Agenda - 06-06-2023; 5-b - Zoning Atlas Amendment MA22-0004 – Parcel Located off Lawrence Road and US 70A, in Eno Township

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173 DRAFT 275 There is a significant lack of baseball, softball fields and tennis and pickleball courts in the area as you have heard from 276 many people tonight.That's why this project has such strong support from the Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association 277 and the Orange Tennis Club.Youth participating in HYAA play at 3 fields, one, Collin's Field,will no longer be available 278 once the development of that site begins. Local tennis and pickleball players have expressed concerns about the courts 279 in the area.They are limited to just three courts. Tennis players must travel to Durham and Chapel Hill when they play, 280 supporting businesses elsewhere.While there will always be traffic fears with any new development, the developers plan 281 improvements in the intersections and with the construction of turn lanes at both entrances to the school and the 282 school's bussing plan will help alleviate those concerns. Something Mayor Weaver said at the last meeting struck me, 283 she noted that many proposals for this property had been made over the past 15 years, and all had been denied. Our 284 area youth will be served in many positive, life-changing ways for decades to come by these proposed charter schools 285 and athletic fields. It's time that a project that meets the guidelines of the LIDO and the comprehensive plan is approved. 286 The Chamber Board of Directors hopes the plan will be approved. 287 288 Steve Kirby: I am the boy's and girl's high school tennis coach at Eno River Academy and a parent of kids who like to 289 play tennis. I am speaking in favor of the proposed rezoning request because the kids need more accessible tennis 290 courts,as we've heard. Our tennis teams are young having just started playing in the fall if 2021 but interest in them has 291 been growing.We don't have enough places to play tennis.We have difficulty renting a space to have practices and to 292 play our matches. The only ones in the area are rented by a middle school in Durham because they lack courts as well. 293 Our athletic director has been able to rent courts at Moreene Road Park but we are only able to do so before school gets 294 out. It is interesting to note that when we have home tennis matches, the kids miss their entire last class,which makes it 295 difficult for us to get parental approval and the kids end up leaving school earlier for home matches than they do for 296 away matches. Matches regularly go for two and a half to three hours so we bump up against the 6 o'clock deadline, 297 even with the three o'clock start. Three weeks ago,when we had a tennis match it bumped right up against it and we 298 had to beg the tennis leagues to let us finish playing our high school tennis matches. They kicked us off and we had to 299 beg them to let us play a match point.The earlier afternoon matches aren't accessible to us. Some schools such as 300 Orange High, Cedar Ridge and Graham,won't play us at our courts because it means their kids get out of school too 301 early,so we have to play at their courts. The problem with that is the distance of travel. It's a tough call for parents to 302 make to say twenty minutes each direction is what we will have to travel to practices every day and for matches.With 303 other sports, it's right there at school. It also impacts our ability to have a thriving middle school program because they 304 involve courts too. So,we are facing competition not just from other Durham schools but from our own middle schools 305 and we can't get middle schools to have tennis programs because they don't have a place to put them. Tennis is a great 306 sport;we love it and we want a place to play and that is why you should vote for this proposal. 307 308 Hollis Chatelain: I support schools, I support athletic fields, I support all of these different sports, but I don't support them 309 being built here. One of the things that nobody has really mentioned is that the surrounding houses, all around this 310 enormous field, are still on the older wells. On Lawrence Road,there are still people who are still on the older, sixty-foot 311 wells.When we don't get a whole lot of water,those well have a risk of drying up.This field could take a lot of the water 312 from all of these houses that are on these older wells.A lot of these people are lower income people,who is going to pay 313 for new wells. Nobody seems to be considering that. This is really a big problem. I am just really surprised that nobody 314 has said anything about that. One of the things that they said and the next thing I would like to mention is the traffic. One 315 of the things that they have said is that there were 4,500 cars that went on Lawrence Rd. in February of 2021. This was 316 during lockdown. I live on Lawrence Rd.there are so many more cars when we were not in Covid and now. I do not think 317 it is realistic for one of the only roads that go North/South through Hillsborough. If there were some sort of emergency at 318 the school or somewhere else around there,they could not get emergency vehicles in there. They could not get them to 319 the hospital which is south of there. I am against a facility like this in this spot and I ask that you vote no. 320 321 John Dempsey:The owner has already brought a request for rezoning for this parcel to the town of Hillsborough where it 322 was denied. It was found by the Mayor and the Town Board in keeping with Hillsborough's future land use plans and 323 would not be in the long-term interest of Hillsborough's businesses and residents.Their decision was informed by a 324 variety of Hillsborough's town agencies. Being turned down by Hillsborough,the developer has come to Orange County 325 asking for conditional district rezoning for the same plan.You should be aware that if Orange County permits this 326 rezoning, then it will be triggering a recent North Carolina State Law that requires municipalities to provide water and 327 sewer services to charter schools if they have the capacity to do so. The Town of Hillsborough has been formally put on 328 notice by the developer to reserve water and sewer capacity for this development. If you rezone this parcel,then make 329 no doubt about it, at that point, neither Orange County nor the Town of Hillsborough, will have any say in the distribution