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D R A F T and natural resources that we enjoy out here. I really appreciate being able to do country living out here for the last 35 337 years. We’ve seen a lot of change during that time but this is a lot of change that is happening very fast. In addition to the 338 Pyewacket, there is also Morgan’s Ridge which is adding another close to 50 houses so we basically have a small city 339 mushrooming out here near our quiet rural area. It’s kind of a concern in the fact that they have to supply water to all of 340 these homes both in Pyewacket and Morgan’s Ridge which is a big draw on the existing ground water. I am not a 341 hydrologist and I don’t propose that I understood the reports that I was reading, but for what I read, it seems like there is 342 not actually an aquifer in this part of Orange County. In terms of well yields, this is one of the parts of the County where 343 the well yields are the lowest and that is because of the rock formations underground, you’re not actually tapping into an 344 aquifer, you are getting cracks in the rock. The further down you go, you don’t necessarily hit more water because the 345 weight of the ground compresses the crack so there are fewer cracks. The small yield wells that we have which most of 346 my neighbors also deal with on a daily basis, drilling deeper doesn’t necessarily help you. The most recent neighbor who 347 drilled a well had to go 700 feet and it was a very expensive endeavor. I don’t know how much more water they are 348 getting out of it but I think it’s the geology of this part of the County. One of the things that I requested in my brief 349 comments, was hopefully someone from the North Carolina ground water state agencies could come in and answer 350 questions for us or provide us with data from some of the monitoring wells there in Orange County. The maps that I 351 looked at did not seem to have any wells that were very close to here but in the statistics it did have there is a lot of 352 variability in wells in Orange County. In the summer and winter you really start to panic about if there is going to be 353 enough water. 354 355 Helen Booher: I live on Jones Ferry Road not too far down from the intersection with Ferguson and I’ll second everything 356 that Lucy said with the wells. We’ve had our wells run dry lots of times during the summer and we’ve been told that this 357 area of Orange County and over into Chatham is just kind of how it is. I’m concerned that with the number of houses that’s 358 proposed for this development that houses really would need to conserve water and how do you get that number of 359 households to work together and do that? I think that we’ll be drilling all over the place trying to find enough water for that 360 number of households. Also, traffic is a big concern with everyone commuting in the morning over the University Lake, I 361 think traffic is going to get very backed up. Also, as mentioned before, the section of Jones Ferry Road this is at is a very 362 straight section so it’s the first straight stretch of road and people really speed up right at this part of the road. That’s going 363 to be a dangerous situation for having more cars entering on and off the road here. People use Jones Ferry to bike a lot 364 there on a curvy road with more traffic, I think that is going to be a dangerous situation as well. 365 366 Warren Mitchell I think that most of the issues have to do with water and traffic and I am going to work on both of those 367 and talk to NCDOT regarding Jones Ferry and what can be done. It is an existing problem and people are speeding up 368 there. I don’t have any thoughts about it at this time. 369 370 David Blankfard: Do they have to have a traffic study? 371 372 Molly Boyle: That’s going to be up to NCDOT to determine. Attachment 6 is the ITE Trip Generation data. They haven’t 373 fully submitted to NCDOT yet. Mr. Mitchell was waiting to see if the Concept Plan was feasible before moving forward with 374 the cost associated with applying with NCDOT. It is possible based on the Trip Generation data that they will required to 375 have a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) but I’m not sure yet. I did talk to Jennifer Britt who is the Assistant District Engineer 376 for Highway Division 8, District 1 which is the one that oversees Chatham County and she is aware of the project. She 377 saw the ITE Trip Generation Report and she’s seen the Concept Plan but they are still reviewing. They haven’t gotten the 378 formal submittal yet in order to determine if a TIA is required but it is possible. If that is required, then NCDOT review and 379 approval would be required as part of the Preliminary Plat, not the acceptance of it but their review would be part of the 380 Preliminary Plat that would come before you next time. 381 382 Charity Kirk: What realistically, can we do? I appreciated Lucy’s acquifer/not really aquifer status so I would find it helpful 383 to me to know more about the water status for the area. Can this be postponed until Morgan Ridge is further along? Right 384 now there are 50 houses going in and now we are going to be bumping it up to 150 houses in a pretty non dense area so 385 what realistically can we do at as a Board right now? Is that to approve it we would like this in the future or what can we 386 do? 387 388 Michael Harvey: So I think that the straightforward answer is you can ask the applicant if they are willing to delay. In my 389 opinion, you are being asked to approve what would normally have been an exempt subdivision in Orange County and the 390 only reason you are reviewing it at all is because, as Molly has already pointed out and as detailed in your abstract, is 391 13