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25 <br /> ten acres. Through recent personal communications, Josh Kirshner, the owner of this address, <br /> has no objection to our rezoning plans and foresees no conflicts. <br /> Our 10-acre lot also includes within it a 195 foot tall telecommunication tower, surrounded by <br /> its auxiliary utilities and chain link fencing for which the telecom tower owner must have <br /> perpetual access. While this permanent feature of the parcel limits its viability for other uses,18 <br /> it is not a problem for our purposes. Our added security, as well as our improvements to and <br /> our maintenance of the access road, will only benefit the tower owners and maintenance <br /> teams. <br /> Permitting the rezoning of our ten-acre parcel not only avoids creating conflicts with adjacent <br /> properties and property owners, but it is also a step towards preventing future conflicts. Our <br /> parcel is currently zoned RB, and looking down the Table of Permitted Uses it is difficult to find a <br /> use for the ten acres which is less likely to lead to some future conflict with one or more of the <br /> adjacent properties or property owners. In so allowing our plans to move forward, the County <br /> thereby makes progress on the following goals and objectives: <br /> • LU Goal 3: A variety of land uses that are coordinated within a program and pattern that <br /> limits sprawl, preserves community and rural character, minimizes land use conflicts, <br /> supported by an efficient and balanced transportation system. <br /> • LU Goal 2: Land uses that are appropriate to on-site environmental conditions and <br /> features, and that protect natural resources, cultural resources, and community <br /> character. <br /> The Comprehensive Plan mentions the viability of agriculture and forestry and their respective <br /> lands (Natural & Cultural Systems Goal 2). In permitting us to pursue our plans, the County <br /> thereby protects Duke Forest from alternative uses of this ten-acre parcel which, although <br /> possibly permitted in the RB, could lead to "incompatible adjacent land uses or activities that <br /> will adversely affect the long term...investments" of Duke Forest (see Objective AG-1). Likewise, <br /> in precluding alternative uses of our ten-acre parcel, the county would thereby "minimize the <br /> incidence of complaints and nuisance suits" against Duke Forest (consider their prescribed <br /> burns), Orange County's landfill (recall all the complaints of the Rogers Road community), and <br /> potentially even the County's future recreational facilities (see Objective LU-3.4). <br /> "We have learned from Duke Forest Supervisor Tom Craven that Duke Forest passed on an opportunity <br /> to purchase this parcel from the prior owner because of the restrictive details of the lease with the <br /> telecom tower owner. Clearly it wasn't for the price tag that Duke Forest found this ten acres <br /> undesirable. Around the same time Duke Forest purchased the nearby 27.5 acre Meadow Flats parcel for <br /> $2.5 million, well over four times the assessed tax value of that land. In 2019 the previous owner of our <br /> ten acre parcel attempted, apparently without success, to donate the entire lot to Orange County. <br /> 18 <br />