Orange County NC Website
Approved 1/11/2016 <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 11/9/15 Page 31 of 48 <br /> <br />can lash out. It’s very fortunate that night, when the fireworks occurred, that there were no people in the vicinity. Because people 1 <br />can be severely injured by horses. There’s no controlling them when they’re having the fight or flight response. So, if horses are 2 <br />ridden when these noises occur or if they’re being handled or cared for within their stables people can be injured or killed. The 3 <br />neighborhood of Morrow Mill and Millikan has very light traffic. People routinely walk along the roads, their kids ride their bikes on 4 <br />the roads, people ride horses along the roads, people walk their dogs, day and night. It’s a very quiet venue. And to introduce this 5 <br />level of traffic and noise into that, I am concerned that there’s the potential for the public health impact of injuries, from people 6 <br />being struck by cars, children, dogs, horses dart into traffic. With an unaccustomed volume of traffic, if someone from outside of a 7 <br />rural area doesn’t know you can’t honk, you can’t flash your lights, you can’t yell out the window at somebody riding a horse. The 8 <br />local people know this, and that’s why there are so many horse farms and people are comfortable riding but, this may change if 9 <br />this venue’s approved. So, I just want to give my professional opinion about the impacts of the public health if this venue’s 10 <br />approved. 11 <br /> 12 <br />Karen Barrows: Thank you for coming forward. Do you have any questions. 13 <br /> 14 <br />Sharron Linn: Yeah. When you were talking about the poultry production were you talking about a chicken farm, or just the 15 <br />chickens that the neighbors are raising. 16 <br /> 17 <br />Elizabeth Hilborn: So poultry production is defined by any sort of egg layer operation. It can range from a few hens in a back yard 18 <br />where people get their daily eggs for their own use all the way up to a huge chicken house that contains multiple poultry. So it’s a 19 <br />broad term. 20 <br /> 21 <br />Sharron Linn: And to the best of your knowledge, the horses that you talked about that were being spooked. They were spooked 22 <br />after hearing the fireworks near Valhalla? 23 <br /> 24 <br />Elizabeth Hilborn: There’s a temporal correlation the horses were spooked the evening of the fireworks. 25 <br /> 26 <br />Karen Barrows: Thank you Elizabeth. 27 <br /> 28 David Rooks: Doris and Thomas Ray? 29 <br /> 30 <br />Doris Ray: I have been sworn in, but I guess he hasn’t. My name is Doris Ray and my husband is Thomas Ray and we live at 31 <br />7319 Morrow Mill Road. Which is directly across from the property that was talked about earlier at the beginning. We’re directly 32 <br />across from the proposed barn of Chapel Hill. We are a little bit different from some of the others. It’s good to see that we do have 33 <br />a lot of young people in our community but, I grew up in this community so I have a lot of family history in this community on 34 <br />Morrow Mill and Millikan Road. Thomas and I bought our home in 1962. So you can tell that we’re one of the older ones in this 35 <br />area. We raised two boys, who are here tonight to support us and we have five grandchildren that we enjoy, or we did until they 36 <br />grew up so much, enjoyed having them in our back yard and our front yard playing around, never thinking of traffic and safety. We 37 <br />just enjoyed the quiet community. We’ve seen our road grow, our community grow. When we first built the roads were all dirt, there 38 <br />were no telephones, so we have seen a lot of growth in this community. But it’s all been with beautiful homes, horse pastures, 39 <br />dairy farmers around. It’s been very quiet. We never have a lot of noise, we never hear noise, very seldom, as she said earlier, we 40 <br />see people walking, jogging, riding horses. And we all feel safe in the community. Thomas and I have now retired, and we are 41 <br />close enough to the highway that when we sit in our living room or when we sit on our front porch in our rocking chairs we enjoy 42 <br />seeing the neighbors walking and jogging and riding their horses, waving at them. I’m afraid that this will not happen if the barn if 43 <br />built there. Now, according to the site plan, as you all know, the road is almost directly in front of our driveway. According to Mrs. 44 <br />Brewer, she proposes to have 150 parking spaces to accommodate 250 people. And I believe her vision, at our first meeting, was 45 <br />to have to, I think she said night one to three events each weekend. Between May and October. Now that could be 300 cars 46 <br />coming in and out of the driveway in one weekend. And those car lights coming out after dark would be directly on our house. Our 47 <br />living rooms and our bedroom windows both face Morrow Mill Road. So we would have the light coming directly into our windows 48 <br />and on our house. This is a concern to us, the noise would be a concern and of course, just knowing that these drivers coming out 49 <br />We know that most of the time there’s alcohol. We would hope none of the drivers would consume the alcohol but, that is a 50 <br />concern to us with that many cars coming out of the driveway. How many would have consumed alcohol. Now we have a lot of 51 <br />teenagers in our community. I have grandchildren that drive up and down Morrow Mill and Millikan, and we want to keep this as 52 <br />safe as we can for our teenagers and our young adults. For all of us, as a matter of fact. We would like to keep this area safe and 53 <br />yet we know that there’s service vehicles. There are going to be catering trucks, and garbage trucks entering Millikan Road and 54 <br />exiting Millikan Road and that’s fairly close to a curve on Millikan Road. And that could be very dangerous. I have family on 55