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If everyone can get a seat, we'll get started here.

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Okay, I like to call this meeting to order. The Moore County Board of

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Commissioners, a special public forum on land use. This time, I'd like to make

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sure that we welcome everyone here. We're glad you're here. We want to hear

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what you've got to say. In 2013 we had a land use plan that we formulated and one of the

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goals was to visit that land use plan every five to ten years well. You know we're eleven

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years out so we're a year late but we're visiting and what we're doing is trying

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to get your input as to what you want to see your county look like in the years

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to come. The current land use plan of course helps to guide our ordinances and

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our zoning. So what's been guiding us has got us from where we were 10 years

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ago or 11 years ago to where we are today. And we're one of the fastest

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growing counties in the state. I think the last time I heard one number

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seven fastest growing county. So we know we got some tweaking to do. We

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We always worry about infrastructure, schools, public safety.

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There's quite a few things that go into planning when you're trying to look at the future.

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Unfortunately, none of us have a crystal ball.

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If anyone has one we can borrow or you would love to donate to the county, we will take

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that at the end of the meeting.

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But I doubt that's going to happen.

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So the best thing we can do is get your input.

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We'll have probably a timeline.

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I think is anybody that wanted to speak did everybody who wanted to speak sign up

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is everybody needs to sign up.

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I can't see any more hands.

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So we have 14 signatures.

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So commissioners at this time.

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I like suggest we give them a time limit of let's say four minutes.

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That would give them plenty of time.

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I think so in a form of a motion four minute limit.

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I have a second from Commissioner Bonn-Cannon.

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Any discussion?

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All in favor say aye.

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Any opposed?

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Hearing none, that motion carries.

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We'll do a large four-minute time limit.

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Okay.

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At this time I want to turn it over.

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Oh, a couple of other things I wanted to say.

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This is our second one.

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We did one at Pinecrest and it was really good.

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We got some really good input.

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Very respectful.

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I love that about Moore County.

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people seem to love each other and even if they disagree and that is a rarity in

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this world that you guys are that way and I guess that's why when I was born

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here I never left but I'd like for you when you come to speak it would be

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interesting to know from our perspective when did you arrive in Moore

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County how when did you come did you come and and sit down roots from birth

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Did you come in the last twenty years I can't have two that it just be interesting to know from our perspective as it continues to help us.

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So without any further ado I'm going to give.

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Deborah ends being a bring her up and then she'll introduce Haley.

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He'll go over the rules.

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So Deborah are planning.

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Good evening everyone.

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one. As Nick has laid out perfectly for you, our 13 land use plan is due to be updated

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and since the 1999 plan a lot has changed even from then until now and so it is time to update

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and also it's in conflict. It's in conflict with our current unified development ordinance.

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So once the plan is updated then we will need to update the unified development ordinance

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to make both documents consistent. And so right now they're inconsistent

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and so this is a perfect opportunity to get both documents in line with one another.

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And so this time I'll introduce Hayley Hogue with Mid-Carolina Regional.

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Yes, I'm sorry.

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Mid-Carolina Regional Council, that's the law. So Hayley?

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Good evening everyone. As Deborah said, my name is Hayley Hogue. I am the planning director

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with Mid-Carolina Regional Council and with me tonight I have Lindsay here who is from

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Central Pines Regional Council and Abby was also from mid Carolina. So we'll be

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facilitating this meeting tonight and they'll be taking notes on everything

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that we hear. So firstly thank you all for coming out tonight to share your

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thoughts on the county's future. This is as noted before the second of three

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listening sessions. The first was held last month at Pinecrest High School and

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the third will be held this Thursday at Northmore High School. The format of

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all of three three of these listening sessions is the same and the

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purpose is the same as well. With the purpose being that we want to give

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everyone a chance to share their thoughts on the long term future of the

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county. So we're asking to look tonight into the future over the next 10 to

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20 years and tell us what you see more county being and what your hopes are

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for the county moving forward. Some of you tonight may feel comfortable

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sharing your thoughts at the microphone and as noted before, you will

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need to sign up at the front welcome desk. So at any point during

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tonight's forum, if you decide to sign up, please make sure that you

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go through that and you'll get a speaker number and we'll be calling those in order to the

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podium once we start that stage of the forum. Others may prefer to share your comments either

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on the post-it note activity out front or through the comment cards that you were given

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when you checked in. So regardless of how you participate we definitely want to hear

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from you tonight or in the future at other public engagement opportunities. All of you

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should have received a public engagement survey when you checked in and so if you can

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please make sure that you fill that out. That is really important to us because

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what it's going to do is tell us what other ways that we can engage with you

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as the county embarks on this land use plan update. So it will help us figure

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out how to get updates to you and what other type of forums you might want to

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be part of in the future. So by being here tonight all of you have

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demonstrated that you care greatly about the county and we want to make

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sure that everyone has a chance to be heard. So to do that we're going to

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discussed just a few ground rules together.

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So first to maintain an orderly fashion

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with the public comments,

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as noted you will need to sign up

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and there is a four minute time limit for each speaker.

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So once you come to the podium, we will set the timer

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and when you are coming up on 30 seconds,

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staff over here will hold up a sign that says 30 seconds

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and that will give you a cue

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that you need to start wrapping your comments up

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so we can move on to the next person.

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Once the timer goes off, you will hear the beeper

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and we'll need to take a seat

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so that we can call up the next speaker. Is that sound okay to everyone?

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Okay, if your time runs out when speaking

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we still want to hear what thoughts you have that you weren't able to share at

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the podium. So just write them down on the comment

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card and we'll make sure that we collect those comments as well.

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And then also on the county's website there is a land use plan page

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and that's going to be your portal for getting updates on this process

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over the next several months but there's also in there a comment box

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that you can share your comments and submit them at any time. So if you go home tonight

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and you forgot to say something or something comes to you next week you can always go to that page

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and submit any comments. And then finally tonight the commissioners have created this forum to

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hear from you all for us to listen to you and for you all to listen to one another.

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So let's try to show some grace in understanding each other's differing opinions and perspectives

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from what we hear tonight. And then also keep in mind that the board tonight is here to

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listen only they won't be responding to any comments or questions but we will be

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recording everything that we hear on the flip chart and in our notes and the

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meetings also being recorded tonight. So with that I think that covers all of the

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facilitation items. Does the board want to set any additional ground rules before

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we get started?

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I would like for you to introduce, well, I can't get the microphone, there it is. I'd like to introduce Frank Wiss,

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He's been with us for seven years.

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Unfortunately, he has decided not to re-up this year,

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but we're going to miss him,

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but he's really done a fantastic job working for the county,

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and we appreciate him, one of the finest men I've ever met.

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Jim Von Cannon is our fireball.

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He is an ex-military,

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and he has got more energy than I think the energizer buddy,

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but we are so thankful for him.

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And John Ritter, his attorney,

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It brings a fresh perspective and a voice from the northern part of the county, and it's been very valuable, so that's your commissioners here, and again, we're anxious to hear what you have to say.

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Okay, sounds great. Okay, in that note, we will go ahead and get started with speaker number one. So whoever has the first part, please come up to the podium and please state your name as well once you start your comment.

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All right. My name is Nicholas Salah Jr. I'm from Cameron here in North Carolina, the

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Moore County Cameron. And I attended the first session and I attended your work session

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after that. And I was excited about the work, the first session, but I was a little disappointed

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at the second session. I don't think we're getting the message. This road that Green

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Herron has taken us down is a red herring. It's based on two fundamental false assumptions.

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And anyone who has anything to do and knows about planning, if you have the wrong assumptions

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going into your planning and your wrong facts, you're going to make poor decisions.

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The first assumption is that we have to accept the 77,000 new resident population

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estimate from Raleigh. We, the people, determine how fast, how much, and how, and where growth

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occurs in this county, not demographers from Raleigh. So that's the first major assumption

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that we continue to perpetuate, and I hear the board continue to take that as it's,

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as gospel. And there is, it's like a weather forecast. There are a thousand known and

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a thousand unknown factors that will change the potential population growth in this county.

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And the major one is the land use plan. The second is that a rigorous process to update

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the land use plan cannot be done. And I heard it at your work session. The Green Herons

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said, no, no, no, you can't have a big organization, you can't stand up a steering

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committee, too many people, too many cooks, you know, ruin the soup kind of thing.

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But our land use plan back in 2013 elicited the help from 19 citizens and four or five exo-facto non-voting personnel.

