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Approved 10.18.2023
<br /> 1 you. We would respectfully request your approval of the special use permit before you based on the evidence that
<br /> 2 you've heard that meets each of the requirements necessary to grant the special use permit. We remain available to
<br /> 3 answer questions and, again, can't express our thanks to you enough.
<br /> 4
<br /> 5 Leon Meyers: Thank you, Mr. Moffitt.
<br /> 6
<br /> 7 Patrick Mallett: So, Chair, I think we have one person that signed up that wishes to speak and is stating that they have
<br /> 8 established legal sufficiency to speak, so it's up to the Board's discretion who they want to allow to speak and establish
<br /> 9 that fact.
<br /> 10
<br /> 11 Leon Meyers: Mr. Pless, I believe. Mr. Pless, have you been sworn?
<br /> 12
<br /> 13 John Pless: Yes, sir, I have.
<br /> 14
<br /> 15 Leon Meyers: All right. Would you like to come forward? Just identify yourself when you come to the microphone,
<br /> 16 please.
<br /> 17
<br /> 18 John Pless: Yes, thank you, Chair Meyers, members of the Board of Adjustment, and county staff, and also The Nest,
<br /> 19 LLC, and et. al. My name is John Pless. I'm a property owner in Bingham Township. I am speaking to you tonight,
<br /> 20 regrettably, in opposition to the project as proposed. I say regrettably because I have attended a previous meeting in 1
<br /> 21 believe it was May. And I do believe that the intentions of the applicants are honorable, and I do expect that they are
<br /> 22 trying to do a good thing in our area. I do have several reservations which I wish to bring to the Board's attention. First
<br /> 23 and foremost, I'd like you to look at Exhibit B which they handed you tonight, and you can go to either Page 5 or 11 in
<br /> 24 that document. And you'll see a rending of the cabins, you know, either the single cabin or the double cabin, and you'll
<br /> 25 see an absence of a toilet. You'll see no such thing. Now, you do see that you do have a septic field adjacent to this
<br /> 26 area, but you don't see a toilet. You do, however, see a fireplace, and you see a straight flue going straight up through
<br /> 27 the roof. I understand that planning staff has a wastewater person who has a question about this. I hope that you will
<br /> 28 speak to that staff member before you render a decision on this. Personally, I live on the other side of Highway 54.
<br /> 29 And I'm, so although you, although water qualities of primary importance because this is adjacent to the reservoir. And
<br /> 30 that makes this, the bar for this is much higher. I think, I don't know if, I've been a resident of the county for—well, I've
<br /> 31 been living in the area since the 1970s, and the sacrifice that people in Bingham Township made to let the reservoir
<br /> 32 come in, the number of people who lost land and home sites was appreciable, and the cost to the county was
<br /> 33 remarkable and very high. And I think that we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the county forefathers, at that time,
<br /> 34 planned to have excellent water quality for Chapel Hill, for Carrboro, for surrounding areas, and really, we need to think
<br /> 35 always about water quality. I've seen in the last couple of years an erosion of possibilities. A trail that wants to come
<br /> 36 through the reservoir, and hikers' people, the Mountains to Sea Trail had tried to do that. And there are other entities
<br /> 37 who are just—we're seeing an erosion, and it is led, basically, by commercial interests. If you go to the corner where
<br /> 38 this property at Bevin Oaks Road and Highway 54, you have the Bingham School. It's an older establishment, was
<br /> 39 there before I got here. Got nothing to say about it. Next to it you have a brewery which is registered for tax purposes
<br /> 40 in the county as a farm. That's a farm. And then you have this proposed development which, while admirable in its
<br /> 41 goals, I think fails to meet the safety standards. If we have a fire in that area, even with a sprinkler system, which has
<br /> 42 been added since the neighborhood information meeting—no? There is no sprinkler system in the—
<br /> 43
<br /> 44 Bobby Tucker: No, it was there originally.
<br /> 45
<br /> 46 John Pless: It was there. Okay. All right, fine. Well, I stand corrected. I didn't know that there was a sprinkler system.
<br /> 47 That's good for the people inside those cabins, but it won't help people that are outside when sparks go up through a
<br /> 48 straight flue and get out into the and cause a fire immediately adjacent to your reservoir. If that were to happen, it
<br /> 49 would be catastrophic. I'd like to ask if the board has asked for an opinion from OWASA staff on this project at all.
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