Planning Board - 081920 Agenda Packet

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D R A F T absolutely wrong thing for this area. I can’t emphasize that enough this is a residential area. In the 1980s when this 1391 plan was originally developed, my house was a cow pasture so sure put a warehouse there it doesn’t matter to them1392 but things have changed dramatically, it doesn’t make sense to have this development here any longer so Planning 1393 Board please hear me I’m begging you, oppose this. Please don’t make my family collateral damage from this 1394 economic development building.1395 1396 Jon Lorusso: Hello, it’s quite late thank you for giving me a chance to speak. I wrote down a few notes of what I’d 1397 like to say before I get to them I just want to agree with previous speaker this really does come down to a 40 year old 1398 plan that is no longer relevant and yet the Planning Board feels that they need to stick with it because it’s on the 1399 books so we might as well, I’m almost tempted to say that there is some kind of conspiracy going on some kickbacks 1400 because there really, this is the Planning Board, you are supposed to plan for the communities and the people who 1401 live here. Not for out of state businesses, not for lawyers in Raleigh this is for the people, you work for us the people 1402 who live here. Yes, the people here need jobs but not at the expense of their fellow citizens, this is absurd. So just 1403 to go through a few points. The traffic engineer mentioned that is would be up to the individual truck drivers whether 1404 or not they took 40 west to get to 85 north that’s absurd no one would ever do that. People who live here know that 1405 you wouldn’t do that, you are obviously going to take Churton to get 85 north. We’ve already had, the Planning 1406 Board has a plan in action to extend 70 from Orange Grove because of already existing traffic issues. They already 1407 exist the traffic issues this is going to make it so much worse and yet are we planning or are we reacting. We’re going 1408 to allow this to be built and then react later on. We’ll figure it out 20 years from now when people are fed up. So, this 1409 neighborhood, one if the improvement that Mr. Birch mentioned was oh we get a traffic signal at the end of Davis 1410 Road and all we have to do it to get it is build a 2.1 million square foot warehouse inside of our neighborhood. Great 1411 thanks a lot thank you for that wonderful improvement. The left only sign coming out of the place onto Davis Road, 1412 are there any laws that, is there going to be a cop stationed there and if they make a right are they subject to a 1413 summons? A ticket? No, it’s really just up to the individual driver if they see that the traffic is backed up to the light 1414 on Old 86 you know maybe I’ll just make a right and take Orange Grove up or maybe I’ll make a left on Orange 1415 Grove and go down to Arthur Minnis, who cares right? Who cares about the people who live here, who cares. 200 1416 vehicles per hour additional on Davis Road that is absurd an average tractor-trailer is 72 feet. How many tractor-1417 trailers can fit between Old 86 and 1000 foot entrance on Davis Road? I don’t know what the math is divide 1000 by 1418 72 it’s somewhere around 14. If you have 200 per hour, it sounds to me like it’s going to get backed up. It sounds to 1419 me like there’s a lot of conjecture, a lot of estimates based on businesses that we don’t even know what kind of traffic 1420 they’ll have. I think Michael Birch again that the primary use is indoor yet he doesn’t actually know what kind of 1421 business is going to be there. How does he know they’re going to be indoor? They’re asking for approval when 1422 they’re still back and forth with NCDOT how can you approve something when thinks haven’t even been settled? We 1423 are not talking about little things; we’re talking about huge changes. Oh, the traffic is backed up on 40 west, on the 1424 40 east who cares if there’s an ambulance that can’t get to the hospital, who cares right? It’s all at the expense of 1425 business, who cares, who cares if people are backed up on the highway, who cares? I mean this is absurd; it’s 1426 absurd that our Planning Board the people who are supposed to plan this are the ones that are selling up the river. 1427 It’s crazy. I could expect it from the lawyers in Raleigh who don’t care what happens here because they don’t live 1428 here. They’re going to get this signed and they’re done they get their check but from our own Planning Board the 1429 people who are supposed to protect the citizens of this county they are the ones who are selling us up the river. It’s 1430 insane, it really is insane. That’s all I have to say.1431 1432 David Blankfard: One thing, did you receive a letter from the planning department?1433 1434 Jon Lorusso: No I did not.1435 1436 Perdita Holtz: David as you can see there are 12 people with their hands up and it now 11 p.m. I don’t know if there 1437 wants to be any discussion among the Planning Board on how to handle the rest of the meeting, what some options 1438 might be. 1439 1440 Hunter Spitzer: I do recall that Michael had some comments that he wanted to make pertaining to us making 1441 recommendation. So I would like to hear those at the very least before we move forward.1442 1443 Michael Harvey: As I indicated, your abstract had suggested that the Board, if they felt comfortable, would make a 1444 recommendation in time for the County Commissioner’s September 15th hearing. Obviously the applicant will also 1445 need to weigh in on this. As I see it, there’s a couple of different options and scenarios here. Through no fault of the 1446 28