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And it was a long, rigorous process.

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And it gave us this outstanding land use plan.

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So to say that we cannot stand up the steering committee of 19 people or 20 people, whatever the number is,

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is to say that that cannot be done is just a flat out lie, actually, because it was done

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and it was done to great effect.

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Just read chapter one of this land use plan and it tells us exactly how to update the

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plan and it gave us this absolutely spectacular land use plan that if applied will control

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the growth in this county and maintain our ambiance and heritage and the town and

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country atmosphere that we have in this county. It will prevent urban sprawl. I

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know for a fact it will do that because we applied this land use plan in 2022 to

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stop a subdivision major subdivision on Union Church Road to great effect. And

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what we found out it was the first time that the commissioners most of them

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had read the land use plan and applied it in a subdivision scenario. And

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And that subdivision was non-conforming with the land use plan.

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So to say that this land use plan is the problem, is the creator of our growth woes is inaccurate

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as politely as I can say.

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So we need some ideas for this process.

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Stand up the citizens steering committee.

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The citizens of this county are the ones who need to be trying to lead in the charge.

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You all get to vote.

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So you're the final say on whether you adopt it or adopt it in part, but the citizens of

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this county need to be the ones doing the heavy lifting and facilitated by some expert and

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that's fine.

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But to say that our land use plan cannot be reviewed through a rigorous process by

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the citizens of this county who are given their blood, sweat and tears for how good

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this county is is just leading us down the wrong road. Thank you very much for

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your time.

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Thank you sir. We will move on now to speaker number two.

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Ladies and

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gentlemen, hello. My name is Daniel Blanio. I am one of the commissioners in

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Carthage. I'll do my intro. I hope this doesn't count against my time here.

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But all right. Is this better? All right. I'll hold this thing. Okay. So I'm

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to do my intro. I hope this doesn't count against my time here. Alright, so I've been

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in Moore County about 10 years. I've been in North Carolina 20 years. I'm originally

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from Bakerside, California. So I can tell you what things look like when we don't

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make wise decisions. I'm glad to be here. I've served in the Army.

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That's what left me here. I came to Moore County because I enjoyed the values of the community.

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I brought my four daughters here, got them started in school here, and I've been very pleased with

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how things have run. As a town commissioner, I also recognize what you have to deal with.

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We've done a lot of this kind of stuff as well within Carthage. All right, now I've got my point.

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All right, don't want to be the naysayer, but one of the issues that I do have is the

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development of subdivisions out in the county.

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One of the things that towns are supposed to do is we're supposed to consolidate people.

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Whenever there's enough people, there's a population density, we zone it so that we

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can facilitate all that.

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In order to move into a town, you have to have a benefit to move into a town too.

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One of the benefits to moving into a town is that you have higher density zoning.

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If you're doing subdivisions out in the county, what you're doing is you're undercutting the

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towns and their ability to function as towns, but you are also affecting people that have

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farms next to them.

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They have horse that they have, all kinds of stuff out there that is not typically

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done inside a town.

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We can't involuntarily annex anymore, was never a fan of that in the first place,

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but it means that you have to have an incentive to join your town or your

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village. If you can get everything that you want out in the county, why would you

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go through the rigmarole of joining the town? So I just caution that as these

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subdivisions go out they're not going to have all the amenities of a town.

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They're going to affect the people that live next to them because they

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have farms and such and you're undercutting your own communities.

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The

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The other thing is I'd like to see more jobs in northern war.

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That's what I got.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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We will now move on to speaker number three.

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Good evening.

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I'm Larry Best.

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And as Nick said, I've been in more county beds

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than I have for 36 years.

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So we have seen a lot of change in that period of time.

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And like many of the speakers, I

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am concerned about the rate of growth

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and how we accommodate what's happening to us.

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Last time I spoke about the numbers

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and about what that can mean to us. And when I first came to that understanding it was frightening to

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me because I understood what this place could look like in 30 or 40 years. And what we build today

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we will live with the next 50 years. So it's not like we want to reimagine it 10 years now. I

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think it's built to borrow. It's something we live with for a very long time. One of the

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challenges is we feel found about how we really build community. We all see the

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subdivisions sprouting around the county. Unfortunately they are not an expression

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of community building and that they are one-dimensional and land-use and

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exist as islands and as our last interest they are not fabric to our

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communities. They provide housing but they do not build community. True

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lasting and livable communities create a place that adds to the

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residents' quality of life. They're respectful of the environment, they provide for day-to-day

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needs, all within a close proximity. Towns are very livable places. The grocery stores

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nearby, as are areas of employment, parks and open spaces are generous and connected.

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There's a scale to the land use that builds community fabric. Again, these random subdivisions

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occurring out on rural lands is not part of community building. Complete communities

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are vibrant and filled with meaning and opportunity, and they do not just happen.

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They are a result of careful planning that imagines new places and has consistent follow-up

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to ensure the vision is realized, and I really miss in terms of what that effort should entail.

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The land use plan must be a specific document that scripts the land to be saved,

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and I think Commissioner Cook who is not here now made that point one time

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a few months ago at the Elderly Center.

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It scripts the lands to be safe for ecological reasons.

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It defines the open spaces that will build fabric, integrates public uses such as schools

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and health care into the community, and it orchestrates relationships between various

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land uses so that they, in fact, are built real and complete communities.

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Livability is possible, but it doesn't just happen.

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They are very deliberate, hard work to create a plan that the result is good communities.

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So in my opinion, we should build complete communities, grow our towns.

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The towns have infrastructure.

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They offer goods and services in a proximity manner so we can provide all kinds of public services that you all will take care of.

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And by doing so, we build those towns.

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We protect our rural land as a result of that because we accommodate the growth of people,

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but we do it in places that are proximity to existing towns or hamlets or crossroads or whatever.

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And one last thing I was just interesting that the in the public way is defined as the public realm which is public right to ways for roads and utilities and all those things public buildings and things parks open space represent about a third of the land.

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Ultimately, that you will as growth occurs you will inherit that to be stewards of and pay for forever.

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And so I would encourage you to use your planning authorities to guide that specific use of public rights

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of ways in a way and create those, in fact, great community fabric. Thank you.

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Thank you. We will now hear from speaker number four.

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Good evening. My name is Leslie Bryant and I am the president and executive director of the Pines Preservation Guild.

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I'm also a 10-year resident of Moore County and the spouse of an active duty service member.

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The Pines Preservation Guild is a community-driven, non-profit organization composed of Moore

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County residents and business owners who believe historic preservation and community development

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are intertwined.

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I'm here today to express our organization's concern regarding preserving and protecting

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the historic buildings and resources in Moore County as the county reevaluates

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its land use plan. The 2013 land use plan does do a good job of identifying and

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expressing the importance of our historic resources, yet the county ordinances

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that have passed in the 10 years since seem disconnected from the stated

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importance. The existing plan also does not provide a path for exactly how

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protection will be supported and occur at the county level. We encourage the

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county commissioners, staff and consultants working on the land use plan update to consider

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a more robust historic preservation section or perhaps a completely separate historic

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preservation plan as done by other counties in the state and the country.

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While most historic resources in the county are located in individual municipalities with

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their own protections, there is currently no tool used by the county to help protect

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current and future historic properties both owned by the county or located

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outside of the local municipal jurisdictions from development or

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demolition. A historic preservation plan would encourage the passage of county

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ordinances to better reflect the county's commitment to historic

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preservation and sustainability. A preservation plan would also formally

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promote the well-established economic benefits and incentives of

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historic preservation and state of focus on increasing the number of historic designations

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throughout the county.

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More counties unique historic structures and communities are a character defining aspect

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of what makes this county unlike any other in North Carolina.

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As the county grows and evolves, a tool such as a formal historic preservation plan

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will help create the vision needed to move forward when faced with inevitable growth

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in a thoughtful, practical, and sustainable way,

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while also taking our heritage structures

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into consideration.

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Growth may be coming,

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but once these irreplaceable, tangible examples

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of our history are gone, we can never get them back.

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And we will lose our connection to the very communities

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that brought many of us here in the first place.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Speaker number five, please come to the podium.

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I have to go after that.

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She spoke really well.

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So now I'm really nervous.

