Agenda - 05-08-2014 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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21 • There are policies within the Comprehensive Plan lending credence to the viability of the proposal RECOMMENDATION: 1. Receive the application, 2. Conduct the Public Hearing and accept public, BOCC, and Planning Board comments. 3. Refer the matter to the Planning Board with a request that a recommendation be returned to the County Board of Commissioners in time for the May 8, 2014 BOCC regular meeting. 4. Adjourn the public hearing until May 8, 2014 in order to receive and accept the Planning Board's recommendation and any submitted written comments. RECOMMENDATION: 1. Receive the application, 2. Conduct the Public Hearing and accept public, BOCC, and Planning Board comments. 3. Continue the Public Hearing until March 18, 2014 to allow the applicant and staff to meet with local property owners and respond, in writing, to their concerns. Michael Harvey: This project, and this refers to attachment 2 of your packet, involves two parcels of property owned by Stout Farm, LLC, totaling 52 acres in area. The parcels of property are zoned Rural Residential, Upper Eno Protected Watershed Protection Overlay, and are located in the MTC overlay — the major transportation corridor overlay district, which is along the interstate. The area in question is located within the Commercial Industrial Transition Activity Node and is designated an Urban area on our Growth Management System designation map. And you have a copy of the PowerPoint presentation before you in the packet you have. In fact you have copies of all PowerPoint presentations that are going to be reviewed this evening, including the one from Strata Solar in that packet. This is an expanded view of that last map we just showed you, showing surrounding uses. Again, here are the two parcels of property. This is Redman Crossing Road here. To the north of the railroad tracks, you have residential land uses located in the Ten Year Transition area per our Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map. You have property to the east, large tracts, undeveloped property located in a commercial industrial transition activity node. You have a residential property, the Efland Home for Girls, here. It is also located in the commercial industrial transition activity node. You have an existing Duke Energy substation here; the NCDOT weigh station here; an existing commercial operation in the economic development transition activity node; and several undeveloped large parcels of property, also in the economic development transition activity node. As I previously indicated, the applicant is erecting individual solar panels on both parcels of property, which Strata Solar is going to be leasing. A typical array is anywhere between 7 and 8 feet in height, depending on the slope and angle of the actual array, with approximately 2 to 3 ground clearance, and they are going to be approximately 63 feet in length. This is also summarized in our abstract. Arrays are going to be screened by existing vegetation and which will be augmented with additional vegetation as necessary and required by County regulations, also enclosed by an eight foot high chain link security fence, topped with barbed wire that will enclose the perimeter of the property. There will be gravel paths throughout the site in order to permit access to the individual arrays by Strata Solar technicians to service the panels. As stipulated not only in application, but on the site plan, in certain areas there are going to be natural grass paths, depending on the soils. Vehicular access to the site is restricted by a 24 foot wide access gate off of Redman Road. There will be - this site will have an overhead