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Approved 9/2/2020
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<br />needs and our values. I would also remind everyone not to put the cart before the horse, until the issue of 894
<br />improvements on Churton Street and Old NC 86 are addressed, further development around this outdated artery 895
<br />should not be approved. I want to thank you for your time and the consideration of all the points we are making here 896
<br />tonight. 897
<br /> 898
<br />Matthew Kostura: I just want to sum up a little bit what has been said so far. I also want to start at the top with jobs. 899
<br />We had a really nice pitch at the beginning of there, it was a pitch, it was designed to be a pitch, its marketing. The 900
<br />number thrown out for you guys to consider is 4500 jobs. Seriously, you guys just approved, recently a development 901
<br />on West Ten Road that is very similar to this one. That’s for the medical device distribution center. 150 jobs for 1.5 902
<br />million sq. ft. that’s about what you’re going to be getting here x 2 ½ maybe so figure 450 so what this is all about 903
<br />really is tax revenue, you know that, I think everybody else does. So, as the last speaker said there’s other ways to 904
<br />skin this cat and you can get your tax revenue with better development. Something that is more compatible with this 905
<br />area. As far as the kind of development going in, again, as has been mentioned, they are using the code, they’re 906
<br />telling you what’s going to go in here and it’s LUC150. That’s a warehouse; it’s not going to be an office. It’s 907
<br />warehouse so your impact is traffic, it’s trucks and you have to worry about trucks. How many trucks in and out? 908
<br />Bob Bundschuh has basically said about 1000 minimum per day. That’s a lot of trucks and they all come out on 909
<br />Davis Road by the way every last one. Thirdly is I want to bring up something about Christa Greene, she made a 910
<br />comment about the traffic impact on Davis is going to be minimal. Certainly, at the head that’s going to be true. 911
<br />When they did their traffic modeling what they did not do was include the biggest driver of traffic gain on that road in 912
<br />the last 10 years or so and that’s the school complex over on Grady Brown. All that traffic is being built up there is 913
<br />going to school. It was not modeled, at all, into their models so that’s not included, it’s a lot of traffic. Finally, I want 914
<br />to point out that Davis Road has been mentioned, Craig Benedict called it a collector road. That’s what it’s viewed as 915
<br />by NCDOT. But basically, past Ode Turner where they have another counting station, it’s about an annual average 916
<br />1000 daily trips. You count the number of houses on Davis Road, the ones that access it from Tree Farm, that’s 917
<br />roughly 200 homes by 2 cars by 2 trips a day. Virtually every trip on Davis Road comes out of these development 918
<br />and these homes. There is no through traffic here, it’s very minimal. So, what you’re asking now is to put a lot of 919
<br />through traffic on it. Adam Beeman is going to sit there and say no, no, no; no truck driver is going to make a right 920
<br />hand turn, fine. We had Michael Birch say they’d be willing to put a sign up that say no right turn for trucks out of the 921
<br />development. Take him up on the offer, put that sign up and while you’re at it put a sign up that says no right turn on 922
<br />Old 86 either. You guys are pitching this all about 3000 linear feet of road, well keep the trucks there. Thank you 923
<br />very much. 924
<br /> 925
<br />Gerald Scarlett: This is Gerald Scarlett, I’ll make this as brief as possible. I live on West Scarlett Mountain, which is 926
<br />30 feet south of the Davis Road intersection. I have been here for 65 years, which is my entire life. I’d like to make 2 927
<br />points as quickly as possible, although I have 100s. Number one is the Rural Buffer, it makes no sense to be able to 928
<br />stand in a Rural Buffer and move 6 inches north and now I’m in an industrial park. In most places there’s a physical 929
<br />soft approach to these types of divides and not just a line on a map. There is none of that here. If you approve this 930
<br />then you should change the name of the Rural Buffer to just Buffer because that’s what it is. It is nothing more than a 931
<br />compression point between Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and 2 interstate systems. We have been involuntarily 932
<br />drafted into perpetual service to provide guard duty to for the rest of the County and yet we still pay the same tax 933
<br />rates as other outside the buffer who actually get to enjoy some of the rural setting that we no longer have. Point 934
<br />number 2, we’re talking about potentially 100s of trucks that have to drive through part of the Rural Buffer and each 935
<br />one of those has got to stop and start somewhere between 6 and 24 times to enter and leave the Hillsborough area 936
<br />leaving a trail of exhaust each time. I believe in a recent past budget cycle Orange County set aside half a million 937
<br />dollars of taxpayer money to “fight climate change and global warming” this proposal seems counterproductive to the 938
<br />stated goals bordering on being hypocritical. I’ve always found the easiest and cheapest solution to a problem is just 939
<br />don’t create it to start with. Also understand, as previously stated there is a daycare within 100 yards of 4 to 6 of 940
<br />those stop and starts in addition to all the kids living in the immediate vicinity. On a personal note, I’ll tell you that my 941
<br />38-year-old son who lives here is right in intensive care in Chapel Hill. He had surgery yesterday to remove infection 942
<br />from in and around his lungs, likely caused by aspergillus and other unknown environmental factors. You should 943
<br />google aspergillus or look it up on the CDC website. In the next couple of days they’ll likely operate again to remove 944
<br />2/3rd of one of his lungs because it’s been damaged by the infection. There are a lot of factors in his current 945
<br />condition but I will for the rest of my life wonder what part interstate 40 has played in this. Interstate 40 is on my 946
<br />property or what used to be my property, I hear the roar of traffic spewing exhaust 24/7 so the question is, are you 947
<br />willing to gamble with the futures of these kids to attain an increased tax base and jobs neither of which do I ever 948
<br />believe will every come to fruition in the levels that you’re being led to believe. In closing, I’ll say this, in the course of 949
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