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Leslie Yarbrough, we've been here for 12 years but we just could afford our place

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about seven years ago. I've been to a few of these meetings to voice my

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concerns regarding the growth of Moore County and my wish protect our urban

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and as well as our farming areas somehow getting them to mesh better but

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tonight I'd like to highlight some of the social media posts on topics related

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to these issues from other members of the community. I think a lot of times we miss out

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on things that other people are saying because they, for whatever reason, can't make it to these

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meetings. So a few days ago, the Santel Sentinel wrote about Patrick's Point, which we all know

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is going on and being built on Highway 1. Some of the things that people wrote, a developer

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from Florida I'm sure they have the local community's best interest in mind.

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Southern Pines City Council should be ashamed.

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I'm scared to say that

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overnight their building is cheap as possible and it's unbelievable they

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literally build drunk. I see too much of this crap building. Southern Pines used

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to be a quiet quaint original town that 20 years ago, 20 years ago, but they

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keep putting up this crap. This isn't the last one of these, eventually all

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land will be gone on U.S. one. St. Hill Sentinel. Aberdeen station. This was January the 23rd.

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There were 445 comments. This one though had some more positive connotations to it. Some

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of the members in Aberdeen were pleased. They thought maybe it would increase their

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property values. They were kind of happy. But then there were these some other people

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that said, awful, Aberdeen, stop this now.

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Need more affordable housing, not another gated community.

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Why can't we get some places for young people

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or a homeless shelter?

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This is great for traffic, said one guy

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and lots of smiley faces after that.

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See, every day I hear about development here,

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just packing us in like sardines,

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but never in new high school.

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How can we add this many homes and people with no schools?

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Somebody else wrote in, we need more schools.

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The Aberdeen Board of Commissioners,

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this one is where the old Aberdeen School,

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the new master concept.

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This is kind of funny too,

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because a lot of people say, again, just say no,

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but a lot of people in here say they want Trader Joe's.

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His Trader Joe's was on the proposal to have a Trader Joe's.

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So I thought that was kind of funny, but other people, just when we think they can't screw

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this town up anymore, too many people here already in this county as it is, why are we

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worried about what's going up, maybe we should worry about the roads, maybe three lanes now

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as needed.

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We're returning into a mini Fayetteville or a carry without infrastructure.

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So my proposal for the land use is to propose that the apartment multi-family style homes,

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these zones get cut back in the new proposal, in the new land use.

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The other problem right now with the number of people that are coming in is the number of recs

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that we're having, the number of car accidents that we're having.

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more county as a whole since January 1st had 419 accidents so that's just a

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little bit over a month and I decided to print off some of the accidents so that

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you could actually see pictures of the vehicles and the people whose lives were

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damaged. Finally, can I finish by one more? Okay, finally the building around

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on horse country.

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If you all know where the hunt area is

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where the horses come and go down Sheldon Road,

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it used to be a beautiful area filled with trees,

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now these are the homes that are being built,

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cookie cutter homes.

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And I hate to call them that,

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but they are cookie cutter homes in the area.

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Some things that people are saying,

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sorry blank building contractors don't give a crap,

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southern pines have sold it sold to the devil,

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that's for sure.

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another one is disgusting ruining our neighborhood none of these overpriced

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houses have sold yet I live behind these houses in Northridge Street and now

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they've started building there too it's sick this is disgusting thank you your

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pollution thank you ma'am thank you we

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will hear from speaker number six now

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Hello. I'm Terry Bryant, a native. I've been living here. This is my 69th year. Grew up

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right here in this neighborhood. Grandfather owned this piece of property where we're sitting

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tonight, meeting tonight. I'm very concerned with changing the land use plan because

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It was an ideal in 2013 that was a continuation practically of...

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Our original land use plan. It's serving its purpose to a great deal. However, I have seen

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a lot of rural land developed in the past 10 to 15 years that I think was done quite haphazardly.

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but I was a privilege to be a part of the planning board in the early 2000s and was

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on the transportation committee and transportation is important to a developing county. We need

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to make sure that we can get from one end of the county to the other just for no other

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reason for emergency services in a timely manner. I suggested years ago that we should

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have a belt line to get folks from one section of the county to the other and everybody said,

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oh my goodness, you will disrupt the golf courses, we cannot do anything like that.

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Well, let's be really practical in our planning here for one of the things that concerns me

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tremendously is the fact that there are so many people wanting to change the zoning that

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has been already in the county and thank the Lord for the fact that we've had present

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use-valued tax because the rural economy is not so great in Moore County.

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There are just so many things you can grow on a farm and they're not terribly

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profitable anymore. But the folks that are living out there in the country have

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been zoned RA for all these years, 20-some years now, and they have

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lived under a set of rules that said you can only develop at a certain rate. You can only

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build so many houses on so much land. Well, it's that way right now, and it's not a terrible

401
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:31,000
way to consider allowing further development. If the developers want to build, make sure

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they're willing to pay for the difference in the use. Let's be cautious and let's let

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the landowner realize that he's sitting on something valuable and somebody is

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wanting it and somebody is wanting to change the uses that are allowed. Thank

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thank you.

406
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Thank you we will now hear from speaker number seven.

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My name is

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Lou and blue I've been here all my life. Our parents grandparents on a lot of land

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in bass. Wisdom pines. Carpets. Young's room. We own a lot of that and I'm a

410
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contract and I'm a farmer so I see both sides and what's going on. It's about

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like Terry was saying and I was on the planning board the land use when it was

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right and we worked hard we met several nights we done a lot of things and there

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was some great men on that board and women too that has passed from here

414
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you know they're going on home but we need we need to slow the growth down

415
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I've been trying to say that in the town of Bass you know I've been like I

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It's so dangerous on six ninety six nine is one of the deadliest rural road in

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North Carolina. Not more can North Carolina. And we need some help because

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morning commissioners asked what what it would take to keep us far. Well it's

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getting about where it's so dangerous. I got a 17 year old son this turn 17. I

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don't want them out there on the road want a track because they come by with

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the fingers in there. Hauling out the wind get off the road you know you're

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slowing us down. But we're going to have to grow. That's coming. But we can manage it.

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As far as the land, I had a realtor come to my house last week, sat there, told me she

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had a good deal. It was a joke, you know, what the prices are. And it's like he said,

425
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a lot of people don't realize what they're on no more. But it does need to go back

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to the town. It needs to get back on the town. But at the same time, the town's

427
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got to be able to handle when what I'm talking about on Cyprus church road, I'm

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a contract. I get calls all the time. They slap these houses in people. Water's

429
00:35:13,030 --> 00:35:16,870
coming up in their car porch. Water's, you know, but they build them on slabs.

430
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We need some kind of inspection to make this stuff slow it down in the

431
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houses. I had I was on the golf trip and fellow told me he said, I'm the

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one building them house like we got to build 20 houses a week frame them

433
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Well, you know how them 20 and I looked at them. I said I wouldn't want my name on them, you know

434
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But we went from a proud County, you know, we all the work was done good

435
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Because we live here

436
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Man, the most these subdivisions money's going back to California. It's not staying here

437
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I mean a lot of people don't realize that and I have these people tell us well, you won't be able to say your farmland

438
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I've done seem to so many counties

439
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If we put it where. You know. Had at least be five acres of land to build a house on.

440
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And we're going to get the same value. When we sell that piece of property as all we are

441
00:36:11,790 --> 00:36:17,250
these boys when he said they put the house on half a. We're not getting them. They get them.

442
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And that's what we need to teach. We need to inform. The people what it's worth because

443
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it has really changed in the last ten years. But we do need some guidance, and I know y'all

444
00:36:30,770 --> 00:36:36,010
got a rough job, but I really think that plan that we had there if we'd stayed closer to

445
00:36:36,010 --> 00:36:41,070
it a little closer than what we did. And hindsight's hindsight. It's nothing we can do about

446
00:36:41,070 --> 00:36:46,370
the past, but we can change the future. We can make it better. And that's why everybody's

447
00:36:46,370 --> 00:36:50,650
coming here because they said, because we have problems with people that need subdivisions,

448
00:36:50,650 --> 00:36:54,590
where they see my farm, my ponds, they come deer hunting,

449
00:36:54,810 --> 00:36:55,790
you know, they just help their sales.

450
00:36:56,730 --> 00:36:59,630
And you know, that ain't, some people, yeah,

451
00:36:59,690 --> 00:37:00,390
I want them to come.

452
00:37:00,710 --> 00:37:02,670
Some of them, I don't want them on my property.

453
00:37:03,230 --> 00:37:06,050
But it's got out of hand, it really has.

