110420 Virtual Planning Board Minutes

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Approved 1/6/21 447 conversation is centered on logistics. We could easily take Durham as a cautionary tale. More than half the land in 448 Durham is owned by people who do not live there. In fact,they do not even live in the state. That means residents do not 449 have ownership of their community and corporations with no connection other than deep pockets dictate the community's 450 future. I have weighed the potential for tax revenue and jobs, I have pondered alternative developments, based on other 451 Buc-ee's, I continue to conclude that this development will bring a cascade of impacts that will alter my life as a homeowner 452 in Efland for the next 40 years. If my neighborhood even remains residential for that long. Since there is no gas station of 453 this size in North Carolina,we unfortunately don't have a way to place a dollar sign on the negatives but once we degrade 454 the environment,we don't get it back. There is no way to know if my property value will be hurt by the diminished night sky, 455 noise and traffic or if this change will create a wave of land grabs that will gentrify the area causing our property taxes to go 456 up, not down, as some residents seem to think this would do. Both of those outcomes make me feel like my investment in 457 Orange County is being sacrificed. One thing I do know for certain is I did not sign up for this when I bought my home here 458 and I'm opposed to zoning for Efland Station. 459 460 Chris Smith: Hi folks, I am among the residents of Efland who received a letter informing me of the proposal to build Efland 461 Station since I live within 1000 feet of the parcels, it was required. The list of mixed uses sounded attractive though but 462 never having heard of a Buc-ee's, I started my research and it didn't take very long to get past their marketing language 463 and photos to begin reading assessments of their business and to realize the impact they will have on the Efland 464 community. I read how Denton, Texas eagerly accepted their Buc-ee's with incentives and open arms. Denton was locked 465 up in a legal battle over a tax valuation that Buc-ee's declared too high even after they promised many millions and more 466 before construction. I read about the town of Corinth where the local officials challenged Buc-ee's traffic assessments and 467 discovered that the totals to be greatly under-counted. Corinth's mayor wrote that a mixed-use development of similar size 468 made more tax revenue than a single Buc-ee's location. The promises Buc-ee's offered did not hold to scrutiny for the 469 Town of Corinth and they rejected the development. Buc-ee's promises quality jobs and touts their hourly wages and 470 benefits for entry-level workers and it is typical to argue with quarantine for more an hour. Again, it didn't take long to find 471 hundreds of job reviews across multiple platforms detailing why$14 an hour from Buc-ee's isn't worth it. I wondered what 472 the environmental impacts are living close to a gas station built for the informal Texas credo of bigger is better, I read peer 473 review research about the many trade-offs associated with our carbon bound habits. Gasoline and cancer causing 474 benzene in the air and ground water escaping through methods by which corporate environmental engineers are unaware 475 or overlooked. What does Efland get for playing host to 25,000 daily vehicle movements? All of the so called 476 improvements make the travel center work but don't solve any problems or concerns for Efland. We get to endure a host of 477 traffic headaches created so that all roads will lead to Buc-ee's. We'll be the ones looking up every night at a cartoon 478 beaver that's at least 20 feet taller than regulations because it's good for business. Me in my home and on my own 479 property will breathe the stale air of hot gas pumps and car fumes in the summer and listen to the constant drone of 480 engines through their fence called a wall at the last meeting and 30 feet short of regulation buffer in the winter. For these 481 reasons and more detailed at Voices4Efland.com I oppose the request for the Master Plan Conditional Zoning and the 482 effective removal of the Efland community from a decade's long planning process. Development begets development until 483 Efland residents new and old will find themselves run out or bought out. Buc-ee's promises to make good money,traveler's 484 stopping by are sure to marvel at the stuffed beaver toys and clean bathrooms but if they less than a thousand away from 485 the oasis of consumption and disregard for the future they'll find me living less well than I did before Buc-ee's came to 486 Efland, assuming that the future of economic development around me won't impact my ability to live here. 487 488 Patricia O'Connor: Hi, I live in Mebane off West Ten Road approximately 3 miles from the proposed Buc-ee's development. 489 First, I will offer that I am not opposed to development. It's necessary for a community to survive and thrive and I'm not 490 naive enough to think that things will stay the same because I want them to but development should be thoughtful. 491 Something that will enhance and add real value to the lives of the citizens in the community where it resides. Point one, 492 while Buc-ee's could provide about 175 jobs, I believe the overall impact of the project would be negative. From that 175 493 subtract the number of people in the community who might lose their jobs and livelihoods because they can't compete with 494 the giant. The small businesses who could be put out of business. It's hard to predict right now who those will be but there 495 are sure to be causalities. Number 2,the environmental impact will be enormous,you can't add that much impervious 496 surface to an area that borders a watershed without creating conditions for potential contamination. A single gallon of 497 gasoline could contaminate 750 thousand gallons of water. The dribs and drabs dropping onto the concrete surface from 498 refueling or spillage during filling the underground tanks is enough. Never mind the catastrophic breach of one of those 499 tanks. How much would it cost to provide another water source for Hillsborough if the water was contaminated and who 500 would foot the bill. You can bet it won't be Buc-ee's. Other than the 10 EV charging stations mandated by current MPD-CZ 501 standards, there is nothing green about the project. No mention of green building materials or use of solar panels. Does 502 Buc-ee's have a written working environmental policy in place? Does the policy strive to make important improvements in