|
tournaments and ongoing leagues. That is another issue in this tight area. As one of the members of the public said, 220
<br />“They are trying to pack an elephant into a closet here.” Those are the reasons why I am opposing this. 221
<br /> 222
<br />Elizabeth Kalies: I am also new to the board and not even sure if I am supposed to say something here about how I feel 223
<br />about this, but I am happy to. I have been very torn the whole time as well and agree that there are some good things 224
<br />about this plan. It could be the wrong spot. Every time someone speaks, they nearly change my mind again but what I 225
<br />keep going back to is that the town of Hillsborough, the mayor, and the planning board were all of the same opinion that 226
<br />they do not approve the plan, so I am going to trust local judgment on this. 227
<br /> 228
<br />Delores Bailey: Good evening, great notes from last time, thank you for sending those to me. I listened and read all of 229
<br />what we went through last time. I thought it was a very thorough discussion of this project. I am going to not agree. I do 230
<br />not like the project. My main cause is the Hillsborough board coming to us and explaining to us that it did not fit into what 231
<br />they were planning. That troubles me. The piece about the water still bothers me. Where are you going to get the water 232
<br />from? You don’t need the water; it can be wells…that concerns me. One of the comments from the notes that I read that 233
<br />there were plans on here for a lower school but that’s not what we are voting on. We are voting on the high school and 234
<br />the lower school is going to get rolled into whatever happens. I believe there was a question about whether we get to talk 235
<br />about the lower school and the answer was “no, we don’t get to talk about the lower school.” For those reasons, that’s 236
<br />unclear to me, and I don’t think that’s a correct way to present this. I’d like to know that we could discuss the lower 237
<br />school and what’s going to happen after the high school gets put there. My vote at this time would be no. 238
<br /> 239
<br />Whitney Watson: I sort of started this off last time we met, asking us to consider the community and rural character of 240
<br />that area. That is one of the land use goals, it’s number 3. We are supposed to consider whether this preserves that 241
<br />character or not, whether it minimizes land use conflicts and is supported by an efficient and balanced transportation 242
<br />system. I think what we’ve heard is that, yes, it would become a destination, but it becomes a destination for 243
<br />automobiles. There’s not a transportation system that the average member of the county could avail themselves of to get 244
<br />to this site. There’s no bus route or bus stops there. I think the important part is the community and rural character of that 245
<br />area. I did take the time to drive around through that. It is fields, rural. Yes, it’s dense, there are a lot of homes in that 246
<br />area. If this property were to be developed into more residential areas as I think Cy sort of proposed last week, that it 247
<br />might be somewhere around 50-60 residences that could be placed on this property, once you took out for roads, 248
<br />utilities, and easements and so on, that still would not change the character of that community. I think that’s an important 249
<br />consideration as we go forward. The other way I looked at that is, had the community developed up against an existing 250
<br />site with the kinds of recreational activities and school opportunities, we would probably not be concerned at all about it 251
<br />closing in on this site. The fact that we are now talking about the other way of inserting an area of activity of a kind of 252
<br />development, into an area that already has its existing character I think is the wrong way to go about it. 253
<br /> 254
<br />Steve Kaufmann: It's been a very difficult choice for me also because I have been a public school teacher for many 255
<br />years, and I actually worked at a charter school too. I work in the PE department at Duke now, so I am very athletic. I 256
<br />love the idea of ballfields; I love the idea of tennis but that’s not what is in question here. It’s the neighborhood, and I 257
<br />drove around it several times last week and it’s like what most people on this board have said already, “why here?” It’s a 258
<br />great plan, it looks great on paper. If I were living in a major city and they proposed this plan, it would look wonderful, but 259
<br />we have many more opportunities in this county to do something like this and I hope it gets done. As many of you have 260
<br />said, this isn’t quite the right place for this project. So, I will be voting against it. 261
<br /> 262
<br />Statler Gilfillen: I have spent a tremendous amount of time since the last meeting trying to reach out to both sides. I met 263
<br />with Jim; he made a comment that surprised me. He said that nobody has bothered to contact him directly. I spent 264
<br />several hours with someone who could not be today but was very outspoken against this development. I am your Eno 265
<br />representative. I take this personally and it is difficult for me. I believe that Jim, as a developer, has done everything 266
<br />possible to try to reach out and work with both sides. That meeting that I tried to arrange this week, never happened, I’m 267
<br />sorry for that. I am still very mixed in many ways. When I look at the state regulations of what our jurisdiction covers, and 268
<br />what this requires, the Town of Hillsborough’s disagreement is not based upon the current laws that they have 269
<br />presented. That’s part of the problem I have. If they were objecting under the new reformed laws that are proposed, that 270
<br />would be one thing, but they are not. If you were a judge sitting on the bench, you are bound by the laws as they are. I’m 271
<br />not happy with this but I can’t see a physical reason to say no to this proposal. I can raise that there are many issues if I 272
<br />were homeowners and I think that Mr. Parker is open at least from discussions with him, to deal with that. One of them 273
<br />that concerned me that was raised at the last meeting; if the town does not provide water and he puts a well in, and that 274
<br />39
|