454
00:37:06,430 --> 00:37:09,150
But we got to find county here, got to find people.

455
00:37:09,650 --> 00:37:12,010
And all we want to do is let our kids grow up

456
00:37:12,010 --> 00:37:14,050
and live here, you know.

457
00:37:14,590 --> 00:37:16,350
And they go, we can't tie their hands,

458
00:37:16,550 --> 00:37:18,230
you know, like putting it in compensation,

459
00:37:18,690 --> 00:37:19,510
some of the easements.

460
00:37:20,010 --> 00:37:49,310
some of it's good. But it takes a lot of money to hold a farm. And if we weren't for the land use tax, we couldn't hold it. But what we really do need to help to get the towns. And I know that you've got some control on the towns. Because most times it's county water and county sewer. So I mean, it works both ways. And we've seen it. But we'd appreciate anything you could do to help us. And like I said, give us a little more knowledge.

461
00:37:49,510 --> 00:37:53,250
Let the people that just stay home all the time,

462
00:37:53,310 --> 00:37:55,010
they don't know what this land is when it's taken.

463
00:37:55,610 --> 00:37:57,750
It's really, really got up.

464
00:37:58,350 --> 00:37:59,870
And we don't want to sell it.

465
00:38:00,430 --> 00:38:01,890
All the time I sell people land.

466
00:38:02,010 --> 00:38:03,870
Most times one of my family members sick or something.

467
00:38:04,010 --> 00:38:04,710
We need to do something.

468
00:38:05,470 --> 00:38:07,950
But we appreciate what you do and just ask for your help.

469
00:38:15,950 --> 00:38:16,550
Thank you.

470
00:38:16,690 --> 00:38:18,150
We'll now hear from speaker number eight.

471
00:38:28,310 --> 00:38:28,910
Good evening.

472
00:38:29,910 --> 00:38:31,090
My name is Chris O'Long.

473
00:38:31,230 --> 00:38:31,930
I'm from Cameron.

474
00:38:32,330 --> 00:38:34,390
I've been in North Carolina for 20 years.

475
00:38:34,390 --> 00:38:40,590
I've been a resident since 2013 when my husband retired and we decided to build our forever

476
00:38:40,590 --> 00:38:46,350
home in Cameron using Kirby Construction Group, a local family-owned Moor County builder.

477
00:38:47,130 --> 00:38:51,850
My husband and I are both Army veterans and love our small community in Cameron.

478
00:38:52,430 --> 00:38:56,350
We are passionate to the impacts that are happening in Moor County.

479
00:38:57,170 --> 00:39:02,250
At your last meeting in Pinecrest High School, the input from Mr. Nick Lasala and Mr.

480
00:39:02,250 --> 00:39:07,470
Jeff Marcus resonated with me. Mr. LaSala mentioned reviewing the ODO and land use plan

481
00:39:07,470 --> 00:39:13,430
together. That is a great idea. When Cameron was approached by a developer wanting to build

482
00:39:13,430 --> 00:39:22,370
approximately 57 2,000 square feet homes, 20 feet between houses on 86 acres at a market

483
00:39:22,370 --> 00:39:30,710
price of $400,000 on four inch thick concrete slabs, the proposed subdivision would

484
00:39:30,710 --> 00:39:39,810
have two male kiosks, no sidewalks. These developments mentioned the wetlands, ponds and streams would

485
00:39:39,810 --> 00:39:46,090
not be impacted. However, after doing some publicly available information research, these

486
00:39:46,090 --> 00:39:53,210
same developers have made similar promises in other areas of North Carolina. The wetlands

487
00:39:53,210 --> 00:39:58,510
were impacted since they sought to protect wetlands in another region. We also have

488
00:39:58,510 --> 00:40:02,710
been approached by a different developer in a separate tract of land most recently.

489
00:40:03,530 --> 00:40:06,490
We often are told, growth is inevitable.

490
00:40:07,030 --> 00:40:08,870
It's coming whether you want it or not.

491
00:40:09,610 --> 00:40:14,150
When the discussion is on the table and it does not go the way the developers are anticipating,

492
00:40:14,750 --> 00:40:16,050
they make the following statements.

493
00:40:16,630 --> 00:40:19,270
We will go to the county and you have no say.

494
00:40:19,930 --> 00:40:23,390
We have been told that there is no market for building homes in Anchorage.

495
00:40:23,950 --> 00:40:27,090
We have not seen any studies that support this statement.

496
00:40:27,090 --> 00:40:30,750
In the span of five years in our small ETJ, it has grown.

497
00:40:31,270 --> 00:40:34,810
We have neighbors that have bought three up to 11 acres.

498
00:40:35,290 --> 00:40:39,090
Our home sits in almost eight acres. The clientele is there.

499
00:40:39,710 --> 00:40:42,930
That clientele are your retired military community

500
00:40:42,930 --> 00:40:45,450
that want to make more county their home.

501
00:40:46,290 --> 00:40:49,770
As the review and update for the land use plan is underway,

502
00:40:50,030 --> 00:40:53,270
it is important that like Mr. Marcus offered in the last meeting,

503
00:40:53,270 --> 00:41:02,150
and I'm paraphrasing, make a committee of your citizens that can bring different input from the community to build a buy-in.

504
00:41:02,830 --> 00:41:08,210
Our municipalities are not separate from the county. We both should work synergistically.

505
00:41:08,790 --> 00:41:13,810
When a developer comes to the town's planning board with their ideas, there should be no room for them to say,

506
00:41:13,990 --> 00:41:17,130
we'll go to the county. We should be working together.

507
00:41:17,130 --> 00:41:23,490
I'm leaving you with a small research paper I put together in October 2023 when

508
00:41:23,490 --> 00:41:27,770
I noted the development Northgate on Morrison Bridge. At that point in time I

509
00:41:27,770 --> 00:41:32,630
thought there were only going to be 311 homes. I was corrected later that there

510
00:41:32,630 --> 00:41:39,350
will be approximately 600 homes. Schools, although separate from the county

511
00:41:39,350 --> 00:41:43,610
itself, must be considered and worked with. Those children will be divided

512
00:41:43,610 --> 00:41:47,170
between Bass Lakeview, Cameron, and Southern Pines Elementary.

513
00:41:47,730 --> 00:41:51,370
Winter Station in Bass, those kids will be going to the same schools.

514
00:41:52,210 --> 00:41:58,910
I've included a student ratio taken from the North Carolina Education System website.

515
00:41:59,550 --> 00:42:03,750
We need to consider the children in our community along with the utilities and transportation.

516
00:42:04,250 --> 00:42:06,970
I do understand those physical studies are underway.

517
00:42:07,810 --> 00:42:09,250
We are not opposed to growth.

518
00:42:09,250 --> 00:42:14,370
We welcome methodical growth where we can preserve our town and country feel.

519
00:42:14,870 --> 00:42:18,790
I would like to add that my daughter did attend Cameron Elementary School,

520
00:42:19,090 --> 00:42:25,670
Crane Screek, and graduated from Union Pines last year, and is attending UNCW as a student.

521
00:42:26,250 --> 00:42:26,410
Thank you.

522
00:42:33,410 --> 00:42:33,990
Thank you.

523
00:42:34,090 --> 00:42:35,590
We will now hear from speaker number nine.

524
00:42:44,340 --> 00:42:44,880
Good evening.

525
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,340
Thank you very much for holding this meeting this evening.

526
00:42:48,820 --> 00:42:51,240
And thank you very much for your time on the board.

527
00:42:51,240 --> 00:42:56,480
I know it's a difficult situation in these very, very tough decisions.

528
00:42:57,420 --> 00:43:02,480
I want to also thank speaker number one, four, seven, and eight in particular.

529
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:08,160
You all really captured the sentiments I think of everybody in this room.

530
00:43:08,620 --> 00:43:12,240
Very, very important that I hope you listen to those points.

531
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:14,700
I have just a few other things.

532
00:43:15,380 --> 00:43:18,680
Studies showing growth is not always profitable.

533
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:24,140
Sometimes growth is a loss leader in that neighborhood and that community.

534
00:43:24,660 --> 00:43:31,420
I advise us to go look at those studies and seek out that information when you're putting your strategic plans together.

535
00:43:32,460 --> 00:43:42,800
Infrastructure issues, just as other people have said, schools, water, healthcare, public utilities also need to be considered before the development starts.

