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Mark Peters said that they took every speaker at every hearing in order. He just <br />gave a summary of the total. He referred to the website and said that they had the benefit of the <br />transcript. <br />Doug Schworen, President of the Sunrise Coalition Board, said that this coalition <br />was farmed in February 2003 in response to the purchase by Habitat for Humanity of Orange <br />County (HHOC) of a 17-acre parcel on Sunrise Road. The parcel is at the northern end of <br />Chapel Hill and adjacent to I-40 in the joint jurisdictional planning area. On February 2"d, each <br />of the County Commissioners was sent a package of information from the coalition. He asked <br />that the County Commissioners read the package and meet with them. They believe that it is <br />important for County leaders and citizens directly impacted by this development to maintain a <br />meaningful dialogue. On February 25t", he met with Sharron Hinton and they wrote a letter to <br />John Link and copied the County Attorney, the Clerk, the Director of Community Housing, and <br />all County Commissioners. He said that they believe that any request for funding by HHOC <br />without an approved concept plan, formal application, final plan application, approved site plan, <br />and permits is premature. The public funding should not be provided prior to the approval of <br />site plans and permits, given the fact that the Tawn of Chapel Hill and Orange County are the <br />regulatory authorities that will be approving the site development plan. Additionally, HHOC <br />must meet the requirements of the development agreement with Orange County and they must <br />involve the surrounding community in the development plans in a meaningful way. They also <br />ask that Orange County provide the Sunrise Coalition written notice of all requests for funding <br />by HHOC for the Sunrise Road development, and HHOC's intent to request funds for the <br />Sunrise Road project at public Orange County meetings. <br />Commissioner Brawn said that the County Manager would respond to his letter. <br />Brook Johnson read a prepared statement, which follows: <br />I stand before you tonight as my wife did 15 months ago to ask your help in <br />resolving our tax problems related to the change of the Orange-Chatham County line in the <br />Clearwater Lake neighborhood. As it turns out, the joint resolution that we, our neighbors (the <br />Niemitz's}, and indeed the Orange County Tax Collector, relied upon in making our decisions to <br />continue paying (and in the case of your tax collector, continue billing for} Orange County taxes <br />is not a legally binding document. Chatham County na longer recognizes the resolution. Our <br />neighbors and we have asked the Orange County Manager's office to work with you and the <br />Chatham County Commissioners to create a new bubble in the line that would encompass our <br />properties. This would be a perfect, simple, legally binding solution to two and a half years of <br />unfairness and heartache over this issue. It could be done very quickly if all parties would agree <br />and it could be submitted to the legislature for approval with the other already agreed upon <br />property bubbles. <br />We ask you tonight to pursue this issue more aggressively and to stand up on our <br />behalf as you and Chatham County did 15 years ago when you agreed to a bubble far an <br />Orange County farmer and property developer. According to one of your County staff members <br />from that era, the residents of the Clearwater Lake neighborhood were told they didn't need to <br />request a bubble in 1989 because the joint resolution would protect us. Unfortunately, it is not <br />protecting us. In fact, it is doing much more harm now than it would have, had it not been <br />passed in the first place. <br />It seems that the honorable chair of your group could quite easily meet with the <br />chair of the Chatham County Commissioners (tomorrow!) and persuade him to bubble in our <br />properties to avoid harming two families of loyal, innocent taxpayers. What has happened is not <br />our fault and we and everyone who knows about our situation believes it is the counties' <br />responsibility to right this wrong. <br />My wife and I now want to sell our house and we want the fair market value of the <br />house we purchased 12 years ago, in Orange County and in the Chapel Hill school district. We <br />also don't want to be bitter about having paid over $10,000 in unnecessary taxes because we <br />were unfairly billed by Orange County. <br />