Agenda 03-19-24; 5-a - Zoning Atlas Amendment – 6915-UT Millhouse Road, Chapel Hill

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143 APPROVED WITH AMENDMENT 2.7.24 746 Craig Nishimoto: I think it's completely harmonious. One: because County athletic fields, when are they 747 used? They're used on weekends or well after school lets out. We are not there. We're done unless it's a 748 storm or an emergency when the soccer fields are probably not gonna be used anyways. So, you're just not 749 going to see our trucks, or you might see our trucks, but they're not gonna be very many of them. So, I don't 750 think this is a problem. I think there's plenty of land out there. There's 74 acres or whatever it is. I'm hoping 751 they can build all six soccer fields and a bunch of baseball fields as well. 752 753 David Stancil: I have to be a bit careful in how I answer this. I should've said this at the beginning when 754 1 first got up here, but this is a very odd position for Orange County to be in because we are both the regulator, 755 the Planning Department and staff. And you, the Planning Board, the County Commissioners, will be 756 considering the regulatory matter of this rezoning. I'm here wearing the hat of Orange County's adjacent 757 landowner, and an adjacent landowner that has plans for development of the property. So, there certainly is a 758 great need for additional soccer fields and other playing fields in our community. We have already seen. 1 759 don't know how many of you go by Cedar Falls Park and Chapel Hill and see the one sole artificial turf field 760 that is used all day long in almost any weather. So, it's heavily used. The demand is certainly there, and that 761 is gonna continue to be the case, and the idea of having a soccer center for Southern Orange County has 762 been a very high priority of ours and, I think, of the town Chapel Hills for some time now. But the nature of this 763 rezoning request and what is being proposed, I really can't speak to the appropriateness of that, except to say 764 that we do think that the northerly access route that we've come up with and talked about today is certainly far 765 preferable to anything that would separate part of our property from the rest of it because the current access 766 road is in a location, unfortunately, where it keeps some of the land that's gonna be used for the soccer center 767 separated from the rest of it, and so something that gets us away from that is preferable to us. But in terms of, 768 you know, the agricultural sport as it applies to zoning category in this particular request, I have to stand mute 769 on that. 770 771 Beth Bronson: Can you describe one more time for us why the southern expansion was no longer 772 considered preferable? 773 774 David Stancil: Well, it requires a stream crossing that is wider and further east. So, it would create more 775 of an ecological concern by crossing the stream at that point than the way it is currently planned and the 776 location that the applicant has planned for in this new arrangement is still gonna be the same place because 777 we would wrap around and come in at the same point. That's the main reason. 778 779 Beth Bronson: I'm thinking that it would require therefore more further east, but if you were thinking about 780 expanding into a complete new— like if you had plans for all the surrounding parcels, even though you don't 781 have a master plan ready, would you not consider going in southern and making a larger more expansive 782 entryway for a soccer pavilion location? I mean I'm just thinking about like the soccer.com fields. That's quite a 783 driveway. And just why wouldn't you have a plan to do that with this one as well? 784 785 David Stancil: Again, my comment there was solely about access to this property. Yes, you're right. 786 When we do a master plan for this facility, we will need to have a fairly significant ingress and egress for how 787 that facility's gonna work, but we're not in a place right now to say it would be here on Millhouse Road or it 788 would be to the north. The issue of the southern route, it's also longer. I didn't mention that as well, but it's a 789 longer route as well, so that's the reason we think the northern approach that we've come up with today is 790 preferable to us. 791 792 Adam Beeman: So, if you follow the north path and you come down, where you would come down in your 793 potential, is that wooded or is that open field where you would come through? Because I'm understanding that 794 the southern route is heavily forested, so there's a lot of trees to remove and all that. So, would you have all 795 that going northern, or is that just gonna come through field and you're just cutting a driveway?