536
00:43:43,340 --> 00:43:47,000
And a plan for those in place along with the development.

537
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:53,880
We, I come from VAS, my name is Maureen Grippa, my husband and I moved down here 20 years ago

538
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,920
and we have seen a huge change in our community.

539
00:43:58,700 --> 00:44:01,200
VAS is undergoing tremendous growth.

540
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:03,980
They're developing every square inch available.

541
00:44:04,580 --> 00:44:09,240
They too had public forum meetings in which we went and spoke our peace.

542
00:44:10,260 --> 00:44:15,960
All for naught because the minute we all left the room they voted to go ahead with the development

543
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:18,700
and not having considered anything that we said.

544
00:44:18,980 --> 00:44:22,800
So please put together that strategic group

545
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:25,020
to come up with the right plan for this group.

546
00:44:26,140 --> 00:44:29,680
Quality development, as other people have said,

547
00:44:30,180 --> 00:44:32,980
the buildings that are going up are cardboard homes.

548
00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:37,180
They are going to cost the community, the town,

549
00:44:37,780 --> 00:44:41,320
the county, huge money in trying to get these repaired

550
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,060
before they just become abandoned issues.

551
00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:51,160
I'm not sure if anybody has taken the study to look forward as to what is the future with

552
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:54,340
the influx of personnel to Fort Bragg or Fort Liberty.

553
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:56,380
You know, times change.

554
00:44:57,040 --> 00:44:58,200
Things can be reduced.

555
00:44:58,620 --> 00:44:59,840
We're having all this development.

556
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:07,300
We also need a plan to accommodate this growth. But we also need a plan as to what's going to happen if that is dismantled to some degree.

557
00:45:08,660 --> 00:45:20,820
Lastly, I'm just asking you to please focus on bringing in developers that are real quality, local developers that are going to put in the right materials that are belonging in this community.

558
00:45:20,820 --> 00:45:27,520
I thank you very much for your time and your patience and listening to all of us and I really beg as a long term.

559
00:45:29,020 --> 00:45:38,280
Community property owner tax payer. We love this community. We want it to stay the way it is. We love more county. Make it better. Thank you very much.

560
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:54,840
Thank you. We will now hear from speaker number 10 and we are coming up on the final five speakers. So if anyone else has decided to speak please just sign up and we'll add you to the list.

561
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:14,180
Hi, if you can't hear me, raise your hand.

562
00:46:15,860 --> 00:46:17,680
My name is Nancy Moore.

563
00:46:18,020 --> 00:46:23,360
I have lived in both Bass and Southern Pines for a little over 20 years.

564
00:46:25,180 --> 00:46:28,220
I want to give a little background.

565
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:32,260
When I lived in New York, I lived in New York City and in Westchester.

566
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:36,520
My taxes in one house was $12,000.

567
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:43,440
Those taxes with no changes went up to $158,000 a year.

568
00:46:44,340 --> 00:46:52,000
My other property was my taxes were $17,500 and they went up to $48,000 after I sold my house.

569
00:46:53,020 --> 00:46:59,200
Just because more people come does not mean your taxes will be reduced or stay the same.

570
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:08,940
There's a very high risk when you talk about what is needed in terms of water table, subject, sewer, wells.

571
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,180
Those are things that impact the farms especially.

572
00:47:14,380 --> 00:47:18,920
And who's going to building reservoirs? Who's going to pay for this?

573
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,320
What about the schools? Who's going to pay for that?

574
00:47:22,580 --> 00:47:32,340
Southern Pines, and I would say more county in general, is very special because it has a lot of rural areas where farms.

575
00:47:33,340 --> 00:47:43,080
What happened in New York happens here where people virtually have to sell their land because the taxes go up so high.

576
00:47:44,380 --> 00:47:47,760
It's a reality. Do we really need to grow?

577
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:59,040
I could see adding parks, I could see adding maybe some small areas for where we put tiny

578
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:01,420
houses and house veterans.

579
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:08,020
That makes sense to me, but I think that we have to be very careful when we talk about

580
00:48:08,020 --> 00:48:13,440
expansion and that more county is the fastest growing county in the state.

581
00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:15,040
I don't think that's a good thing.

582
00:48:15,380 --> 00:48:17,220
I think we need to slow things down.

583
00:48:17,220 --> 00:48:20,340
I think we need to respect what we have.

584
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:21,640
Thank you.

585
00:48:21,900 --> 00:48:22,260
We

586
00:48:29,980 --> 00:48:32,060
will now hear from speaker number 11.

587
00:48:40,430 --> 00:48:40,950
Hello.

588
00:48:43,670 --> 00:48:45,930
I wrote notes and now I can't read them.

589
00:48:46,530 --> 00:48:49,150
So my name is Jennifer Chambers.

590
00:48:49,510 --> 00:48:51,650
This is my first time at one of these meetings.

591
00:48:53,350 --> 00:48:55,090
But I encourage you to speak.

592
00:48:55,510 --> 00:48:59,850
So we've lived in Moore County for going on 12 years now.

593
00:48:59,850 --> 00:49:04,450
We've lived in southern pines, whispering pines, and now we live in Cameron.

594
00:49:04,850 --> 00:49:08,350
We keep moving further and further out because we wanted more land.

595
00:49:09,530 --> 00:49:11,570
And that's why we moved out to Cameron.

596
00:49:12,150 --> 00:49:15,730
I started a small farm that's on 11 acres.

597
00:49:15,990 --> 00:49:18,150
We raised chickens, turkeys, pigs.

598
00:49:19,050 --> 00:49:21,810
And my husband also has a land in septic misses.

599
00:49:22,250 --> 00:49:24,850
So we are not against growth.

600
00:49:25,910 --> 00:49:29,750
We are just concerned about the type of growth that we're seeing in the county.

601
00:49:31,270 --> 00:49:35,650
You know, I had, we also, we came from Gwinnett County in Georgia,

602
00:49:35,890 --> 00:49:38,010
which was one of the fastest growing counties in Georgia.

603
00:49:38,410 --> 00:49:41,110
And we, we're not living there because we left.

604
00:49:41,230 --> 00:49:43,050
We couldn't foresee ourselves going back there.

605
00:49:43,690 --> 00:49:47,590
About six years ago, we made the decision to literally plant roots here

606
00:49:47,590 --> 00:49:49,970
and not go back there because of what happened.

607
00:49:49,970 --> 00:49:55,830
I mean the town I grew up in was very similar to downtown Carthage and now it

608
00:49:55,830 --> 00:50:00,270
has a hotel, street lights, I think Gwinnett County has close to a million

609
00:50:00,270 --> 00:50:06,430
people now and if that happens here in Moore County, my husband and I don't

610
00:50:06,430 --> 00:50:11,830
foresee staying here in the Walgreens because we left that for a reason. You

611
00:50:11,830 --> 00:50:16,650
know we love seeing these lots, these five to ten acre lots, you know,

612
00:50:16,650 --> 00:50:24,070
because we farm, we homestead, and there is a big need for that,

613
00:50:24,090 --> 00:50:27,230
and a big want for that in the military community.

614
00:50:27,830 --> 00:50:30,590
You know, there is a lot of people looking for that kind of land.

615
00:50:30,810 --> 00:50:34,350
There's a lot of interest in these larger tracts of land

616
00:50:35,690 --> 00:50:38,030
that I think would make sense for development,

617
00:50:38,310 --> 00:50:42,670
not these subdivisions that are going just plopping right

618
00:50:42,670 --> 00:50:44,050
in the middle of farmland.

619
00:50:44,270 --> 00:50:46,230
And I also had a very good conversation

620
00:50:46,230 --> 00:50:50,130
this morning with a group of farmers and I cannot take credit for this but they

621
00:50:50,130 --> 00:50:54,750
were talking about town and country and how you know how come we're not talking

622
00:50:54,750 --> 00:50:59,670
about putting a five to ten acre lot in downtown southern pines for a farm

623
00:50:59,670 --> 00:51:05,530
because it's it's not doable. So why are we talking about putting these large

624
00:51:05,530 --> 00:51:09,850
subdivisions in the middle of farmland that don't make sense for the

625
00:51:09,850 --> 00:51:14,430
infrastructure. For the farmers you know you're talking about safety, the

626
00:51:14,430 --> 00:51:17,830
the road we live on, there's a memorial on it

627
00:51:17,830 --> 00:51:19,050
because of how people drive.

