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single mom and bought her house two years ago. She told about how she painted her house and <br />landscaped the yard. She wants to stay there. They have been assessed about a 20% increase in real <br />estate property taxes which shows that their property values have increased. With the tower, they will <br />certainly go down. She works at the hospital and they do not use cell phones in the hospital because it <br />interferes with some of the equipment. She said that there is new technology coming and early in the next <br />millennium, we will not need these towers. She feels this tower would be detrimental to their property values <br />and she asked that the County Commissioners vote against it and she is definitely opposed. <br />Amanda Stipe talked about emergency services as an animal control officer for the Town of <br />Carrboro. She does not use a cell phone because she has no problems with her two-way radio. She does <br />not think that this tower will generally maintain or promote the public health, safety and general welfare which <br />is one of the requirements of the ordinance. <br />Fred Stipe said that as co-president of the homeowners association, he strongly opposes the <br />rezoning of this particular property for this purpose. This is based on appearance and visibility. He <br />distributed some photographs which showed that almost all of the trees in their neighborhood are deciduous. <br />There are a very small number of pines. If the applicants conducted their balloon test now that most of the <br />leaves have fallen off their trees, he is sure their photographs would be a lot better because you could see <br />how ugly this thing is going to be. Their neighborhood has a restrictive covenant that requires buried utility <br />lines and a very strong emphasis on neighborhood appearances. He does not feel that a 230 foot tower with <br />a red blinking light on the top of it and a white blinking light in the middle of it is going to enhance the visual <br />quality of this neighborhood. He challenges one to show how that will happen. With regards to information <br />they have received about property values and property values not being devalued, he asked that the Board <br />members rely on their common sense when trying to determine whether or not property values really will be <br />enhanced. They will see a lot of numbers and a lot of surveys, probably hundreds of pages of information <br />that will somehow look to indicate that property values will not be affected by this tower. However, he would <br />like them to consider the fact that he has not met anyone who would come to his house and sit in his <br />backyard and look up and see a 230-foot tower with a blinking red light on it and would tell him "oh my, you <br />have a beautiful blinking red light tower in your back yard, I wish we had one in our neighborhood. I think I'll <br />go out and look for a neighborhood that has one so I can buy a house there". He thinks that the Board <br />understands the difference between what your common sense will tell you about property values and what <br />the quality of life is going to be like living underneath a flashing light, basically what equates to a hotel <br />vacancy sign that will blink all night. He feels that this will set a precedent. They have grave concerns that <br />once this proposal is accepted by the Board to rezone this particular plot of land, to accept this type of <br />development that is currently in the Rural Buffer area of the County if you so decide to approve it, it will set a <br />precedent and there will be no end to it. All the rest of the population of Orange County would be very <br />disappointed because if you would put one up in this area, you would put it up anywhere. He asked the <br />County Commissioners to not approve the rezoning for this particular proposal. <br />Jim Cain representing Gearon Communications said that he feels it appropriate, as the previous <br />speaker said, to rely on your common sense and a great deal on the facts. He will present additional <br />evidence as required by the County's ordinance and in response to the Planning Boards request. The <br />Planning Board made its recommendation against approval on two very specific grounds; one having to do <br />with balloon photos and one having to do with the property valuation issues. They have new evidence in <br />response to those objections by the Planning Board that address those two very specific findings. He has <br />three other pieces of additional evidence that they would like to submit. The first is an aerial photograph of <br />this site which shows two very important features of this site. One is that it is in a very heavily wooded area <br />and in one of the best sites in Orange County because it is right next to American Stone Quarry which has <br />been there approximately 22 years. The photograph is designed to show the character of the area in which <br />this tower is going. The second item is a letter from Nextel Communications. There was a question raised by <br />the Planning Board on how many carriers will be on this site. Orange County has an interest in minimizing <br />tower proliferation to minimize the number of towers so the ordinance wisely tries to encourage carriers to <br />locate multiple users on their towers. They had stated in their initial presentation that this was an issue with <br />Bell South location designed to handle up to six users. That is still the case, but they also now have a <br />second user who has declared their intention to go on this tower and that is Nextel and he submitted a letter <br />as evidence of that intention. Third, in response in part to comments made by some of the prior speakers,