Minutes 05-23-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I've lived here over 20 years. There are more families like mine who want to live where they work and so their children are in the schools and they pay Orange County property taxes. As the President of the Richmond Hills Homeowners' Association, I can tell you that Habitat provides support to the Homeowners' Association. The Family Service Director, Sharon Reid, provides training and leadership development and encourages us to commit community resources to other organizations who are working to make the County a better place to live for all families. I'm looking forward to having our new neighbors and even families who will make Tinnin Woods their home. I hope you will help make Tinnin Woods a reality and help those families realize their dreams of homeownership. I would like those that support the Tinnin Woods development to please stand. Larry Wright: According to the list that has been given to the Deputy Clerk, I believe we've completed the list of people that were going to testify from the audience. Does staff have any comments? Annie Whitted wanted to speak and was sworn in. Annie Whitted: I wanted to make a comment for the residents of the Tinnin Road community. I wanted to know if they were going to replace this water line, the grant water line coming down Tinnin Road. What will be the cost of having the larger water line running down Tinnin Road to the Habitat community, which we can't tap onto without substantial cost. I also wanted to know to point out the fact that we already have— Habitat is doing a wonderful job in Orange County and provides a wonderful service, but it just dawned on me that we've already got a Habitat community that is in excess of 40 homes across Richmond Road. They're going to be putting in another 28 homes that are going to back up to each other. I understand why they chose that because they want water and sewer, but that's going to make that area have about 80 some Habitat homes. I know you said you did an impact study on the fact that it would not impact the community property owners, but you have to take into consideration that it may have an impact on someone trying to sell their property that would have an objection to that many Habitat homes in that area. I would like to ask if there was anywhere else in Orange County that we have that many Habitat homes in one particular area. The only thing that I saw as a plus for that community was the 8" water line, but if we can't tap on to that 8" water line to increase pressure and it's going to come down Tinnin Road and there has been nothing said about any upgrades to that side of the community. It's considered Efland, it's considered one community. I want to know, where do we go from here, once this is voted on tonight. What's the next step? Will homeowners get another chance to see what the final theme looks like before you actually give your ok? As I said before, I'm not against Habitat, these are just some questions that I would like you all to consider. Sam Gharbo: I live in the Ashwick subdivision in Efland. I didn't hear a timer, so I'm guessing I'm not limited to three minutes. For 20 some odd years, there have been economic development districts in the area, specifically in the Efland area, and a lot of it revolves around sewer and the water lines and growth happens from there. Also, in the last 20 years, all of the surrounding counties have outpaced Orange County, whether by chance or by design, in growth. Orange County has finally come to the understanding that growth is actually a way out of part of the financial problems that we currently live in and exist in. Other counties that didn't have what Orange County has—two roads, a major university, research Triangle—they've outpaced us. We lost out on a lot in that timeframe. We finally come around to the understanding that growth is what we need to do. This fits in many ways into that growth opportunity, not to mention just the sewer issue, you're going to add 12% on the top numbers of customers, so you've already increased that, but you're bringing more people in. You're