Orange County NC Website
Approved 9/2/2020 <br /> <br />volume of traffic assessments matched the reality of how these roads are utilized or how the capacity and road 614 <br />designs regardless of designation allow for safety and driver comfort which is crucial to residents day to day. I cannot 615 <br />reconcile in my mind why a new analysis is not required prior to any recommendation of adopting the zoning 616 <br />amendments initiated by the applicant. Specifically due to the use of 2016 data exclusion of the impact from the 617 <br />Collins Ridge development and applicant’s July request for an increase for area ratio it would allow, if I read this 618 <br />correctly in the agenda package, 4,586,868 sq. ft. of building square footage area. The TIA I read looked to be 619 <br />based on 2,400,000 sq. ft. of development so I can’t reconcile in my mind why a new one is not required and 620 <br />clarification would be appreciated. Having reviewed the available online Comprehensive Plan, I’d argue that the 621 <br />presented industrial development supported by this rezoning is not fundamentally aligned with the current goals of 622 <br />Hillsborough and Orange County. The Statement of Consistency highlights the zoning amendment is consistent with 623 <br />selects goals but no available data has convinced me that this type of development is the best path forward for the 624 <br />area. Consider these objectives not mentioned in the consistency statement, community sustainability, how would 625 <br />this rezoning support a commitment to sustainability? How much water will be needed from the Town? Are we going 626 <br />to build something and not a have a water system to accommodate it, not based on the current plans I found 627 <br />Strategic Growth Plan. Preservation of natural and cultural resources, how does this support protecting our Rural 628 <br />Buffer? It’s too late to assess environmental impact on our natural settings after the fact. Economic growth over 629 <br />investor wealth, data showing specific economic benefits to our community is warranted. Increasing global jobs is 630 <br />not demonstrated value to the local residents. Since you’re charged with advising on these strategies, shouldn’t you 631 <br />be using all the relevant data to ensure compliance? I’m asking you to recommend failing this application fast. 632 <br />There’s too many knowledge gaps, many inconsistencies and I hope upcoming meetings with the Commissioners 633 <br />can instead be about the community sharing our many ideas, establishing a task force and developing a relevant 634 <br />action plan for progress with other than having to oppose this one. Thank you for your time. 635 <br /> 636 <br />Jon Lorusso: I wanted to point out before I begin, I started a petition and I have collected three, 873 signatures from 637 <br />local residents. Hopefully, that has some impact, some bearing on your opinion. My name is Jon Lorusso and I live 638 <br />off Davis Road. The intersection of Old 86 and Davis Road is very important to me, I use it to get to work, I use it to 639 <br />get food for my family to eat, I use it to access I-40, I use it go see friends and family, I use it to get to the hospital. In 640 <br />fact, I have had to do that on several occasions with my children so it’s pretty important intersection to my life, in fact 641 <br />it’s my entire connection to the world. At the July 2th neighborhood information meeting someone asked what steps 642 <br />are being taken to preserve our safely from additional traffic on Davis Road, the applicant replied, very minimal traffic 643 <br />on Davis Road given that they have access to the service road. Another person asked why is this being used that it 644 <br />provides another point of access. County staff clarified that a secondary driveway access would require, quote 645 <br />“require secondary access point”. In a letter to Chuck Edwards on August 5th, this was sent prior to the meeting on 646 <br />August 5th so Matt Peach already knew about this when he presented it to us, “all traffic exiting the site headed north 647 <br />will have to turn left out of David Road” so to just go to what Mr. Blankfard said, the issue is not that traffic will be 648 <br />making a right onto Davis Road. We know that it won’t happen, very little, what the issue is, is that Davis Road will 649 <br />become a driveway for this facility, it will no longer be a public road, it will be an actual driveway for the facility. The 650 <br />website for this developer makes it clear they want access to I-40 so all the traffic coming out, 90% of the vehicle 651 <br />exiting will exit via Davis Road. They won’t exit via service road they’ll exit on their personal driveway which is not 652 <br />Davis Road. Mr. Peach said that acceptable levels of service on all approaches and note this 23.3 second delaying 653 <br />second per vehicle on Old 86 and Davis Road. 206 vehicles plus the existing 94 vehicles for a total of 300 vehicles 654 <br />will be headed east on Davis Road. That’s five vehicles per minute, 1 vehicle every 12 seconds. If you have a 23.3 655 <br />second delay that means you can only clear 2.58 vehicle per minute from that intersection or 155 vehicles per hour. 656 <br />That means at the end of that hour, 145 vehicles will be queued at that intersection. Even if it’s only, my estimate is it 657 <br />will be 960 trucks per day that means at the peak hour there will be 40 trucks, 1 truck every 1.5 minutes. That means 658 <br />20 trucks will be queued in the peak hour west of Old 86 on Davis Road, 20 trucks, if they are 72 feet long trucks, 659 <br />only 14 can fit if they are back to back on Davis Road. That means at least six trucks are going to back up into the 660 <br />facility. 661 <br /> 662 <br />Ron Sieber: This is Ron Sieber, I live on New Hope Springs Drive which is right off of Davis Road. I wanted to say 663 <br />just to begin that the RTLP anticipated traffic data is undercounted because it’s based on the Settler’s Point traffic as 664 <br />previously mentioned and that project is distinctly smaller in scale to RTLP. Therefore, RTLP’s data is deficient. 665 <br />RTLP has based their traffic data using minimal traffic specs for a largely unspecified end user but we already know 666 <br />that their touting having a warehouse when actually there might be more, we just don’t know at this point. The State 667 <br />Department of Transportation registered its concerns about traffic congestion in the general area of I-40 where it 668 <br />crosses over NC 86 and the questions that they had were about the westbound ramp, the eastbound ramp, traveling 669 <br />30