Apex, North Carolina

Park Land Dedication Study
   

Like other municipalities in the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area, the Town of Apex has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. The Town retained Duncan Associates to propose changes to the Town’s park land dedication and fee-in-lieu requirements to more closely reflect current realities. The current park land ordinance requires that a residential developer dedicate land equal to one thirty-fifth of an acre per dwelling unit, or pay a fee in-lieu that varies based on density. Not only did the dedication requirement not recognize differential impacts of different housing types, the in-lieu

fee was no longer reflective of actual land costs and developers had a strong incentive to pay the fee and resist dedicating land. The study proposed to base the dedication requirement and in-lieu fees on the existing level of service, vary the requirements and fees by housing type, and based the fees on current land costs or the average appraised value of the subdivision, whichever was less. The study is currently under consideration by the Town.