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17 <br /> Spence Dickinson - Good evening. For the record I have a <br /> store at Blackwood Station so that's just one. There is <br /> bread within a short. distance. It's definitely a real <br /> situation here I think everybody can see that. I just found <br /> out about it a couple of days ago and I put a little petition <br /> up at my store and it reads - protect our Rural Buffer, we <br /> strongly support the town and the County zoning which <br /> provides for and preserves the Rural Buffer. I didn't have <br /> much chance and not many people could sign it but here's 94 <br /> signatures. I think that's really one of the major things <br /> here. You know here we live in a community that people like <br /> the Tapps and Blackwoods have protected for many, many years. <br /> I mean a lot of people have sold off their land and there is <br /> a lot of development around and if you look at a lot of the <br /> other communities, you'll find that there are a lot more <br /> developed than ours. I think it's because of people like the <br /> Tapps and the Blackwoods that have held on to their land and <br /> kept our place a really nice place to live and it's kind of <br /> sad in a way that there some of the people who get hurt, you <br /> know it was their land this interstate went right through and <br /> they're the people that have preserved it for us, they are <br /> the ones that are suffering. So in some ways, you and I <br /> can't say I want them to suffer, obviously, I'm not sure what <br /> way they can be compensated. I think for me if this was a <br /> designation of just a small node around that which encompass <br /> their particular houses, I'd feel a lot better than 400 acres <br /> or even 150 acres. It would be a little easier to bite off, <br /> but as a store owner I would have to say that would hurt me <br /> if it was a commercial establishment there, so I can't say I <br /> want to see that. I think the main thing that really <br /> disturbs me the most besides trying to understand how to <br /> compensate the Tapps and the Blackwoods, that's a main thing <br /> to me, how can we compensate those people that are right <br /> there at that intersection. The other is when are we going <br /> to have to deal with this again. I mean here we are a year <br /> after it was approved, 6 months from now, it will be the <br /> other side or it will be another idea or a year from now it <br /> will come up again. It will come up again and it will keep <br /> coming up until one day it will slip through because half of <br /> us aren't here. So, I think part of what I see is just <br /> people trying, to get free land,• you know, how can we get this <br /> Rural Buffer and not have to pay for it. How can we enforce <br /> this on the Blackwoods and the Tapps without having to pay <br /> for it. So I would like to make a suggestion. There's an <br /> organization called the Triangle Land Conservancy, and •they <br /> are buying up pieces of property that can help maintain the <br /> quality of this community and I would suggest that they would <br /> be the people who would approach the Blackwoods and the Tapps <br /> to take it out of, you know it's the Blackwoods and the Tapps <br /> have kind of been the stewards as long as they can stand to <br /> be the stewards. We need to find an organization or a group <br /> that will not develop this, it will hold onto it and preserve <br /> it for us, they have to get out, whose going to take care of, <br />