Longstanding MOA under review: staff outlines options to amend, transfer, or dissolve development credits

Planning staff reviewed a 2004–05 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that granted dwelling credits in exchange for roughly a dozen acres of dedicated open space and flexibility in development character. Staff reported the MOA’s current status: "there are a total of 49 dwellings, representing about 45% of the initially conceived build out. There are 28 credits remaining, and there are 31 credits unavailable," and explained that the unavailable credits are partially owned by the county and partially by the town and that some town-owned credits were purchased for permanent open space.

Staff laid out four pathways: do nothing (leave 28 credits on the table); mutually dissolve the MOA (parcels revert to standard zoning and could increase development potential); amend the MOA to explicitly allow middle-housing forms (which staff estimated could raise potential credits toward 60–66 in an illustrative scenario); or transfer town-held conserved credits into other MOA areas (a middle-ground that could raise remaining credits toward an 89% final build-out in one proposal). Staff emphasized the practical limits of the higher estimates: "66 dwellings over 3.75 acres ... That's roughly 17.6 dwelling units per acre," and cautioned that parking, access, stormwater, and site constraints make the upper-bound numbers likely infeasible. Commissioners asked for spatial mock-ups, infrastructure analysis (stormwater and traffic), and options to condition any credit transfers on deed restrictions or permanent-affordability measures.