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Approved 7/8/2013 OC Board of Adjustment – 6/10/2013 Page 78 of 92 1 I want to move on to one comment that I have heard from Mr. Harvey about concerns about not 2 having enough notice from some of the neighbors. I wanted to point out that there has been a 3 significant amount of notice that has been provided. There has been more than two months in which 4 we have been providing notice about the proposed tower and that has been ample time for the 5 neighbors to learn about what we have proposed and be prepared for the hearing. The first notice 6 was over two months ago. We are required by the ordinance to perform a balloon test and a balloon 7 test was conducted for a four hour period on April 20 and part of the balloon test is there is notice 8 posted on the property about the proposed telecommunications tower and prior to the balloon test, on 9 April 3, we sent certified letters to all property owners within 1,000 feet of the tower site. In the letter, 10 we provided information that we were filing a special use permit application and we also provided the 11 site plans for the special use permit application and also general information that answered questions 12 that residents might have about telecommunications towers. Also in the letter I provided information 13 about if there were questions or concerns, I provided my telephone number and email address and 14 stated I could be contacted. I did receive one telephone call from a woman and I spoke to her 15 generally about our application but that is the only contact I have had by email or telephone about our 16 proposed applications. Also, a notice was published in two different newspapers, the News of 17 Orange County, notice of the special use permit application was provided on April 3, 10 and 17 and in 18 the Herald Sun, notice was provided on April 5, 12 and 19 and more recently the county’s ordinance 19 does not require that a community meeting be held but I heard from Mr. Harvey that there had been 20 some concern so I wanted to have a neighborhood meeting so I could try to listen to what the 21 concerns are and hopefully address them and provide answers so I voluntarily had a community 22 meeting and I sent the letters on April 28 to all the property owners within 1,000 feet of the site and 23 the community meeting was held on June 4. 24 25 Larry Wright: How many people attended? 26 27 Karen Kemerait: About 12. The reason I provide all that history is because I wanted you to know 28 there has been two and one half months which notice had been provided to the neighbors. I want to 29 talk specifically about the application. This is a very important application for AT&T and American 30 Tower and also for Orange County as well. There are many areas in Orange County where there is 31 no coverage or insufficient coverage especially in the rural areas outside Chapel Hill, Carrboro and 32 Hillsborough and this is another area in the rural area of Orange County. While the demand for the 33 wireless service continues to increase, the construction for the infrastructure has not kept pace and 34 been stagnant since 2009. AT&T specifically with this location has been approached by people who 35 live in the area, traveling from the Greensboro area east toward Carrboro in their cars and businesses 36 in the area and also had conversations with business owners generally in Orange County and the 37 Chamber of Commerce about how better telecommunication coverage is necessary and this is a very 38 critical area where coverage is needed. AT&T and American Tower is coming forward with a plan 39 and they are coming forward with a significant investment to improve coverage for the Orange County 40 residents. The reason for this particular tower is there is a large gap in coverage and when there is a 41 large gap in coverage detected a team of construction analysts and engineers look for ways to fill that 42 gap in coverage and they first look at existing structures (i.e., telecommunication towers, water tanks, 43 etc.) and in this area, there were no telecommunications, water tanks or large buildings that AT&T 44 could put its antennas on and that would be AT&Ts first preference to find an existing structure to 45 locate its antennas on. When there were no existing structures, AT&T and American Tower have 46 been working hard to find a good location for a new telecommunications tower and we have found, 47 what I believe is an ideal location for this telecommunications tower and I don’t think it would be 48 possible to find a better location than this in this area where the coverage is needed. This is a large 49 tract of land, 28 acres, and part of it is used for farm land and there are also woods directly 50 surrounding the tower and the purpose of this tower is to solve that gap in coverage. The gap is west 51 of the town of Carrboro and it also will resolve the gap in coverage along Old Greensboro and Jones 52 Ferry Road. Under tab 20 and this is the propagation map and this is where the tower location would 53