Planning Board - 081920 Agenda Packet

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D R A F T Davis Drive, I just think it is not possible for us to prohibit access onto Davis Drive. Third, with regard to some of the 1503 comments or requests for the conditions the design of the buildings with intent to accommodate solar, providing 1504 some electric vehicle charging stations and no fuel storage adjacent to the flood plain. I am comfortable with we can 1505 craft those conditions and extremely short order and so I would respectfully ask but because of the date of the next 1506 Planning Board meeting being on the 2nd essentially eliminates our opportunity to get to the Board of Commissioner’s 1507 meeting on the 15th. I would ask that the Planning Board please consider meeting or adjourning to a date certain 1508 possibly 2 weeks from today on the 19th.1509 1510 David Blankfard: I think we could do the 19 th to reconvene. 1511 1512 Adam Beeman: I was going to ask Craig or Michael Harvey, with what Mr. Birch said about whatever DOT comes 1513 back and they’re going to rectify whatever DOT says they need to do. Do you guys feel comfortable with moving 1514 forward knowing whatever DOT may say or would it be better to meet a date later once the DOT issues have been 1515 straightened out?1516 1517 Craig Benedict: Let me just give a brief introduction about NCDOT is in charge of the roads within Orange County so 1518 they are the ultimate authority on what improvements are made because counties in North Carolina are not in the 1519 road business so they take, their recommendations are of prime importance and as the developer said they will have 1520 to do whatever NCDOT says. We work with DOT and we will take the comments that we have from tonight and 1521 impart them to NCDOT for any alternatives that there may be but NCDOT is also in the business to use taxpayer 1522 money to use the roadways to their best ability. My opinion if you want to call it that is that we will be satisfied with 1523 what NCDOT suggest as improvements for the project.1524 1525 Kim Piracci: I just want to say that it seems to me that the traffic that’s being talked about, even if it could be 1526 arranged in such a way that the traffic only comes and goes from 40 to Old 86 and never hits Davis it just seems like 1527 an enormous amount of traffic even just for Old 86. Even though I understand there’ll be road expansion and 1528 whatnot so I just, I feel like the scope of the project is just too big for this space in Orange County. Maybe smaller 1529 warehouses or two instead of three. I don’t know but in any case it just seems like too much. To me it seems all 1530 that’s too much.1531 1532 Hunter Spitzer: Do you have an expected return date from NCDOT on those comments? An anticipated time?1533 1534 Michael Harvey: Hunter, let me jump in and Mr. Birch may be able to also provide some detail. I don’t know if it’s fair 1535 to say if we have any expectation from DOT. They obviously took a prolonged period of time to get us the comment 1536 they got us on Friday and we can obviously impress to Mr. Edwards who is our district engineer the need for 1537 expediency but I can’t and will not tell you that I can guarantee that within two weeks we’ll have an answer. I can’t 1538 guarantee that within four weeks we’ll have an answer. But I think it’s reasonable for us to try if the Board sees fit to 1539 adjourn to at date and time certain in two weeks. We’ll do the best we can to address this concern as best we can 1540 and I know so will the applicant but I do think it’s also important for me to make clear one think to the Board. It’s been 1541 sort of danced around but I think it’s important to say it. One of the, this same issue came up with Settler’s Point, the 1542 Department of Transportation is not satisfied with the current condition of service road which parallels 40 and they 1543 had requested or indicated that in order for Settler’s Point to be developed they had to have secondary means of 1544 ingress/egress. At Settler’s Point chose to try and secure access off Old NC Hwy 86 directly. That was a gamble 1545 they took and unfortunately it didn’t pay off at the time they had the approval they couldn’t negotiate an access point. 1546 I know that this applicant has looked for alternative access points and I’m not telling you this to say, it’s a fait 1547 accompli, but I’m telling you this that one of the reasons there’s two access points is because DOT has mandated it 1548 from day one. This applicant is obviously proposing Davis Road there’s obviously concerns about that and there’s1549 request for more information and that needs to be processed to move forward but I think the Board just needs to be 1550 put back in the loop that the reason there’s two is because DOT is mandating it.1551 1552 Michael Birch: This is Michael Birch, the applicant just to reiterate on the timing of DOT responses. We will hound 1553 them as best we can to get responses so we can this resolved in advance of a possible meeting on the 19th.1554 1555 Randy Marshall: I’m not sure we are going to continue to be productive tonight so I’d like to make a recommendation 1556 that we adjourn or postpone or continue the meeting until two weeks from tonight at 7 p.m. 1557 1558 30