628
00:51:19,610 --> 00:51:21,530
And if you've got tractors going on these roads

629
00:51:21,530 --> 00:51:23,770
and you're putting, you know, these lives at risk,

630
00:51:24,470 --> 00:51:26,130
you know, that's another big concern.

631
00:51:29,940 --> 00:51:31,800
Yeah, I love Moore County.

632
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:34,520
I love all the unique towns we have.

633
00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:38,360
Camry and Carthage, Southern Pies, Aberdeen, Pinehurst.

634
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:40,200
I mean, it is such a unique county

635
00:51:40,620 --> 00:51:41,780
that we fell in love with.

636
00:51:42,240 --> 00:51:44,340
And we really wanna see it stay that way.

637
00:51:44,340 --> 00:51:50,320
You know, we want the towns, we want to go to the towns and to enjoy them, and we want

638
00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:53,760
the people to come out to the farms and to enjoy our farmland as well.

639
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:59,420
We don't want to see across from me, I don't want to see the 100 acre track get turned

640
00:51:59,420 --> 00:52:06,660
into 100 acre or 600 houses because that'll affect the way I'm living and the way I'm

641
00:52:06,660 --> 00:52:08,980
choosing to live and farm.

642
00:52:08,980 --> 00:52:14,600
so yeah

643
00:52:20,100 --> 00:52:26,320
yeah so I appreciate you guys listening to everything that everybody's

644
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:31,540
been saying tonight I'm excited to keep learning and to keep tracking the

645
00:52:31,540 --> 00:52:36,580
land use program and what you guys do because I think it's it's gonna make a

646
00:52:36,580 --> 00:52:41,580
big difference over the next 10 15 years here thank you thank

647
00:52:47,370 --> 00:52:47,930
you all now

648
00:52:47,930 --> 00:52:49,250
here from speaker number 12.

649
00:52:55,750 --> 00:52:58,990
I appreciate the opportunity again. You know me. I'm

650
00:52:58,990 --> 00:53:04,750
Michael Parker. 59 years old. I was raised up four miles from here. I

651
00:53:04,750 --> 00:53:08,630
attended high school here. I know y'all met with the school board. I need to

652
00:53:08,630 --> 00:53:12,050
register complaint. I'm fairly disappointed that these seats in this

653
00:53:12,050 --> 00:53:17,090
auditorium have apparently sprung a good deal since 1982. I think you need

654
00:53:17,090 --> 00:53:24,810
to take that up with them. But my family came here. My father's grandmother bought our farm

655
00:53:24,810 --> 00:53:32,150
in 1926. My mother's family got theirs from a land grant from the King of England in West

656
00:53:32,150 --> 00:53:37,270
End, and it's still in our family. So I've been here a good bit of time. I know Lou

657
00:53:37,270 --> 00:53:42,010
and Blue. I know Terry Bryant. I know these people who spoke. I had a speech all planned

658
00:53:42,010 --> 00:53:45,390
until I heard some of these things, and I want to touch on a couple of things before

659
00:53:45,390 --> 00:53:51,690
I do that. Right across the road from here is a new subdivision called Union Hills. Union Hills

660
00:53:52,370 --> 00:53:59,130
spring up out of nowhere, virtually overnight. It came to be over there. I'm doing research for

661
00:53:59,130 --> 00:54:03,710
a class I'm going to offer next week and in research and population growth statistics,

662
00:54:04,050 --> 00:54:09,870
I was surprised to learn more counties growth rate since night 2010 according to this website

663
00:54:09,870 --> 00:54:16,170
and I can give it to you afterwards if you want it, was 24.94 percent. That's 88,000 going

664
00:54:16,170 --> 00:54:24,650
to over 110,000 in 13 years. Hope County grew by 15 percent. Harnett County grew by 25.4

665
00:54:24,650 --> 00:54:29,790
percent. What was interesting is a lot of that growth came from BRAC and the expansion

666
00:54:29,790 --> 00:54:36,610
of Fort Liberty, Fort Bragg, but when you pull up Cumberland County's growth rate,

667
00:54:36,610 --> 00:54:41,250
it is 2.5 percent over the same period of time. Now that's something that should

668
00:54:41,250 --> 00:54:45,910
make you go, hmm, I reckon why that is. Why is it growing that way there, but

669
00:54:45,910 --> 00:54:51,410
exploding here? In fact Union Hills, when they came, advertised themselves as

670
00:54:51,410 --> 00:54:56,570
Fayetteville's newest community. That was on their website to advertise. So

671
00:54:56,570 --> 00:54:59,490
they're bringing those folks here. I'm not opposed to the military living here.

672
00:54:59,550 --> 00:55:03,310
I love them. There are customers, there are neighbors. But the point is, is it

673
00:55:03,310 --> 00:55:08,690
brought them here is the town and country nature of this community that's been this way since my

674
00:55:08,690 --> 00:55:18,330
families came here 200 years ago. The land use plan, at the last meeting one of the commissioners

675
00:55:18,330 --> 00:55:24,250
commented that we're in this state because of the land use plan. We are not in this state

676
00:55:24,250 --> 00:55:28,910
because of the land use plan. Very much like the Constitution has been interpreted by two

677
00:55:28,910 --> 00:55:32,510
different people to say different things. The Constitution's words have never

678
00:55:32,510 --> 00:55:37,450
changed, but their interpretation over time has changed to allow some people

679
00:55:37,450 --> 00:55:41,950
to argue that things that we may or I'm not going to get into the stuff, but you

680
00:55:41,950 --> 00:55:45,250
know what I'm talking about. There's issues they both say supported. The

681
00:55:45,250 --> 00:55:49,970
land use plan is very clear. It's interpretation has what has allowed

682
00:55:49,970 --> 00:55:54,750
it to become that way. When we wound up here during that hearing in

683
00:55:54,750 --> 00:55:59,550
2022. Many of the commissioners who were there admitted to us after the fact that

684
00:55:59,550 --> 00:56:03,550
they had never read the land use plan. They did read it during that time and it

685
00:56:03,550 --> 00:56:07,930
affected the outcome of that. That is what stopped that subdivision when you

686
00:56:07,930 --> 00:56:12,390
look at it and compare it. The land use plan is not the problem. It may need

687
00:56:12,390 --> 00:56:17,090
tweaks. If there is a difference between it and the U. D. O. Then we need

688
00:56:17,090 --> 00:56:20,970
to fix the U. D. O. Because the land use plan as it sits right now is

689
00:56:20,970 --> 00:56:27,070
not a bad document. Terry Bryant and Lou and Blue did a great job on the steering committee

690
00:56:27,070 --> 00:56:31,630
to bring that up. And Nick Pocerno, you were on it. You did a really good job. It is a

691
00:56:31,630 --> 00:56:37,570
good document. But the point is, is that it's interpretation over time, we must dedicate

692
00:56:37,570 --> 00:56:43,770
ourselves to recognizing the town and country if that is what we want to be. We must

693
00:56:43,770 --> 00:56:48,430
dedicate ourselves to recognizing that and dedicate ourselves to applying it as it

694
00:56:48,430 --> 00:56:54,890
was written and as it was meant. And not as we're trying to fix 25% growth in 10 years.

695
00:56:55,490 --> 00:57:01,150
That's just, that's crazy. So it depends on what we're going to do. And I ask you members

696
00:57:01,150 --> 00:57:06,630
of the commission, I thank you for your attention to this. But remember, it's the interpretation

697
00:57:06,630 --> 00:57:10,550
that matters. Let's interpret it the way that it was meant to be. Thank you.

698
00:57:17,400 --> 00:57:20,480
Thank you. We will now hear from speaker number 13.

699
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:27,280
Hi, thank you for letting me have this opportunity.

700
00:57:27,780 --> 00:57:32,520
I'm Carol Parker and I'm married to Michael and I told him everything he knows.

701
00:57:32,780 --> 00:57:33,900
I just want you to know that.

702
00:57:34,460 --> 00:57:39,760
But I came here 37 years ago when I married Michael,

703
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,140
but that was not the first time I came.

704
00:57:42,620 --> 00:57:48,860
My dad, his mother was actually the daughter of a farmer in Pine Bluff.

705
00:57:48,860 --> 00:57:53,720
and where Atex Industries and Brian McMurray fabric sits now

706
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:59,820
was my great grandfather's farm and my dad always had a passion to come back.

