6.7.23 PB Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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331 Hollis Chatelain: I support schools, I support athletic fields, I support all of these different sports, but I don’t support them 332 being built here. One of the things that nobody has really mentioned is that the surrounding houses, all around this 333 enormous field, are still on the older wells. On Lawrence Road, there are still people who are still on the older, sixty-foot 334 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 335 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 336 for new wells. Nobody seems to be considering that. This is really a big problem. I am just really surprised that nobody 337 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 338 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 339 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 340 it is realistic for one of the only roads that go North/South through Hillsborough. If there were some sort of emergency at 341 the school or somewhere else around there, they could not get emergency vehicles in there. They could not get them to 342 the hospital which is south of there. I am against a facility like this in this spot and I ask that you vote no. 343 344 John Dempsey: The owner has already brought a request for rezoning for this parcel to the town of Hillsborough where it 345 was denied. It was found by the Mayor and the Town Board in keeping with Hillsborough’s future land use plans and 346 would not be in the long-term interest of Hillsborough’s businesses and residents. Their decision was informed by a 347 variety of Hillsborough’s town agencies. Being turned down by Hillsborough, the developer has come to Orange County 348 asking for conditional district rezoning for the same plan. You should be aware that if Orange County permits this 349 rezoning, then it will be triggering a recent North Carolina State Law that requires municipalities to provide water and 350 sewer services to charter schools if they have the capacity to do so. The Town of Hillsborough has been formally put on 351 notice by the developer to reserve water and sewer capacity for this development. If you rezone this parcel, then make 352 no doubt about it, at that point, neither Orange County nor the Town of Hillsborough, will have any say in the distribution 353 of Hillsborough’s water and sewer resources to this non-contiguous parcel. They will be forced to do so by state law. As 354 one town board member put it, “this will rip Hillsborough’s Comprehensive Sustainability Plan to shreds.” It should also 355 be noted that if Orange County decides to permit this rezoning request, that it will be breaking the WASMPBA planning 356 and boundary agreement signed by Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County. That agreement 357 ….signatories to growth management….resolve and preclude conflicts about future service areas and also provide 358 predictable planning and financing. Rezoning will also result in tax and service fee hikes for Hillsborough businesses and 359 residences over time. Without bringing any new tax revenue to the town regardless of who pays for the initial extension 360 of services, it is alarming to me that these costs to Hillsborough are not mentioned or addressed by the applicant or by 361 the Orange County Planning Department. At the last planning board meeting on April 5, Hillsborough’s mayor and a town 362 board representative, signed up for 3 minutes to address this board on these and other concerning issues with this 363 proposal. Three minutes, for the jurisdiction that would be held responsible for servicing this project, paying for the 364 consequences, and the jurisdiction that should be making these decisions. Please, listen to our town representatives and 365 vote unanimously to not recommend this rezoning proposal to the Orange County Board of Commissioners. 366 367 Margo Lakin: I’m for schools and ball fields and tennis courts and pickleball and skateboards and walking, what I’m 368 against is this spot zoning that will disenfranchise Hillsborough voters and compromise our water and sewer capacity. 369 We have been told that rezoning decisions are based on land use, not on traffic patterns, not on who will occupy the 370 development. This rezoning doesn’t promote Hillsborough’s future land use plan. It will rip the town’s comprehensive 371 sustainability plan to shreds. It doesn’t even support Orange County’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan that serves as a 372 guide to county growth and development through 2030. The rezoning will not efficiently use existing capacity, it will 373 create light, noise, and air pollution. I haven’t heard one mention of …ratings for buildings. It will destroy federally 374 recognized habitat for five protected species, it will threaten two watersheds, and compound the stress on the town’s 375 finite water and sewer capacity. There are eight planning principals in the 2030 plan that have been the foundation for 376 development, this proposal meets none of them. We heard that conditional zoning only allows for this project and no 377 variations but according to the planning department presentation, at the April 4 Board of County Commissioners 378 meeting, where another conditional rezoning proposal was voted on, we were told that conditional zoning does allow for 379 negotiation between applicant and staff or appointed board, or the elected body of Orange County. If rezoned, this 380 proposal could change and Hillsborough would not be part of those closed door decisions. We haven’t heard from the K-381 8 charter school proposal because it doesn’t exist. At the neighborhood information meeting, the developer failed to 382 mention that he is also the landowner. He told the room that the sports fields were place holder ideas only. Two weeks 383 ago, we heard for the first time in a public forum , that well and septic can now support this project and Hillsborough 384 Water and Sewer isn’t needed. So why was there an annexation request to Hillsborough in the first place? If rezoning is 385 11