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31 . <br />farmers in the past. This land is the retirement for these people. OWASA is negatively affecting <br />their retirement. He stated that this proposal.would take money out of the home owners. pockets.. <br />These landowners are concerned about the quality of the water but they do not want to give up their <br />retirement income for the OWASA customers. He was opposed to the five -acre minimum lot size. <br />Mr.. Patrick Mulkey,.a resident of the Cane Creek community, spoke in opposition to this <br />`request to rezone this area to a five -acre minimum lot size. He stated that Orange Water & Sewer <br />'Authority requested a five -acre minimum lot -size for Cane Creek. The Board of County <br />Commissioners agreed to a two -acre lot minimum for the entire 18,000 acre watershed. In the <br />meantime, Orange Water & Sewer Authority commissioned another $100,000 study which. has <br />come up with the original recommendation of five -acre lots. He felt that this finding was a foregone <br />conclusion because it was what Orange Water & Sewer Authority wanted in the first place. He <br />referred. to a friend of. his, Jim Smith, who retired from a career in the water. resources field and <br />recently passed away, who reviewed this study. Mr.t Smith stated that each Orange Water & Sewer <br />Authority. customer could pay $0.10 more each month and get the same amount of protection <br />without, changing the minimum .lot size. He felt that,Orange Water &.Sewer Authority has pushed <br />their way into this community and have disrupted the way of life. The farmers are having to get <br />permits to,shoot deer on their land because of the explosion in the deer population. In spite of this <br />problem, Orange Water. & Sewer Authority does not allow any hunting on their land. They already. <br />own 3000 -plus acres in Bingham Township and ;now want another 1,200 acres. They pay no taxes. <br />Although Orange Water & Sewer Authority did offer land to the schools for a park, he felt that they <br />knew it was a sure bet that the offer would not be accepted. r There is a great need for a park in <br />Bingham Township; Orange Water & Sewer Authority has land that could be used for a park. He <br />distributed a copy of a. memo he sent to Orange Water & Sewer Authority addressing this need. A <br />copy of this memo is in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. He asked the Board of <br />County Commissioners if they were going to become a party to this injustice or stop this injustice <br />now. <br />Mr. Edward Mann, of 8525 Stanford Road, stated that his wife is a Stanford, and they own <br />some property which will be affected by the proposed change in the zoning ordinance. He served for <br />8 years on the Orange Water & Sewer Authority Board of Directors. He does understand the need <br />for water protection — water quality protection. He served on the Orange Water & Sewer Authority' <br />'Board.when they acquired the property and began construction of the Cane Creek Reservoir and is <br />very familiar with some of the issues involved in that acquisition. He has lived on' Stanford Road <br />since 1970. He goes to church in the'community and has become friends and neighbors with a. <br />number of farmers who have a lot more at stake in.the proposed rezoning than he does. As he said, <br />he owns some property that would be affected but he and his wife are not developers and have no <br />plans to do any developing. Their concern is creating the proper and needed and justified .controls <br />on water protection. The five -acre standard has become a standard without justification. He and his <br />wife. attended some of the meetings with the Orange Water & Sewer Authority Board when this.. <br />notion was first introduced and a number of possible solutions were suggested. He asked some <br />questions at that time; that he still has not gotten satisfactory answers to are there trends. in the <br />development in the water shed that have lead us to believe that we need to put some controls in at <br />this time? Information that was presented at some of those meetings was that there has been some <br />accelerated development in the Cane Creek Watershed. Average landmass per dwelling is about 5- <br />H:\BOCC\NOV2399.MIN <br />