Minutes - 20070521 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The County is trying to strike a balance. The conditional use approval process would allow for those concerns to came out through a public hearing process. Public Comment: Karen Barrows thanked the County Commissioners and the Planning staff that worked with the citizens. She said that there are a lot of conflicting interests in the area. A lot of the neighbors are concerned about damage to their wells from the blasting of the quarry, etc. The noise and increased traffic are also issues related to the quarry and the speedway. Same people do not want any more development in the area. She agrees. She does understand that other people have bought land with the intent to develop it, and those needs should be addressed also. She said that the REDA is a pretty good vehicle to strike a balance. She hopes that it will be adopted. She said that this has to be done properly. Bruce Peters said that he represents same neighbors. He said his comments pertain to the speedway, go-cartlmotocross facilities, and the potential reopening of the asphalt plant. This is a big concern far people that live within a quarter of a mile. He said that if these commercial establishments are allowed to operate without any constraint, mainly noise buffers, the rural residential area will be equivalent to a heavy industrial zone because of the excessive pollution of the air from motors without exhaust systems and the burning of oil and other agents in the production of asphalt. There is also excessive noise pollution. He said that Durham recently adapted a new noise ordinance, in which no construction can take place an Sunday or on weekdays after 6:00 p.m. He said that in the speedway area, the citizens are subjected to excessive noise 7 days a week, since the speedway allows practice every day, including Sunday. He said that many neighbors see no reason to change from the present limited use if these operations da not care about giving the air relief from the overwhelming pollution, especially noise. Lastly, the neighbors do not have a great deal of concern about some of the County's requirements in detail (i.e., landscaping, signage, parking entrances, etc.) because they do not affect the quality of life or the value of the property. Melvin Stanley was representing Orange County Speedway, but as an interested party and not as legal counsel. He said that the speedway property has been operating as a legal non- conforming operation since 1994 when "blanket" zoning was done. He said that he understood that the County would have a rezoning to make the property mare consistent with the existing uses. He said that the interested parties proceeded with the understanding that this was a legal non-conforming use and that it would not be permitted to expand, such has more seats or expanded racetrack. He said that somewhere in this process, they fell through a crack. There was a discussion about the committee that was put together and two of the meetings were held before the speedway representatives knew there was a committee. He said that an application was made to put one member of the speedway staff on the committee, and this was not acted upon. He said that he had proceeded expecting to see some kind of a commercial zoning that would apply that would cover the racetrack. He said that at the last committee meeting, he expressed some fairly strong concerns, in that the specifics that were listed would require that the speedway give up some 70% of the land so that nothing could be done on it. It would also require rebuilding some roads and relighting the facility. He said that this is not economically feasible for the speedway. He asked what would happen if the speedway did not participate in this plan. He said that they do not know what they can and cannot do. He asked for a list of what is permissible and presumed to be permissible with reasonable conditions. He asked if they would be forced to be a part of this plan, or if they could opt out. Craig Benedict said that the new zoning overlay and the conditional use rezoning would be available for someone to voluntarily ask to be included. If an entity wants to remain in its present status with no expansion, then it can do that. He said that the County was not forcing anyone to ask for a conditional use rezoning and be subject to the process.