BOA minutes 060815 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

OC Board of Adjustment – 6/8/2015 Page 41 of 68 can see it. We all know and we know this is going to have an unacceptable adverse on our community and we are 1 asking you to deny it. Thank you. 2 3 Jeff Fisher: My name is Jeff Fisher. I am an Orange County resident and I have been sworn. Over the course of 4 hearing all the testimony, I’m tired and it is late. You have heard both sides very well. I am an attorney for the ____ 5 firm and also work, I have a company called Union Places and we specialize in conservation real estate. We also 6 create maps to show how unique a place and the reason I was asked to speak was because I am an Orange County 7 resident and we made this map that illustrates the distance between the two power lines, the incredible Waller F arm, 8 the fact that this is close to Duke Forest. I ask you to think about this as you make this decision…. 9 10 Tom Johnson: I object to that being an inaccurate representation of the tower on that to that degree. The 11 representation that we prepared we are based upon computer generated representation but the representation of the 12 tower is not accurate nor has it been certified. 13 14 Samantha Cabe: Maybe we should ask him how he prepared it. 15 16 Jeff Fisher: It was from the GIS and information shared with us so we just put in information we got…. 17 18 Larry Wright: Why don’t we take a look at it to see what he has to say? 19 20 Jeff Fisher: The other reason I am here to speak is because I specialize, I am a real estate professional, an attorney 21 who handles conservation easement transactions. I help landowners through the process but actually going after the 22 funds that Mr. Waller would go after if he did want to get funds from the Federal Government or State Government to 23 protect his working farm. 24 25 Tom Johnson: I object this to relevance. 26 27 Jeff Fisher: The reason that is relevant is that if Mr. Waller went to apply for his funds like most Orange County 28 residents could if they have a working farm in the rural buffer and there is a cell tower next to it, the likelihood of him 29 being funded goes down. That is one element. You ask about whether or not revenue going to go down because 30 people want a rural experience. He spoke to that and I can speak to that one element of whether or not he could 31 secure those funds for protecting farms. I think, I said I would be brief, so I will close with these comments. This 32 community was the same community to ____ on the ____ when they came forward and that is now the new New Hope 33 Creek Preserve. The point I want to drive home is that we are not a group of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). I haven’t 34 heard any of my neighbors say we absolutely don’t need cell phones. Everybody is using cell phones, we understand 35 we need towers, it is the location. I hope you hear that and before you make a de cision you go out to the Waller and 36 walk in his shoes. It is a very important decision. I am disappointed in the company that has presented this because 37 they can other due diligence then all these people would not have had to come out here and stay out h ere until 10 or 11 38 o’clock at night because they had presented a proposal that looked like the tower we don’t see that is within 1,170 of 39 this property I don’t think you would have gotten this response. I think this would have gone through. I don’t have 40 anything against them building their tower in general but the location is wrong. Please do not approve it. Thank you. 41 42 Larry Wright: Mr. Fisher, you said you have an enterprise or company that you work for an organization and you said 43 that Mr. Waller want grants that he would have less chance of achieving funding. 44 45 Jeff Fisher: I used to run a ___ service work with nature conservancy. That was my former career, my profit and we 46 would work with landowners for them to apply for funding for working farms t o permanently protect farmers so my firm is 47 probably one of the few firms in the whole United States that does this. We work with landowners, we have done it 48 across North Carolina. We just did it on the Gates Farm in Mebane. We helped them to secure fun ding on behalf of 49