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121 <br /> Hill parcels along Millhouse Rd for which there has been some discussion of development into <br /> storage facilities.2 The new road would add some 55,000 square feet of impervious surface, <br /> creating another crossing over Old Field Creek and through its riparian buffer, through what has <br /> been identified as an important wildlife corridor. <br /> Uncertain Value due to Uncertain Plans <br /> These considerable costs, both financial and environmental, would be of value only if two <br /> yet-uncertain things come to pass: the County must bring about its yet-to-be designed <br /> development, and the location of the current access road must turn out to be problematic for <br /> that development. The value gained from the considerable road-building costs is therefore <br /> speculative. <br /> The County has owned the bulk of the property since 2004, with the purchase of all of these <br /> neighboring parcels as part of its Lands Legacy Program. The purpose and mission of this <br /> program is to "protect and conserve the county's most important natural and cultural resource <br /> lands before they are damaged or destroyed." Under this program, these particular parcels were <br /> purchased in order to serve as a "Future park with farmstead and natural heritage area." Over <br /> the last twenty years, the County's plans for these lands have changed but the land remained <br /> undeveloped. By 2014, the County published its aims to develop the land into "lighted playing <br /> fields" and to possibly include an indoor recreation center (Parks and Recreation Master Plan, <br /> 3-22). In 2018, the County was looking into investigating its options for rezoning these parcels to <br /> Home Park Conditional Zoning (HP-CZ) to allow for a 34-unit mobile home park to expand <br /> affordable housing (see BOCC meetings here, and here, and the feasibility study here).3 My <br /> understanding is that the County currently has aspirations to build as many of eight soccer <br /> fields,4 ideally with artificial turf, lighting, parking and associated amenities. <br /> The Special Use Permit for this project has yet to be obtained. By the County's own projected <br /> timelines we are still years away from seeing engineering and design proposals for the project. <br /> Should the County's plans materialize in the next five years as hoped for, it is yet further <br /> speculation that the soccer complex will be designed in such a way that our current access road <br /> would be an encumbrance. <br /> It would be unreasonable for the County to require us to presently abandon our current access <br /> easement road and, at our own expense, construct a new one based on the speculation that <br /> this might later prove valuable for the County. The financial cost would be unfair to us and the <br /> 2 From email correspondence with Katie Bowden, Economic Development Manager, Town of Chapel Hill, <br /> July 10, 2023. <br /> 3 In 2019, the County had the opportunity to also obtain through donation the 10-acreap rcel that I later <br /> purchased. At this time one of County's stated reasons for pursuing this donation was to provide itself <br /> with "greater authority to work with the cell tower company if changes become needed to the access <br /> easement." For reasons the County will not disclose, that transaction fell through, and when the parcel <br /> was put on sale in 2021 1 can find no record of the County attempting to purchase it. <br /> a I believe eight soccer fields was the number Mr. Stancil mentioned during our online meeting. My <br /> memory could be mistaken; possibly he mentioned only six fields. <br /> 3 <br />