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to create more of this sacred place in all its natural beauty. I want to say that's it easy when you think about these 1
<br />design principles and the site at large with its size and its location on a collector road and all the rural context and all the 2
<br />things that make it what it is and the use, which is by nature, a low density, low impact kind of use. Those ingredients 3
<br />come together to help us come to you tonight with a pretty easy application to make all the findings for we believe, and 4
<br />we'll talk more about that, but these things all lead to the conclusion that it is harmonious with the neighborhood. It is 5
<br />harmonious even with itself and it has been in the neighborhood, part of the neighborhood for 40 years. It is consistent 6
<br />with the comprehensive plan, the land use part of the comprehensive plan that talks about how areas in this county 7
<br />should be developed by respecting and preserving cultural resources, natural resources, being protective of the 8
<br />watershed, the protected watershed that this property lies within and to do all of that in a low-density manner. Clearly 9
<br />there's compliance there, and the fact that the property has a proven record for 40 years of safe operation being an 10
<br />asset to the neighborhood and to the community at large, speaks to its safety and public health and public welfare 11
<br />aspects, and it is in the public interest, of course, to have an organized and systematic place for final disposition and for 12
<br />memorial. It's in the public interest for that to happen and for that to happen safely and systematically. These things 13
<br />I've spoken to all these things allow me to speak to all three of those general findings that you need to make to approve 14
<br />this application, and I have done so lightly here but in your record, in the packets you have, is more rigorously treated 15
<br />for these three findings and I trust that you've read those, and if you have any questions about that, I'll be happy to 16
<br />answer. I do want to present this line, now don't worry I'm not going to read this or ask you to read it, but I show this as 17
<br />the first sheet in our plan set that you have in your packet, on the left hand side that I've highlighted in yellow, is just a 18
<br />listing of all the ways, all the areas in the UDO that apply to this project and how this project complies or will comply with 19
<br />those parameters. We don't have to talk about that more. It's in your record. If you have questions, I'll be happy to 20
<br />answer any questions about that, and then finally, I just want to show this image of the property. The property's 21
<br />bounded in a thick black border. It's shown, at least on my screen, there's a little bit of a greenish tint to the whole 22
<br />property because it is 90 percent wooded. It presents itself aerially as just a green mass with the exception of the few 23
<br />cleared areas. It's about 90 percent wooded, and the staff did a great job of short of indicating the existing features of 24
<br />this site and there's Jones Ferry Road to the north heading in a northeasterly direction about 600 feet of road frontage. 25
<br />There's about 200 hundred feet of road frontage on the far-right side there on the Damascus Church Road. That 26
<br />there's no access or anything. That just happens to be road frontage, and the property's about 10.2 acres. Again, 27
<br />about 1 acre of that is cleared currently for driveway and lawn burial plots. I wanted to just point out as staff did that the 28
<br />driveway coming, which is the western most drive that leads you in, if you were to drive in, you would circulate in a 29
<br />counterclockwise manner around through the existing burial plots and then you could exit through the right most 30
<br />driveway. We are proposing to change none of that. All of that will remain as is. No modifications needed. DOT has 31
<br />told us that that's already a safe condition in their opinion, and the roadway and access is safe and they don't need any 32
<br />additional improvements. We are proposing the new driveway indicated in gray that meanders through the woods and 33
<br />culminates in this loop and comes back, and that's for the purpose of not having any three-point turns required for any 34
<br />kind of passengers, vehicles or equipment that might come into the site. That you can just circulate easily with a nice 35
<br />generous turning radius there that the, any kind of vehicle that would likely be in this property could use and could 36
<br />access through and those include passenger vehicles, trucks with trailers pulling maintenance equipment or burial 37
<br />equipment, funeral vehicles or even fire trucks and ambulances. A mid-sized fire truck can maneuver around this 38
<br />driveway safely and without tracking off the gravel edges that we show. There's a stream buffer on the property at the 39
<br />southern edge. There's a short section of intermittent stream on the property and the buffer is associated with that. 40
<br />We're not proposing any disturbance in that buffer. Keeping all the clearing and grading light as though it is, keeping it 41
<br />out of that area, and finally, I would just say that pulling out the color patches that you see. The darker green are the 42
<br />wooded plots sort of areas where wooded plots will be. That's the predominant type of plot that the applicant wants. 43
<br />Given current requests by users of the cemetery. The wooded ones seem to be a little more preferred, but the grass 44
<br />plots are popular as well, and the lighter green would be ones that would be indicated or that we have identified as the 45
<br />best place for grass plots because of landscape position and slopes and so forth. So, there you have it. I won't talk 46
<br />anymore except to say that the findings that you need to make tonight, in order to approve this application, we believe, I 47
<br />believe in my opinion based on a lot of research and looking into the different aspects of this property and this project, 48
<br />that you can make those findings. That you have the evidence that you need in the record to make those findings and I 49
<br />am happy to answer any questions if you have them. 50
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