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OC Board of Adjustment – 6/8/2015 Page 42 of 68 the City of Mebane to protect that working farm. We deliver market based solution for land conservation. We don’t say 1 don’t build but here is how you can achieve funding for conservation. 2 3 Larry Wright: You said you would have less chance of getting funding because of the cell tower, what is the connection 4 there? 5 6 Jeff Fisher: They have a criteria, the Federal Farm and Ranch protection program and also the State Agricultural Trust 7 Fund and they go through a list of criteria and try to determine, is this farm in an area that is indeed in a rural and one of 8 the criteria is there commercial development around the farm. Cell tower is commercial development. 9 10 Larry Wright: That would have to be listed on that grant proposal? 11 12 Jeff Fisher: Mr. Waller is on the board that reviews those applications and I have not doubt and I wanted Mr. Waller to 13 help me do this at some point. I will tell him you chance would go do when the character and quality of the adjacent 14 land around you becomes less rural and that is what we are discussing here especially within the ____. One other part 15 I’ll add is the federal government provides tax deductions for protecting conservat ion easements. So if you put a 16 conservation easement on your property you protect a ___ the federal government gives you tax benefits for that. It is 17 the same concept. 18 19 Mark Micol: Would a subdivision have the same impact? 20 21 Jeff Fisher: A subdivision would show that the property is under the threat of development which would increase the 22 funding opportunities but the fact that it is increasingly commercial and not agricultural would also have a double 23 negative if you had a cell tower and a residential development. 24 25 Jeff Schmitt: So the cell tower would actually be the break point because there is two commercial facilities on the 26 corner now anyway, the nursing home and the apartment complex. But funding could be available accept when we put 27 this tower there it would not be? 28 29 Jeff Fisher: My point is if you have one farm that has a ce ll tower next to it and you have another piece of property, 30 then Mr. Waller’s property would lose in that competition. 31 32 Larry Wright: I think the point the community is trying to tell you is that if you go out Erwin Road, you understand as you 33 go north of Erwin, you go into that unique rural buffer. It is a different landscape than when you go south. 34 35 Larry Wright: What is the name of your company? 36 37 Jeff Fisher: Unique Places, LLC. 38 39 Tom Johnson: I think that completes our formal presentation. That is the Keep Kerley Country presentation. 40 41 Michael Harvey: It is 11:00 at night. There are 52 other individuals that have signed up to speak. 42 43 Larry Wright: Does anyone else have anything to present to the board that is novel. Anything that is not hearsay and 44 present evidence that would be paramount to this. 45 46 Beth Bega: My name is Beth Bega, I am with Pruitt Health representing nursing home across the street and I have 47 been duly sworn. Pruitt Healthcare is a licensed certified skill nursing facility not a retirement home at 5935 Mt. Sinai 48 Road in Durham. We have 140 licensed beds. We house residents for both short term residential, rehabilitation to a 49 transition home and we also have long term skilled nursing care for the infirmed and elderly and we have talked to 50