707
00:58:00,180 --> 00:58:04,180
His parents had moved to Greensboro and that's where I grew up

708
00:58:04,180 --> 00:58:09,020
and I actually grew up in the county of Greensboro out in the Sedgefield area

709
00:58:09,020 --> 00:58:15,620
and we lived in a neighborhood and I have not heard one person here talk about a neighborhood.

710
00:58:15,620 --> 00:58:21,380
Now I can say, as Michael mentioned, we live four miles down the road.

711
00:58:21,660 --> 00:58:27,340
I have neighbors sitting in here, and they're spread out over a 10-mile range.

712
00:58:27,980 --> 00:58:32,900
And that is truthful, because as a farmer, you get to know your neighbors.

713
00:58:34,020 --> 00:58:39,600
What about these stockade fences? How many of these people really get to communicate?

714
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:47,800
I know that the show Home Improvement, they communicated over the stockade fence but did they ever look each other in the eye?

715
00:58:48,420 --> 00:58:48,940
They didn't.

716
00:58:50,060 --> 00:58:57,060
Now when I grew up we ran between houses and down the ponds and we fished and we played together.

717
00:58:57,900 --> 00:58:59,800
Now you have to play in the street.

718
00:59:00,220 --> 00:59:01,200
Look at these houses.

719
00:59:01,600 --> 00:59:04,300
I noticed the Union Hills across the street.

720
00:59:04,300 --> 00:59:08,780
The house directly across from the entrance into the high school.

721
00:59:09,280 --> 00:59:11,600
The driveway goes straight in.

722
00:59:12,060 --> 00:59:15,340
Today I came through, the cars were parked on the shoulder.

723
00:59:15,720 --> 00:59:18,760
So they were partially in the right of way.

724
00:59:19,020 --> 00:59:22,600
So I had to bypass the cars, but they were parked in those people's yards.

725
00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:24,960
And yes, the state owns that right of way.

726
00:59:25,400 --> 00:59:30,440
But do you think, would you want to let your children play in a front yard

727
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:38,560
that is maybe 40 feet from the road with strangers parked there every single day so they play

728
00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:44,260
in their stockade fence backyard where they don't see their neighbor kids. Now that's

729
00:59:44,260 --> 00:59:50,960
a sad way to create a community. That is not a community and Moore County was always

730
00:59:51,560 --> 00:59:57,640
about community. Lewin Blue, Terry Bryant, I don't know how many miles apart they

731
00:59:57,640 --> 00:59:58,940
live 15.

732
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:03,920
I bet you they can pick up the phone at any time and borrow a piece of equipment from each

733
01:00:03,920 --> 01:00:10,180
other. They know each other. They know us. It is not uncommon for Terry Bryant to drop

734
01:00:10,180 --> 01:00:16,400
off a bill of pine straw or to call us about a problem, because that's what neighbors do.

735
01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:22,620
And the people that we want to welcome in, we want neighbors. And I mentioned about

736
01:00:22,620 --> 01:00:30,120
my dad's history. My dad moved here in 93 after having lived in Greensboro for 50

737
01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:35,240
years or so and when he came he always wanted to retire here. He lived here 16

738
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:40,660
years before he passed away. My dad had a little farm all tractor and when the

739
01:00:40,660 --> 01:00:46,620
2000s snow came and it was two feet deep my dad plowed all the driveways he

740
01:00:46,620 --> 01:00:50,480
could get to up and down Union Church Road to let people get to work

741
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:54,600
because as the snow plows went down the road, they blocked the driveways.

742
01:00:55,440 --> 01:00:59,760
My dad was basically a stranger to the community just like me.

743
01:01:00,180 --> 01:01:04,500
But you know what? We've made ourselves an asset to the community.

744
01:01:04,860 --> 01:01:06,900
Now, I don't know that my neighbors will say I'm an asset,

745
01:01:06,900 --> 01:01:09,800
but we try to contribute to the community.

746
01:01:10,340 --> 01:01:12,300
We want to build the community.

747
01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:16,800
You can't build it when you're driving 65 miles an hour,

748
01:01:16,800 --> 01:01:20,640
or blowing past people and shopping in other counties.

749
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:21,860
And I'll tell you the truth,

750
01:01:22,040 --> 01:01:24,400
I now am taking my business to Sanford

751
01:01:24,400 --> 01:01:25,840
because unfortunately,

752
01:01:26,780 --> 01:01:30,020
Horner Boulevard is safer than Sandhills Boulevard.

753
01:01:32,190 --> 01:01:33,230
Thank you.

754
01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:38,240
Thank you.

755
01:01:38,580 --> 01:01:40,300
We went out here from speaker number 14.

756
01:01:48,660 --> 01:01:49,400
Good evening.

757
01:01:49,680 --> 01:01:52,040
Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight.

758
01:01:52,600 --> 01:01:53,380
You've seen me before.

759
01:01:54,560 --> 01:01:55,680
But it was a first tonight.

760
01:01:56,180 --> 01:01:57,800
First time I've ever heard Michael Parker

761
01:01:57,800 --> 01:01:58,860
are held to four minutes.

762
01:02:01,140 --> 01:02:06,220
My name is Steven Athens. I live at 510 Morrison Bridge Road

763
01:02:06,740 --> 01:02:15,160
in the Lobelia community, a little river township. This is the third time I've spoken

764
01:02:15,160 --> 01:02:17,220
to the commissioners regarding this subject.

765
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:21,920
I just want to kind of reiterate a couple

766
01:02:21,920 --> 01:02:30,760
things. As I've read the land use plan, I believe it to be a well thought out well

767
01:02:30,760 --> 01:02:37,340
written plan. And I think when it's been enforced, it's been very successful in

768
01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:43,600
accomplishing the vision. And if we look at that vision, I think it's what

769
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:49,500
we all want for Moore County. People come to Moore County for a reason. They

770
01:02:49,500 --> 01:02:54,260
They like it here because it's pretty, it's beautiful, the ambiance, they like the schools,

771
01:02:55,300 --> 01:03:03,100
they like all of the things that make More County beautiful and a great place to live

772
01:03:03,100 --> 01:03:04,220
and to raise children.

773
01:03:08,210 --> 01:03:11,670
Unfortunately, increased development, uncontrolled,

774
01:03:14,040 --> 01:03:16,540
and people coming here really nearly, subdivisions

775
01:03:16,540 --> 01:03:21,580
going up everywhere, that's destroying the very thing that people come here for.

776
01:03:21,580 --> 01:03:30,080
and it's kind of sad to see. My family moved here in 1966 when I graduated from

777
01:03:30,080 --> 01:03:33,660
Union Pines High School, we didn't even have a McDonald's in Southern Pines, I mean

778
01:03:33,660 --> 01:03:42,040
it was rural. My dad purchased 10 acres there in the Lobelia area and it's been,

779
01:03:43,200 --> 01:03:47,600
I tell people I live in the country for a reason, but unfortunately there's a

780
01:03:47,600 --> 01:03:53,880
division within a mile that's proposed to be 300 houses in that subdivision and

781
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:57,860
they're tiny little dots of houses and you've heard others talk about it

782
01:04:03,430 --> 01:04:04,530
laws

783
01:04:04,530 --> 01:04:10,720
not enforced or ordinance is not enforced lead to chaos you the

784
01:04:10,720 --> 01:04:16,360
commissioners have a responsibility of holding county staff who work with the

785
01:04:16,360 --> 01:04:20,180
zoning and land use responsible I

786
01:04:23,130 --> 01:04:24,730
think from our experience with the Union

787
01:04:24,730 --> 01:04:30,770
church project I think we we've learned that the land use plan was not

788
01:04:30,770 --> 01:04:37,610
followed and to your credit that that plan was denied so I appreciate that

789
01:04:37,610 --> 01:04:42,990
but I think it's important that we we follow that across the county in all

790
01:04:42,990 --> 01:04:48,530
areas of the county. Laws not enforced, ordinance is not enforced or worthless.

791
01:04:48,870 --> 01:04:49,650
It leads to chaos.

792
01:04:51,740 --> 01:04:54,820
We live in a representative government. The people of

793
01:04:54,820 --> 01:04:58,580
more county have voted for you to represent them.

794
01:05:02,360 --> 01:05:03,880
In the meetings that I have attended,

795
01:05:04,240 --> 01:05:07,620
and from my understanding, the meetings at Pinecrest and all,

796
01:05:07,700 --> 01:05:12,180
it's been very clear that people are

797
01:05:12,180 --> 01:05:15,700
in favor of keeping the land-use plan

798
01:05:15,700 --> 01:05:17,140
or the major parts of it.

