Minutes 05-27-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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David Rooks: I tender the witness. Michael Fox: I don't have any questions for this witness, but I would like to object to the portion of his testimony related to the sound testing that he did. I didn't hear any evidence that he was an expert or had any sort of experience in this. And as this Board knows, all the evidence that you consider has to be competent testimony, and if you have an expert opinion it must be rendered by someone who has been qualified as an expert. David Rooks: At this point we call Jim Spainhour. Jim Spainhour: My name is Jim Spainhour. I have been sworn in. I appreciate the opportunity to voice my concerns. I moved to Chapel Hill in 1969 and have lived in Orange County for 35 of the last 45 years. For the last 14 years, I have lived at 5502 Cascade Drive with my wife, Anne Oliver. Our home is on lot 1, which if you were to look up here at this map and see where Cascade Drive starts to take a turn to the right and you get the staggered part of the boundary on the —where the solar panels are—We have the first lot there. We are bordered by 250 feet of ineadow with those panels, despite the fact that we only have a half an acre lot. Yes, thank you. That's our location there. I'd like to echo the sentiments that others have regarding the Special Use General Standard that stipulates maintenance or enhancement of the value of contiguous properties. In his appraisal report, Ms. Massey suggests the derived external depreciation of this particular external obsolescence might be overcome by shielding it from view. Also, in their application, Sunlight Partners endorsed Mr. Massey's conclusions by quoting him. Quote, "My professional and expert opinion is that solar farms that will not be visible, will have no impact on the market values of the surrounding properties. The solar farms with landscaping and natural buffers will not create a negative externality for the surrounding properties as they will not be visible." I have noted our property has 250 feet of frontage on 2 different sides of the meadow. There is actually a sort of an entranceway to the meadow that's been used for years, right there that's next to our property, so it actually swings around. I think we have the only situation that's like that. Our house is also only about 50 feet from the property line. So it's very close. It's only a half an acre. It's less than a half an acre lot. The orientations of views from the ground floor are east from our kitchen and dining area and south from our living room. From our ground floor, we currently enjoy expansive views of the meadow through large casement windows and sliding glass doors. From our ground floor, even with best intentions, a densely planted, mature green screen along an 8' chain-link-fence, because of the uphill slope—we have a slope also that goes up the other side of the slope that Lydia and Bob have problems with — and we are pretty sure we are going to be able to see the backsides of the panels from our side. On the second floor of our home is our master bedroom. This is one of those unique times, and I won't say this often to many people, but I'd love to have all 200 of you come to my master bedroom. This window here is actually a sliding glass door. Can everyone hear me? It's a sliding glass door. We have literally a 6 feet by 7 foot window from a 15 to 16 foot vantage point out over this entire back side of the meadow—from here all the way back. We can see all the way to the Kirkland Farm in the winter time. For 5 months out of the year, we would see approximately 75 percent of all of those solar panels —8 feet— 15 feet—We'd be looking right over it.