Agenda - 02-22-1999 - 1a - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

102 purpose, and one purpose only, greed. That is the same reason he himself is here. They are here to make money and he is here to try to protect the value in his property. They say to the Commissioners, through a licensed appraiser; that it is not going to affect the adjacent properties.. He spoke to a licensed appraiser, who is also a professional realtor and a member of the County Commissioners in another County. His comment was that there is absolutely no way that a sane person would believe that it is not going to affect his property. It will significantly affect his property. Quite frankly, he is in favor of that piece of property being developed. He has said in open meetings that this development is beautiful. They have done a marvelous job u for Asbury Park, N.J. or Teaneck, but not Hillsborough. We do not need as compact a situation as we /Eve got here. He has been in a number of places where beautiful neighborhoods existed in communities. He has never seen a community be,designed to go into a neighborhood, however, until this one. Also, in previous sessions, the gentleman did say that none of these amenities would be available to the neighbors. That was stated back in July. What we have here is a designed community in which the residents will be of white, socio- economic stature,, living in like ticki -tacki houses all in a row, what we have h ere. is Orange County/Es first planned ghetto. If you read Webster/Es Dictionary, a ghetto is defined as an area in which a similar socio- economic group of people live. That/Es a ghetto and that/Es what.we have here u a planned ghetto. A very nicely planned one, but a ghetto non - the -less. How will this affect his property. Quite frankly, very, very much. You are talking about $110,000 to $25,000 houses of approximately 1.,100 square feet. He pointed out - that the visitor area of the courtroom was approximately 1,100 square feet. We are talking about 240 houses of that size being-dropped down to one very small area. That will affect the whole area. When you get that many people trying to leave two exits at the same time in order to get to work, there will be major problems on those two streets. No sane person can look at that and say that you can get that many people out of there between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. without a major calamity. We used to call it the oaccident de jouro down on Lawrence Road and US 70 where he lives, because on Saturday in the summer he would hear them coming over the hill, slamming on the brakes, and going straight through the intersection without being able to stop. It happens roughly about twice a month. He is not against developing the property, but asks that the developer and the county be reasonable about what gets put into that property. That is all he is asking. About three months ago a piece of property in this neighborhood was designated to be one of only two ooccupiedo historic landmarks in the county. One is right across the street from this proposed development. That will affect the value of this house. The eloquent presentation by the developer was so good he started wishing he lived there and then he realized what was being discussed. They are very professional in their presentation and they are good developers. He is against this development as it is designed now. Mr. Scott Ray stated that he lives less than one mile away from this proposed development. He is not opposed to the development. It could be less dense with more area around the houses. He understands that they are trying to maximize their profits off of this piece of land. There are a couple of concerns that no one has raised yet. One of those concerns is character. It does not fit into the character of the surrounding area. That many houses in that small area is out of the character of the community. His second concern is not the amount of water to fight fires, but rather the amount of personnel available to fight fires. There needs to be some comment from the Emergency Services Director or the fire chiefs as to whether or not they can adequately supply the personnel to fight fires in that area, especially with the OSHA regulations for otwo -in and two -outo. There would have to be at least five people on the scene before the fire can even be fought, with two people each on the pipe line and on the line outside the residence. Hillsborough currently runs three or four First Responder calls a day and Eno also runs First Responder calls. Those will be the standard Mutual Aid departments. He is not sure that they will have the personnel to fight the fires. On a 7,000 square foot lot you better get firefighters there in a hurry or you will burn several houses down. The development is lacking in common sense. The Comprehensive Plan may say that it could contain that many homes, but it does not necessarily say that it should contain that many homes. Mr. Jim Ray stated that putting 237 houses in this small area is going to cause an excess of drainage toward the north. He operates a golf course to the north of this property and he estimates that they will get 2/3 of the drainage from the development. They use that water for irrigation. They now have a problem from the years that this has been a farm. Every time it rained during plowing season, the drainage came to their property. They have ponds deep in muck now from the runoff. When they start building this development they will have much more runoff making this problem much worse during the entire time they are building until buildout is complete. They say that they will put in a pump station; if the pump station ever malfunctions, the runoff will go to his irrigation pond. Vandalism is another concern to him. Each of these homes will have approximately 2 children. They will need a place to play. There are not. many places for them to play in this area: Soccer fields are next to the neighbors, not in the middle of the community, so the noise will affect the people who already live there, not the new residents. They already have a. problem with vandalism and this will make it worse. This is also going to impact the schools. The roads cannot handle this additional traffic. He mentioned that he thought that oinfillo was intended to start in town and move out from there. He does not think that starting in the county and moving back into town is what is meant