Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
31 <br /> farmers in the past. This land is the retirement for these people. OWASA is negatively affecting <br /> their retirement. He stated that this proposal.would take money out of the home owners.pockets. <br /> These landowners are concerned about the quality of the water but they do not want to give up their <br /> retirement income for the OWASA customers. He was opposed to the five-acre minimum lot size. <br /> Mr..Patrick Mulkey,-a resident of the Cane Creek community, spoke in opposition to this <br /> request to rezone this area to a five-acre minimum lot size. He stated that Orange Water & Sewer <br /> Authority requested a five-acre minimum lot size for Cane Creek. TheBoard of County <br /> Commissioners agreed to a two-acre lot minimum for the entire 18,000 acre watershed. In the <br /> meantime, Orange Water& Sewer Authority commissioned another$100,000 study which has <br /> come up with the original recommendation of five-acre lots. He felt that this finding was a foregone <br /> conclusion because it was what Orange Water& Sewer Authority wanted in the first place. He <br /> referred:to a friend of his, Jim Smith, who retired from a career in the water resources field and <br /> recently passed away,who reviewed this study. Mr. Smith stated that each Orange Water&Sewer <br /> Authority.customer could pay$0.10 more each month.and get the same amount of protection <br /> without.changing the.minimum lot size. He felt that.Orange Water&.Sewer Authorityhas pushed <br /> their way into this community and have disrupted the way of life. The farmers are having to get <br /> permits to.shoot deer on their land because of the explosion in the deer population. In spite of this <br /> problem, Orange.Water& Sewer Authority does not allow any hunting on their land. They already <br /> own 3000-plus acres in Bingham Township and now want another 1,200 acres. They pay no taxes. <br /> Although Orange Water& Sewer Authority did offer land to the schools for a park, he felt that they <br /> knew it was a sure bet that the.offer would not be accepted. There is a great need for a park in <br /> Bingham Township; Orange Water& Sewer Authority has land that could be used for a park. He <br /> distributed a copy of a.memo he sent to Orange Water& Sewer Authority addressing this need. A <br /> copy of this memo is in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. He asked the Board of <br /> County Commissioners if they were going to become a party to this injustice or stop this injustice <br /> now. <br /> Mr. Edward Mann, of 8525 Stanford Road, stated that his wife is a Stanford, and they own <br /> some property which will be affected by the proposed change in the zoning ordinance. He served for - <br /> 8 years on the Orange Water& Sewer Authority Board of Directors. He does understand the need <br /> forwater protection—water quality protection. He served on the Orange Water&.Sewer Authority <br /> Board.when they acquired the property and began construction of the Cane Creek Reservoir and is <br /> very familiar with some of the issues,involved in that acquisition. He has lived on Stanford Road <br /> since 1970. He goes to church in th 'community and has become friends and neighbors with a. <br /> number of farmers who have a lot more at stake in.the proposed rezoning than he does. As he said, <br /> he owns some property that would be affected but he and his wife are not developers and have no <br /> plans to do any developing. Their concern is creating the proper and needed and justified.controls <br /> on water protection. The five-acre standard has become a standard without justification. He and his <br /> wife.attended some of the meetings with the Orange Water& Sewer Authority Board when this <br /> notion was first introduced and a number of possible solutions were suggested.He asked some <br /> questions at that time, that he still has not gotten satisfactory answers to; are there trends, in the <br /> development in the water shed that have lead us to believe that we need to put some controls-in at <br /> this time? Information that was presented at some of those meetings was that there has been some <br /> -accelerated development in the Cane Creek Watershed. Average landmass per-dwelling is about 5 <br /> H:\BOCC\NOV2399.MIN <br />