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Approved 11/8/2010 <br /> <br />OC Board of Adjustment – 10/11/2010 Page 19 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 />guarantee you when we started raising our chickens up there not one person said one negativity about their cock-a- <br />doodle-doos. Not one person. Everybody just acted like ‘oh great’ we got some farming out here. They were glad to <br />hear it. <br /> <br />That’s the problem with most people nowadays they’ve forgotten the beauty of it. They need to realize that when you <br />hear stuff like a cock-a-doodle-doo or music, that ‘s a blessing. Music is a blessing, he who sings prays twice. That <br />comes from Psalms and if you cannot believe or even accept that then you’re practically closing your eyes to God. I <br />don’t believe that they would ever have anything so loud that it would amplify your area because we live in a smaller <br />area than you do, a trailer. It is a lot easier to hear in that trailer than it ever would be in a house. You hear everything. <br />Nothing has ever bothered us. I know the fact that they’ve got one of the greatest, their farm is the greatest farm in <br />Orange County. To be honest, Orange County is really proud of them. They’re proud to have them. Anyone who ever <br />considers trying to cancel them, to me, all they want to do is turn Orange County into a complete urbanization. You’re <br />never going to learn that way. Did you know that Chapel Hill Schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools don’t even <br />have an FFA? They have horticulture but they won’t teach agriculture. Not one school will and they need to because <br />Chapel Hill doesn’t even realize the importance of farming. They take advantage of our grocery stores and stuff and <br />forget where everything comes from. If it weren’t for the farmer there would be no city. That’s a fact. <br /> <br />Tom Brown: Thank you. <br /> <br />Michael Harvey: Judith Wegner. <br /> <br />Judith Wegner: Thank you for letting me speak. I live off Dodson’s Crossroads and Pickard Mountain Road, which is <br />fairly close to this facility and I’m a long-term person living there for more than twenty years. I am here to voice support <br />for the Nutters because I think the ag center has very powerful positive impact in the community. I’d like to say that <br />indeed I think that their uses should be expanded because I think they really in fact could function very well as a <br />community center beyond the narrow limits of the permit which I had not had the chance to review because to spite <br />efforts to try to find it online for several hours I haven’t been able to find that. I’d like to review that since I am a law <br />professor and I try to do my homework. I apologize for not having had a chance to expound on that in particular since I <br />tried but wasn’t able to get hold of it. <br /> <br />I would say for the neighbors who are unhappy about this they have to understand that farming isn’t protected by statute <br />in North Carolina. This is a somewhat different provision than the right to farm and farming but if they were here to <br />complain that the cows make too much noise in terms of mooing, I think they would be out of luck on that count. I would <br />also say that it seems to me the county has a noise ordinance that deals with excessive noise and that’s what I <br />understand if the sheriff department is called and they are not out of kilter with the noise ordinance that it should be the <br />kind of standard employed. <br /> <br />I would say as well that if folks are unhappy about that then I am sure that the Nutters and those using the facility could <br />give them notice so that they’d know ahead of time whether there is going to be an activity but people have weddings at <br />their homes, have graduation parities, other kinds of things of that sort and if they need a Special Permit under the <br />county provisions they can get a Special Permit to do that. If that is required, I am sure that the ag center would be <br />happy to comply with that and people would get notice of that. I used to be on the Carrboro Board of Alderman before I <br />moved out to the county so any time there would be a parade or activity like that people would come and get the permits <br />and I think Orange County is in a position to do that as well and be sure that people are aware of that. <br /> <br />Putting that aside I want to say that I respect Michael Harvey very much. I know he’s very scrupulous and fair in how he <br />tries to apply the provisions of the county ordinance and that it seems to me that the proper solution here is to have the <br />Board of Adjustment invite as a solution to this a submission of a modification to the permit so everybody is clear about <br />what the uses are and there is an ample hearing around those issues but I hope the Board would also approve an <br />expansion of uses because I really do think this is an incredibly valuable resource for the community. It used to be that <br />the volunteer fire fighters would have their halls that people could have community events at, that’s where I go over in <br />Orange County that is a wholly suitable use in my mind to have some sort of community center where people can