Agenda - 06-03-2008-5b5b - Laserfiche WebLink

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~~~s~~ A l~/11~~d V ~~t~ 5 1 everything so it was a successful project and not a project that wasn't successful. I was Mayor 2 of Hillsborough when the Waterstone project was approved, and that project went through 3 several public hearings. One of my suggestions was that we had an informational meeting, 4 unlike a public hearing,' and it was held at the Big Barn, and it was kind of a floating time, the 5 developer was there. Some of this information that was presented like during the first public 6 hearing, the room was kind of full and nobody on the left-hand side got to see the presentation. 7 So, if the developer was open to that, I would suggest maybe coming in the afternoon, or a day, 8 or a Saturday, or sometime that they would be able to present so that everyone could see what 9 information was presented and what it was going to look like. I know you can probably get that 10 information by individually bothering the County staff and Planning department, but I think that 1.1 would be a much easier way in having the developer there to answer questions for the people 12 who do have concerns. I think it would be a good thing, but I certainly wouldn't want to speed 13 through it as Waterstone took quite a while and a lot of giving on the part of the developer to get 14 it approved. I would hope the County would at least consider that. There was one comment 1'S that a speaker made that I would like put in a different perspective. They stated something to 16 the effect that housing in the County costs the tax base. There is an economist at a state 17 college that disputes that fact. So I just wanted to bring that up, I'm~not saying that commercial 18 doesn't more than pay for its way, but also there are economists that disagree with the 19 statement that was made earlier. I can get that economist's name for the public record if we 20 need to. 21 22 Mike Cross Hardin: I'm a local homeowner and I .wanted to voice my concern for the project, 1 23 think it's a great thing. Just as an aside, 1 also happen to be an environmerifal engineer,-ana~l'm 24 not overly concerned that the project is going to contribute to the warming of the globe. 25 26 David Caring: I've lived in Alamance County, Orange County, and also Durham County. My 27 dad was founder of East Side Baptist Church in Mebane, Forth Carolina, so I'm very familiar 28 with the area here and what goes on here. I live within a mile of where that project's going to be 29 as the crow flies right off of Buckhorn Road there. I own 22 acres there. I knew when I bought 30 there that this was a .growing area, and. I think most people knew that this was a growing area. I 31 think it should not be denied, I think it would be good for our economy, good for our community, 32 and I think it would be a plus for Hillsborough and Orange County. I'd just like to make that 33 known tonight. 34 35 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 36 ~ .. 37 Commissioner Carey: Everything I've read is an indicator that the residential property does 38 not pay for itself, and I'd like for this former Mayor to get the name and if that economist has 39 ever written anything, get us a citation for that, because I'd like to see it. That would be the first 40 time in a long time that I've seen anything to the contrary about the contribution of residential 41 property to paying the bills and providing services. Also, the document that the engineer 42 presented indicated that he's responded to some questions that were raised last time. I know 43 we will get that, but I think we need to make sure the public gets that. Perhaps staff can figure 44 out a way to get it on the website or something so that many of the people who raised the 45 questions that may not be here would be able to know that the questions had been responded 46 to. 47 4$ Chair Jacobs: Well, if the developer decides to take up Mr. Phelps' suggestion for the public 49 information session, they could bring the questions and responses to that meeting. 50 ~~