110420 Virtual Planning Board Minutes

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Approved 1/6/21 727 are killed by automobiles and crossing an interstate is nearly impossible without some help from humans. Wildlife 728 underpasses work but there are none in Orange County. You may think that box turtles in Orange County are doing fine 729 but we are not. While there are adult turtles around and it is possible to see us crossing county roads, many of us have 730 been killed and our population is in decline. Where will I go if you pave over my home. I am a North Carolina species of 731 concern. I am a Marble Salamander, North Carolina's state salamander one of two state amphibians. I am a member of 732 the Mole Salamander family and our family is called mole because all of the mole salamanders spend most of our lives 733 underground. As fall begins and I move towards what will become a body of water when the fall rains fall, I find a mate and 734 then I lay as many as 100 eggs that are about the size of BBs. I wrap my body and my tail around the eggs as we lay 735 quietly under a log or rock and I stay with my eggs until the rains arrive. I do not live as long as the box turtle but then 736 neither do you. Unless you drive country road carefully and fall rains at night then you may never have seen me but I am 737 there. I am there and other mole salamanders like the spotted salamanders are there too. The spotted salamanders are 738 spring breeders and they spend one month above ground in temporary bodies of water, shallow pools without fish. In just 739 the last few months, scientist realized that we glow in the dark. My brilliant black and silver colors change to orange and 740 green with a blue light and a yellow filter you can see the miracle too. There are so many more things that humans don't 741 know yet about us and may not have a chance to uncover. Where will you go if you pave over our landscape. I speak for 742 the reptiles and amphibians. 743 744 David Blankfard: Does the applicant want to add any response to what the citizens have said? 745 746 Stan Beard: We appreciate the passion and we respect everyone's stance. We get it. I want to make some things clear. 1 747 will say that we've never been compared to BP nor the City of Los Angeles so those are a couple of first for us. I want to 748 reiterate what we are and what we are not. Folks saying they are not opposed to responsible growth. We offer to this 100- 749 acre tract that is alongside Interstate 40/85 an opportunity for the area to experience the Phase 2 which I need to clarify that 750 my answer the other night was that the completion of Phase 2 would take 5 to 8 years. We absolutely will have the uses, 751 the hotels, the sit down restaurants, the banks, the neighborhood retail that we have said we would bring. You can look at 752 other areas where we have developed and you will see those same people. We have done this before. I would implore the 753 folks to actually read the articles that are referred to on the Voices of Efland website. I would argue that that every single 754 one of those articles is actually a pretty good representation of who we are. There is some very misguided ideas out there. 755 1 would also implore you to read the planning documents. There is a traffic study, there is a traffic letter from NCDOT, 756 Chuck Edwards, the man that Mr. Cates spoke to. He wrote the letter, please read that. The environmental report is in 757 there. We are not in a protected watershed we have absolutely every reason in the world to protect everything around us. 758 We do not want to be BP in that arena so we understand the community and we want to be part of it. We have a history of 759 being part of communities and so I just want to thank everybody for showing up. 760 761 David Blankfard: Does anybody have anything to add? I have one in that I would like to add that the hotel would have 762 interior hallways and that the guest rooms don't open to the outside. 763 764 Stan Beard: Agreed. 765 766 Kim Piracci: Have you thought about putting solar panels on the top of your building? 767 768 David Blankfard: It's in the write-up. 769 770 Beth Trahos: We are allowed to do that as a part of our document, also,water reuse is mentioned in the document as well. 771 772 Stan Beard: Actually, Buc-ee's is going to be building its first rainwater reclamation system for our aeration system here. 773 We encourage solar panels,we run into on our buildings because they are pretty highly structurally odd and we don't want 774 to put an extra burden on top of them but we encourage solar panel and solar arrays throughout the rest of the 775 development. 776 777 David Blankfard: Have you looked into whether the building is LEED or well certified? 778 779 Stan Beard: It is in our best interest to have the most efficient building possible. LEED really doesn't work for us in a sense, 780 we incorporate many LEED certified systems within our buildings but we will not be a LEED certified building. 781