, at $8 million, will be used for 15.3 miles of sidewalks. The rest of the money will be used for 3.5 miles of bike lanes, at $800,000, and $1.25 million will go to intersection improvements, which will primarily consist of accommodations for pedestrians such as walking traffic signals.
The intersections originally designated for improvements in the bond package were instead funded through the American Rescue Plan, federal legislation enacted in March 2021 that helped local governments respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The City Council will determine what other intersections will be improved at a later date.
Construction of sidewalks and bike lanes is projected to begin next year and wrap up in 2027.
Housing
To help the city create and sustain affordable housing, $12 million in improvements are planned.
According to a housing study commissioned by the city in 2021, 75% of households making 80% or below the area’s median income are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs.
Of the $12 million, $9 million is designated for the development of 500 affordable housing units; $1 million will go to single-family home development; another $1 million will go to housing rehabilitation for 40 homeowners; and another $1 million will provide down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
The city will use the $9 million set aside for affordable housing to subsidize development by private developers on the condition that rents will be cheaper than the market rate.
“What cities can do is, we can give money to those housing developments to reduce those rates down,” Chris Cauley, the city’s economic and community development director, said in an interview. “We're helping to make that construction a little bit cheaper, and that means that the rents can go down on the back end of it.”
Cauley said the bond investment, however, will not solve the problems related to housing affordability, which are seen across the state and country.
“Wages have not kept up with the increase in living (costs),” Cauley said.
“It's the limitation on the earning potential of the household,” Cauley continued. “It's the cost of rent and utilities that goes into the rest of it, and rent has been increasing at dramatic rates in urban areas for the past 10, 15 years.”
Ben Sessoms covers Fayetteville and education for CityView. He can be reached at bsessoms@cityviewnc.com.
