Agenda - 10-18-2016 - 6-a - Minutes

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20 1 Chair McKee: Before we move to any other individuals intending to provide testimony I would 2 ask if there are further questions from our Board. I would also ask our Attorney that this 3 information will be automatically entered into the record; or do we need a formal motion to 4 accept the material and enter it into the record, as presented? 5 6 James Bryan: It would not hurt to have a clear motion on the record 7 8 Chair McKee: Because this is quasi-judicial, I think I'll go with the more formal approach. Do I 9 hear a motion to accept the evidence into the record? 10 11 A motion was made by Commissioner Rich, seconded by Commissioner Pelissier to 12 accept the evidence into the record. 13 14 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 15 16 Chair McKee: I will now ask if there are other individuals intending to provide testimony and 17 evidence on this project. Yes sir, if you'll come forward, and state your name and have you 18 been sworn. 19 20 PUBLIC COMMENT: 21 22 Chris Bishop: Hello everyone. My name is Chris Bishop, and I've been sworn in. In late 23 2013, with the goal of preventing my family's farmland in rural northern Chapel Hill from being 24 turned into residential development— also attempting to provide a modest income for my great- 25 aunt who'd just suffered a stroke— I sought alternatives for the use of our family's farm land, 26 and one of those alternatives was solar. I began exploring possibilities of putting a solar array, 27 much like the one being proposed here tonight on our family land, and worked with Sunlight 28 partners in conducting many feasibility studies for putting this solar array in northern Chapel Hill. 29 It was found that our site met a litany of requirements for a successful solar array, including 30 proximity to high voltage power lines. 31 32 This solar array—the proposed Binks solar array—was to power 500 homes in northern Chapel 33 Hill, and would have prevented houses from being developed on the land for 15 to 20 years. 34 For those impacted by this current proposal I just want to make the point that Lydia Wegman, 35 now the Planning Board Chairman, and her husband Robert Cantwell, whose land was adjacent 36 to our family's land — since we sold them land to build their house in the 90s — lead a successful 37 protest of their neighbors against my solar farm, encouraging everyone to go out and get 38 appraisals on the impact of a solar farm would have to their property. 39 40 I would like to just bring up the fact that the impact study, conducted as part of the Oakwood 41 Solar Farm (current applicant), found that solar farms do not have any negative impact on the 42 property values of adjacent properties. On May 27, 2014, Lydia's neighbors came to the public 43 hearing and voiced their concerns late into the night; about five and a half hours of testimony 44 about how bad solar farms are. Some things that were voiced at the public hearing are that 45 solar farms would harm home values —the primary reason of their opposition; it would increase 46 traffic in the neighborhood; the solar panels would leak chemicals into the soil; the solar array 47 would be too loud; solar panels would increase the water run off; and the solar company was 48 from Arizona, and is thus questionable not being from North Carolina. These statements were 49 all refuted by qualified engineers at the time. As a result of this opposition, sunlight partners 50 withdrew its application for the Binks Array, leaving Orange County with one less solar farm. 51 Had that not happened, this would be the fifth solar farm in Orange County. My question tonight