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<br />Chris Johnston: I have a follow up question about the tennis facility. I understood from the documents that it was going to 112
<br />be a pro-shop or clubhouse, but I also saw recently in one of the narratives that it was going to be indoor tennis courts so 113
<br />could you be clear what that structure is going to be? 114
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<br />James Parker: The structure is sized like it is on the plan to allow different uses internally that could be accommodated 116
<br />there. Basketball courts, indoor tennis courts, volleyball courts, anything indoor recreation that could be in there and 117
<br />certainly a pro-shop could be in there as well. It is a building that could house all or some of those items. 118
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<br />Melissa Poole: I don’t have a question but I would like to address the board. I’ve been on the planning board for 5 years 120
<br />now. I’ve heard presentations, everyone imaginable, UDO updates, commercial development, residential development, 121
<br />never in my memory has a project come before us that benefitted across the entire county. The majority of projects 122
<br />brought before us during my time, have been residential developments. Most of the time, those residences have been 123
<br />classified as single-family homes, usually anticipating buyers with children. Families buying homes in Orange County are 124
<br />going to look for extracurricular activities for their kids and with this project, there are a number of options clustered 125
<br />together in one space. With regards to HYAA, they are likely to lose 4 fields due to the town’s train station project. The 126
<br />contract with the town only gives them a 60-day notice when they are going to lose their fields. For the district I 127
<br />represent, I don’t know many people who have not or do not have children involved in HYAA and they have been for 128
<br />years. Some of whom are still involved even though their kids have aged out. Since 2020 they have provided $12,000 in 129
<br />scholarships to children. There are currently hundreds of children signed up and there are waiting lists. I think it is 130
<br />reasonable to infer that with additional residential development in Orange County, the numbers for HYAA and waiting 131
<br />lists due to lack of space will only increase going forward. I apologize to the tennis club; I am admittedly more familiar 132
<br />with HYAA than I am with tennis. I would imagine that their struggles are going to be the same. HYAA has players from 133
<br />Orange, Person, Chatham, and Alamance Counties. That is 3 other counties coming to Orange County and likely 134
<br />spending money in Orange County. I think that investment in the space for them, giving them the zoning to build their 135
<br />fields, is an investment for our county. They have almost 1,000 players per year coming through. The project meets the 136
<br />mission, particularly the ball fields, providing space that reduces the town financial impact of purchasing and 137
<br />maintenance of athletic and park space. The wells versus water/sewer, I know we have discussed that ad nauseum, but 138
<br />I’ve never sat up here and had a project where they had multiple options. Usually, we only hear county proposals and 139
<br />that is strictly well and septic. The state does have a mandate for provision of water and sewer to public schools. If our 140
<br />ultimate concern is the resident’s wells, then I would encourage the developer to pursue the state mandated provision of 141
<br />water and sewer. The other discussion has been around what was presented in our first meeting being the letter that 142
<br />was presented and entered into the record. This still bothers me as what is referenced is their proposed plan, their draft 143
<br />plan, which we cannot consider because it is not legislation. It has not passed, therefore shouldn’t bear on any decision 144
<br />made by us. Regarding traffic, As a parent, I’ve made clear that I have children in charter schools, our charter school has 145
<br />one entrance, in and out, onto Hwy. 57 and we don’t block traffic. There are no busses at our school. This charter school 146
<br />is proposing busses. That is going to reduce traffic compared to what some of the other charter schools in the county 147
<br />have. I would urge that we pass this on and advance it to the BOCC. 148
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<br />Chris Johnston: I’m new to this board, this is my first foray into this, so I appreciate everyone bearing with me on this. I 150
<br />think, and I am only speaking for myself here, that if this were a presentation for athletics fields and only for athletics 151
<br />fields, that we would have been done on April 3rd. I don’t think anyone here disagrees that we need additional athletics 152
<br />fields and that we need them badly. It is outrageous that we have to go other counties for that sort of thing, tennis 153
<br />players, pickleball players, whatever you may be. I think the question that we are all wrestling with up here is dealing with 154
<br />our mandate of following the planning board thing of considering all the things that we can’t consider…right? We can’t 155
<br />consider the water considerations; we can only consider the plans as they are. We have to consider the WASAMPBA 156
<br />participation as it currently is, we can’t consider the traffic, we can’t consider a number of things. Charter school versus 157
<br />public school versus private school, it’s a school. But at the same time, we do have other considerations as well. We are 158
<br />neighbors with the folks of Hillsborough and the folks of Hillsborough have elected representatives and those 159
<br />representatives have submitted that letter that said they were against this particular development for whatever reasons 160
<br />they have. So, I am struggling a lot with this one just because of all the things we can’t consider. I think we really need 161
<br />the athletic fields, I think those are really important, I don’t know, we had a…..Cy, are you here? In regard to the school 162
<br />and the need that was mentioned, in regards to needs for schooling in this area, in terms of attendance and what our 163
<br />future growth is and that sort of thing… 164
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