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273 <br /> Approved 8.7.24 <br /> 1203 requirements for the housing they choose. The leadership is working hard to keep costs <br /> 1204 under control so that living at Fiddlehead is financially attainable for those of us of modest <br /> 1205 means. The plan provides for a variety of housing sizes, including studios and one- <br /> 1206 bedroom units, which is in line with that goal. Up to now, news about H4D has spread <br /> 1207 entirely by word of mouth and through educational orientations. It's a grass roots effort, <br /> 1208 people empowered, and not a big developer. I urge you to approve it, please. <br /> 1209 <br /> 1210 Aditi Watson: My name is Aditi Watson; I also go by Atula. Thank you for giving me a chance to speak. <br /> 1211 Me and my family moved here from Northern California, small town, and the place we <br /> 1212 were living in California was high land taxes and very high market for real estate so we <br /> 1213 were searching for a community that we could fulfill our dreams of homesteading and <br /> 1214 living sustainably and coming to North Carolina and finding the little place on Goldmine <br /> 1215 Loop and Morrow Mill Road was exactly everything we had been envisioning for a decade <br /> 1216 of searching, and we found that the like-minded neighbors and the whole area suited <br /> 1217 exactly our vision. For the past 3'/z years we've been living homesteading, our farm <br /> 1218 gardens. I am concerned about this project greatly, because it affects so many aspects of <br /> 1219 our life on Goldmine Loop. For one, Goldmine Loop is a beautiful setting for bike riding, <br /> 1220 taking walks, I'll even meet my neighbors along the way and it's just a beautiful place to <br /> 1221 be and live, and I really would be sad to see the whole lifestyle of the rural community <br /> 1222 jeopardized by this project and everyone, all my neighbors have spoken so well and so <br /> 1223 good, so I don't really have so much more to say, but I'm wholly against this development, <br /> 1224 thank you. <br /> 1225 <br /> 1226 David D'Agostino: Hi, I'm David D'Agostino, I live on Labrador Lane, with my partner, Audra Bott, and I'm <br /> 1227 neighbors with Dan Eddleman and Ralph Warren and I completely agree with everything <br /> 1228 they say, and I'm against the development. I do feel like they're not really giving us <br /> 1229 straight answers and, I would love to see an age in place community for 35 people which <br /> 1230 was originally presented to us. That's a lot different now and there's really no confirmation <br /> 1231 that this is going to be a place for people over 55. That's all I have to say, thank you. <br /> 1232 <br /> 1233 Carol Mellon: Hi, I'm Carol Mellon and I'd just like to say that agricultural and forested lands are <br /> 1234 precious finite resources that should not be permanently marred by developments that will <br /> 1235 be redundant within decades. This isn't the 1980s when birth rates were still high. <br /> 1236 Demographic trends, including the two upcoming so-called academic cliffs or sharp <br /> 1237 declines in the number of college age persons and the coming decline in the number of <br /> 1238 55-plus persons due to the aging of the baby boomer generation, will result in a multi-unit <br /> 1239 housing surplus in communities like Chapel Hill. They will drive a projected surplus of <br /> 1240 rural housing of any kind since the infrastructure and amenities of cities will continue to <br /> 1241 attract the majority of home seekers. Retirement communities such as these are highly <br /> 1242 leveraged with a relatively high default rate. The Wall Street Journal has reported that <br /> 1243 they have become less popular in recent decades and particularly since the start of the <br /> 1244 pandemic. The power of retirement community borrowers to issue federally tax-exempt <br /> 1245 bonds, however, creates a perverse incentive for investors chasing yields to put money <br /> 1246 even into projects that simply are not viable over the long term. Many planned retirement <br /> 1247 communities have had to open their doors to the general public due to lack of interest <br /> 1248 from their target population and I think we may have seen that here or have had to greatly <br /> 1249 increase planned fees to compensate for the increasing costs of labor that is now in short <br /> 1250 supply. Others have been purchased by hospital corporations, effectively becoming <br /> 1251 healthcare centers. Were this to happen in our area we fear that the nearby land would <br />