Agenda - 09-18-2012 - 6b - Laserfiche WebLink

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74 the staff report and associated attachments be incorporated into the record. Is that acceptable to the Board? It was answered yes. Thank you very much. So at this time I'll call Phil Post, our engineer. Phillip Post: Members of the Commissioners and members of the Planning Board, my name is Phil Post. I reside in Chapel Hill. I've been properly sworn. I've been an engineer in Chapel Hill for over 33 years. I'm really happy to be associated with the Bradshaw property, and particularly this element of the development property. This is White Cross Road here. The entire parcel is 122 acres. The Strata project will occupy about 53 acres. The Bradshaw Mobile Acres is here, that will continue to operate as it has for residential purposes. The array will be in this area. The stream buffers, these hashed areas represent the area of the stream buffer that the County and we agree is the protected stream buffer area. The other piece that we have on this is the Type E 75-foot buffer that we're proposing around the entire perimeter of the project. It doesn't include of course the right-of-way. It does not include the power line; it's in addition to that. I'll just point out a few features of our proposed plan here. There is one part of the Bradshaw Mobile Acres; most of it is really heavy, nice, old hardwood. There is one area that is sort of a lawn area, so we're going to have an alternative buffer right here. That's why there's a discontinuation. We'll still have a Type E buffer, but it will be planted in a slightly different way and a little more intense and narrow buffer. Our proposed driveway is here. It will be a gravel drive directly opposite to the existing gravel residential driveway on the opposite side of White Cross. There will be a small gravel area here where the array materials and construction materials will be deposited as it's being erected. That will be a permanent sort of parking area with the gate right here. As Michael has told you, the array really rests off the ground, so underneath the array would be grass. It will really be a grass field with the raised arrays on it. The only feature that is kind of different about it, is the little square places right here, and I think there's five of them. There will be sort of some electrical equipment that will gather the electricity that is generated by these solar panels so that it can be converted from DC power to AC power, and then distributed back to Duke Power. I'm really pleased to be associated with a project of this type because I think it provides so many benefits to our County and particularly in advancing the environmental goals, not only of the Board, but of the County Comprehensive Plan. There are many citizens in Orange County that would like to see us be less dependent on fossil fuel and more dependent on sustainable renewable energy. This is a project that will produce electricity and be able to support about 750 homes. My colleagues will explain a little bit more about the exact benefits that are derived from this. I just want to point out that it will be a tremendous investment in the County and will provide very little pressure or new addition to the County services. In other words, there won't be any new school children, there won't be any new school buses, there's no new traffic, there's no water needs, there's no sewer needs, there's no additional refuse removal, there's no need for any emergency services. It provides a nice investment in the County with virtually no impact on any County services. So I'd like to point that out as being not only an advancing our environmental goals but also just being a nice positive addition to our County. This application we believe meets all of the requirements of Section 2.7 of the UDO. We therefore ask for your support. We further note the objective, the specific objectives in the County Comprehensive Plan regarding sustainable energy and reduction of carbon footprint. We believe that this project will take some giant steps in those directions. I'll stop there and answer any questions. Chair Pelissier: Yes, could you tell us a little bit more about the power line that would be installed there and where are the other power lines that it's going to hook up to?