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OC Board of Adjustment – 6/8/2015 Page 38 of 68 degradation of the rural quality of the rural part of this buffer and we ask the planning board to fulfill their obligation to 1 protect the legally established rural buffer from this intrusive unaesthetic high tech assault on the rural quality of the 2 buffer. We have appropriate ordinances in place, could we please respect and use these ordinances. 3 4 Mark Waller: My name is Mark Waller. I live at 5005 Kerley Road in Durham and I have been sworn in. I am also the 5 owner and operator of Waller Family Farm which is located directly across the street from the proposed cell tower site. 6 My family has been farming this farm since the 1940s. My father, who turns 90 this Saturday still lives in the home 7 located at the corner of Mt. Sinai and Kerley Road. The view from h is recliner as he sits in his den and looks out his 8 window is directly into the pasture where the tower is proposed. We are a diversified farm, we still have cows, chickens 9 and vegetables. We also conduct educational farm tours in the fall that teach kid s where there food comes from. 10 However, we are best known for our strawberry you pick operation. We are about to finish our eleventh season of 11 strawberries and hope to have many more years to come. Each spring we have a few thousand people come out to 12 enjoy some family time and pick some strawberries. You don’t have enough time to tell you all the wonderful, 13 heartwarming comments told to us each year at the farm but here are a few examples from this year. Thank you so 14 much for the wonderful opportunity to relive my childhood. Now I can come pick strawberries with my mother or my 15 grandmother and make new family memories. A little lady told me that after a hard day at work she looks forward to 16 coming and relaxing to the sounds of cows blowing, roosters a nd yes our rooster crows all day. Another lady thanked 17 us for not selling out. Thank you very much for not selling out to development and keeping this magical place going. A 18 cell tower located directly across the street from the strawberry field from wh ere these people will be picking will have 19 an impact on them. You probably saw the pictures where the tower is going. Those green lines run across into the 20 field, that is the strawberry field so they will be looking from that to the tower. When I told t hem of the possible cell 21 tower moving into the field across the street. Not a single one said that is what we need is more towers with cell 22 providers. Everyone started with “here”, you have to be kidding. I am trying to convey to the board the uniquenes s of 23 this area. We are not a search ring, we are a community. My wife and I continue farming this land as long as the good 24 Lord sees fit. I feel very strongly about preserving the rural character and Durham County in general. I currently serve 25 on the Durham County Farmland Protection Board. We meet monthly and try to find ways to preserve rural character in 26 Durham by putting land into conservation easement, development farmer markets to help farmers stay in business, to 27 work with local high schools to promote FFA which is Future Farmers of America. Also served on the Durham County 28 Farm Bureau Board where we do most of the same things including offering agricultural scholarships and funding of 29 FFAs. I worked with Frank Duke who was, at the time, the Durham City/County Planning Director on redoing our area 30 from R20 which is one house per 20,000 square feet to one house per two acres there and preserving more open and 31 rural character. It is obvious that this type of structure is also not consistent with the Orange County Buffer Zone. I 32 think it is obvious that a 129 foot tower with a four and one half foot base sitting in the middle of an open pasture is not 33 consistent with the rural character or harmony of this area. To say this 129 foot monstrosity wi th a 14 foot 34 circumference around the base is anywhere close to a 40 foot wooden telephone pole with a 30 inch circumference… I 35 think it shows how the tower people are grasping at straws to try to convince you that this thing actually fit in the area. 36 Besides, telephone poles are 1930s technology that hopefully will be replaced. Nobody like s to look at them either. 37 This is why utilities are buried in subdivisions and not on poles. No one goes on vacation to look at ugly cell towers and 38 power poles. We go to lakes and parks and beaches to enjoy the natural beauty and get away from such intrusions. 39 Also to say that a 40 foot pine tree on the right of way is going to obscure the view of this 130 foot tower is the same as 40 saying that shrubbery in my yard will obscure the view of my house. I can also assure you that the cell tower will not 41 enhance the value of this area. I would even say that my dad’s home and our farm will be reduced in price. 42 43 Tom Johnson: I object. 44 45 Mark Waller: What is value anyway? Unfortunately the world has attached a financial price to anything we hold in 46 value. I say that is not necessarily true. What is a good day of health worth to you? What is a relaxing afternoon in the 47 country or being able to look across my fields, my barns, my ponds, my cows and not having the top half of this huge 48 metallic structure staring back at me. What is that worth b ecause on the day they did the balloon test, I went home to 49 sit on my porch and I could see the top half of that tower. You know how tall the power poles are, the power companies 50