Agenda - 05-04-2021; 8-a - Minutes

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3 1 As a member of a Voice for Efland/Orange I am holding each of you responsible for behaving in 2 an ecologically sane manner. While we collectively stopped Buc-ees, another massive 3 development crept in. While we do not expect to deconstruct Medline, we do expect Medline to 4 work with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation to protect what remain of the acres not covered 5 in concrete. 6 7 We are opposed to the development in the Buckhorn Area Plan. You must decide is it 30% or 8 50% of Orange County lands that will be preserved. Thank you. 9 10 Fiona Johann read the following statement: 11 Hello, I'm Fiona Johann and I've been an orange county resident for 20 years. I want to start by 12 thanking our BOCC and staff for meeting with the Mebane City Council in reference to the 13 Buckhorn Area Plan in March. I am excited to see what kind of strategic planning will come from 14 these two groups joining together to work on this important topic. 15 16 In regards to the Buckhorn Area Plan I want to focus a bit on Gravelly Middle School. Gravelly 17 Middle School serves Mebane residents who also live in Orange county, which is geographically 18 half of Mebane. Gravelly Middle school currently serves 485 6-8 graders. Those middle 19 schooler's are already surrounded on two sides by Medline and the highway. The Buckhorn 20 Area Plan proposes surrounding the school and soccer fields by even more industrial builds. 21 Every other middle school in Orange County is surrounded by residential housing, other schools 22 and nature. What message are we sending to our middle schoolers and their parents by 23 surrounding their school by industrial development? What will that do to their mental and 24 physical health? 25 26 We know that children benefit from being surrounded by nature. This isn't news to anyone, in 27 fact in 2003 Nancy Wells an environmental psychologist and Gary Evans an environmental and 28 developmental psychologist co-published the following findings, "In a rural setting, levels of 29 nearby nature moderate the impact of stressful life events on the psychological well-being of 30 children. Specifically, the impact of life stress was lower among children with high levels of 31 nearby nature than among those with little nearby nature." (Wells, Evans, 2003) How can we 32 know something and have it proven by science and still decide that industrial builds near a 33 school are the good option? 34 35 Not only am I concerned for the children's mental health but also their physical health. The 36 traffic on west Ten will turn to primarily 18 wheelers coming from Medline and the approved Al 37 Neyer distribution center. Isn't that enough risk? Do we really need to add more 18 wheelers to 38 the area and trust that it will just "work out?" There is the risk of accidents but let us not forget 39 the emissions that will come from these vehicles as they break, park, ideal and start in an area 40 so close to the school. Children participate in sports on the middle school complex and soccer 41 fields, are we really okay with putting them in a situation of breathing in even more diesel fumes 42 while breathing heavily for extended periods of time? At least now there are a lot of trees in the 43 area to help absorb emissions, what happens when we cut down our nature provided filters to 44 create even more air, sound and water pollution? 45 46 You all know I have multiple problems with the Buckhorn Area plan, but today I am focusing on 47 the children that live here. We are hurting their futures in more way than one by extending the 48 industrial development area. They will lose nature around their school, in the area they live and 49 also be more prone to long term mental and physical health problems if you continue to expand 50 economic development districts into a historically rural residential and agricultural area. Let us 51 live up to the expectations of our community and do better.