Orange County NC Website
Approved 11/8/2010 <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 10/11/2010 Page 17 of 35 <br />1 <br />2 <br />3 <br />4 <br />5 <br />6 <br />7 <br />8 <br />9 <br />10 <br />11 <br />12 <br />13 <br />14 <br />15 <br />16 <br />17 <br />18 <br />19 <br />20 <br />21 <br />22 <br />23 <br />24 <br />25 <br />26 <br />27 <br />28 <br />29 <br />30 <br />31 <br />32 <br />33 <br />34 <br />35 <br />36 <br />37 <br />38 <br />39 <br />40 <br />41 <br />42 <br />43 <br />44 <br />45 <br />46 <br />47 <br />48 <br />49 <br />50 <br />51 <br />52 <br />receptions, sweet sixteen parties, special event parties, family reunions. That’s not educating school children in Orange <br />County about farming and agriculture. It just isn’t. The intent of this Special Use Permit that was granted to them was <br />to educate school children about farming in our county. I guess I don’t know any other way to say it but that’s how I <br />read it. When I hear the music and then I hear the music again, and then I hear the music again I know there is some <br />good things going on, I love animals, I love the Great Dane rescue. Wonderful people, ok, I just don’t’ want it where it’s <br />not supposed to be; where we never assumed it was going to happen. <br /> <br />You’ve heard some information about our ponds, the fish kill was pretty bad. I know that can happen to a lot of <br />agricultural ponds. We have spent a good bit of money cleaning up the ponds from our homeowners association. <br />We’ve spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars putting the grass carp in. The ponds were lime green prior to that filled <br />with duckweed and algae. We’re trying to take care of the environment as well. A lot of the brush has been cut. I’m <br />sure it has allowed a lot of runoff. There was a gigantic shrub border between the upper pond which you have on your <br />map and the farm. I understand that’s on their property. They left the cedar trees and a lot of the trees trunks but all of <br />the brush in between that totally shielded us from that area which is now the agricultural center with the playground and <br />with the bands and the stages that’s all now open. You can see it and doubly we can hear it. It has increased the noise <br />back where we are. I can understand that some houses in the neighborhood are totally not affected; they are much <br />further back. They are far away but we’re not. We’re right there, we’re front and center, we are right on the front line. <br />We did not know that those would be cut. <br /> <br />We did not know an irrigation pump was going to run like it has been and I have to tell you, we have tried meeting, our <br />neighborhood, has tried meeting with folks from the ag center and we did not want to come to a meeting like this and <br />speak out, had no intention of doing this but we feel like our backs are up against the wall right now. Our talks broke <br />down we couldn’t come to an agreement of what would work for both of us. We would have loved to have had that <br />happen. We would love to continue those conversations. We couldn’t get anywhere. <br /> <br />There is a, I believe in the original, and I am going from memory, I believe in the original minutes, I don’t know what you <br />call them, there were a couple of statements that this agricultural center would not have a negative impact on the <br />surrounding neighbors. I know that is probably something very hard to prove fiscally but I can’t imagine that it hasn’t <br />hurt my property values. People move out to the country for quiet. You move next door to a farm, well it’s a farm, it’s <br />quiet, a rural Orange County is a quiet place. It would be hard for me to say to someone, if I sell my property to sell my <br />home, to say its quiet, it’s very rural, it’s very pastoral. Well it is except when there is a party. We never know when a <br />party is going to happen. Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday we don’t know and that’s part of our <br />anxiety levels. Is this going to increase? We feel like it’s untenable as it is. Is it going to increase is it going to get <br />worse. I hear people saying we want more and more and more. I understand that the building is there for agricultural <br />purposes. It’s great it’s wonderful it’s a community meeting place to talk about the county, talk about the agricultural <br />issues, the farming issues. I just don’t think it’s a party center. That is what I’d like to leave you with. <br /> <br />Tom Brown: Thank you. <br /> <br />Michael Harvey: Judy Mitchell. <br /> <br />Judy Mitchell: I am Judy Mitchell and I would like to first comment on the fish kill. If you look back on WRAL’s news, <br />Charlotte’s big lake had a gigantic fish kill and it was not because of agricultural runoff. It was because of the drought <br />and if you will research that you will find out that is what it was. So of course these small little ponds would have that <br />too because water supply is down. Not just because of the pumping but because of the drought. All that rain that went <br />east, we didn’t get that much of. <br /> <br />Another thing I would like to comment on is some of these people did not buy their places until after the ag center was <br />built. As for the noise level, I live right at the end of Green Rice. Granted there were two bands in the last year, two <br />bands, different occasions, and yes they were loud. I could hear them when I went outside. I could not hear them <br />inside. I went down to join them because it sounded like fun. Two times a year? You can’t put up with two times a <br />year. And the kids birthday singing, I mean if you have kids, you know kids are gonna holler and scream and inside you