799
01:05:17,840 --> 01:05:20,860
Yes, it probably needs to be tweaked, and tweaking is OK.

800
01:05:21,440 --> 01:05:25,620
But to simply throw it out and go a different direction

801
01:05:25,620 --> 01:05:31,040
It is not in harmony with the wishes of the people, not for the benefit of the county.

802
01:05:31,700 --> 01:05:38,440
So I would implore you to, to, to let's keep the land use plan, tweak what needs to be

803
01:05:38,440 --> 01:05:46,760
tweaked and, and let's take the good from it and, and continue to have more county,

804
01:05:47,120 --> 01:05:50,200
the place that we all love and that we want to raise our children and grandchildren.

805
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:51,140
Thank you.

806
01:05:57,650 --> 01:05:58,290
Thank you.

807
01:05:58,430 --> 01:06:00,290
And we did have two more speakers sign up.

808
01:06:00,290 --> 01:06:02,330
So now we'll hear from speaker number 15.

809
01:06:17,880 --> 01:06:19,700
Thank you all and good evening.

810
01:06:22,250 --> 01:06:28,630
My name is Scott Sheffield and I am on the Moore County

811
01:06:28,630 --> 01:06:31,830
Soil and Water Board with Lou and Blue who spoke earlier.

812
01:06:33,890 --> 01:06:36,190
I'm not here in an official capacity.

813
01:06:36,410 --> 01:06:37,870
In fact, I didn't have anything here

814
01:06:38,270 --> 01:06:40,710
till I sat down and started listening to everybody.

815
01:06:41,510 --> 01:06:44,750
But I've listened to 14 other speakers

816
01:06:44,750 --> 01:06:53,450
And they have, I think, covered most of the issues that I want to address.

817
01:06:53,690 --> 01:07:04,790
But I did want to make a few points that I think I'm maybe qualified, more qualified to address.

818
01:07:07,010 --> 01:07:09,450
I come from Northern Virginia.

819
01:07:10,370 --> 01:07:12,190
I've been here 20 years now.

820
01:07:12,190 --> 01:07:42,190
And I grew up there. I spent 57 years in Fairfax County. And I saw it change from a, what I would say, a green, beautiful county into one of residential sprawl, commercial sprawl as well.

821
01:07:42,190 --> 01:07:44,790
but mostly residential.

822
01:07:47,110 --> 01:07:51,850
The zoning requirements were not observed.

823
01:07:52,970 --> 01:07:57,750
They were manhandled by a few developers in the area.

824
01:07:59,090 --> 01:08:06,570
And land that was zoned as R2, in other words,

825
01:08:06,570 --> 01:08:15,230
uh, half acre lots, uh, got rezoned for, uh, R-10. In other words, they could put 10,

826
01:08:15,330 --> 01:08:23,830
uh, townhouses on one acre. Uh, this got, uh, way out of control because they went into

827
01:08:23,830 --> 01:08:30,850
agricultural areas and did the same thing. Here you've got, uh, subdivisions of townhouses

828
01:08:30,850 --> 01:08:39,570
the middle of farmland. I don't even like to go back there now because of what's happened there.

829
01:08:40,930 --> 01:08:49,790
But another thing about residential development is that it does not pay for itself in the county.

830
01:08:50,670 --> 01:08:57,950
It doesn't return a dollar for a dollar worth of services. A commercial development does.

831
01:08:57,950 --> 01:09:04,950
because in fact it pays more than twice as much than it consumes in county services.

832
01:09:06,290 --> 01:09:08,590
I put the question to you.

833
01:09:09,670 --> 01:09:11,890
What kind of county do we want?

834
01:09:13,290 --> 01:09:21,430
Should we be planning for the county we want or for the county that we might get?

835
01:09:22,850 --> 01:09:24,050
That's all I have to say.

836
01:09:24,050 --> 01:09:25,050
Thank

837
01:09:31,740 --> 01:09:34,160
you. We'll now hear from speaker number 16.

838
01:09:55,900 --> 01:09:57,160
Speaker number 16.

839
01:10:00,300 --> 01:10:03,360
So we'll move on to speaker number 17. We have four more

840
01:10:03,360 --> 01:10:04,760
speakers that have signed up.

841
01:10:12,340 --> 01:10:14,740
So thank you for listening

842
01:10:14,740 --> 01:10:18,040
to us. My name is Tyler Brady and

843
01:10:18,600 --> 01:10:22,700
technically I was born in Scotland County but my family line has been

844
01:10:22,700 --> 01:10:26,620
here since the early 1800s and you mentioned

845
01:10:26,620 --> 01:10:33,460
history. And I respect that I look at the history of our county and for those of

846
01:10:33,460 --> 01:10:37,540
you who know it. I don't remember her first name because I always called her

847
01:10:37,540 --> 01:10:41,040
missing Claire because I was a kid, but missing Claire's house up on the

848
01:10:41,040 --> 01:10:46,560
north side of the courthouse. Next to the United Methodist Church is you

849
01:10:46,560 --> 01:10:51,800
talk about history. That's a historical house falling apart. Pillars

850
01:10:51,800 --> 01:10:59,400
off of it. And I'm not a big public speaker, so I'm a little nervous. But anyway, so I respect

851
01:10:59,400 --> 01:11:00,300
the history here.

852
01:11:02,360 --> 01:11:06,080
The only reason I'm going to tell you this is to compare it. My profession,

853
01:11:06,880 --> 01:11:16,680
I've been a farm veterinarian for 25 plus years, and I had a clinic in Apex. And Apex

854
01:11:16,680 --> 01:11:22,240
and Holly Springs and Cary and Fuqua have all blended together and the traffic

855
01:11:22,240 --> 01:11:28,020
has changed 20 years ago to now. You don't even recognize it. The roads that I

856
01:11:28,020 --> 01:11:33,020
used to go through and cut through and get to a farm 20 minutes quicker, you're

857
01:11:33,020 --> 01:11:38,530
waiting in two hours of traffic. And I say that to make sure that we don't

858
01:11:38,530 --> 01:11:44,790
end up doing that a lot of that. Community is moving south and

859
01:11:44,790 --> 01:11:51,270
west. And I encourage like you have small farms. I would

860
01:11:51,270 --> 01:11:55,690
encourage that we continue to keep more county as an

861
01:11:55,690 --> 01:12:00,030
agricultural county. We talk about commercialism and that's

862
01:12:00,030 --> 01:12:04,430
fine. Smart growth would be the way to go. I mean we have

863
01:12:06,250 --> 01:12:13,050
commercial openings, you load the food line in whispering pines, there's standing areas

864
01:12:13,510 --> 01:12:16,250
for rental that have been for rental for a year.

865
01:12:16,750 --> 01:12:22,490
So there is room to grow there, but smart growth as far as that's concerned.

866
01:12:24,190 --> 01:12:31,150
And so I guess those are the things that I'd like to just kind of to bring up that

867
01:12:31,150 --> 01:12:31,850
we watch it.

868
01:12:31,850 --> 01:12:38,090
We go, personally, I'd like to stay agricultural as much as possible.

869
01:12:38,310 --> 01:12:39,430
I realize we're going to have growth.

870
01:12:40,070 --> 01:12:43,390
But you look at the growth, you look at the news stories coming out of Raleigh.

871
01:12:43,530 --> 01:12:46,490
Look at the news stories coming out of Kerry and Apex and Holly Springs.

872
01:12:46,670 --> 01:12:49,130
There's things that we never heard of, the shootings,

873
01:12:49,390 --> 01:12:51,330
the things like that that we hear from big cities.

874
01:12:52,330 --> 01:12:55,790
That we hear from, I had an actual client several years ago

875
01:12:56,490 --> 01:12:58,810
who had parked her vehicle.

876
01:12:59,710 --> 01:13:04,610
It was winter time she had her dogs in it. She kept her truck running to keep the heat on.

877
01:13:04,730 --> 01:13:07,750
She ran into the Walgreens, and this was on Highway 55.

878
01:13:07,970 --> 01:13:09,570
I remember telling me the story about it.

879
01:13:10,730 --> 01:13:14,470
She left out. She went into the Walgreens for five minutes.

880
01:13:14,890 --> 01:13:17,210
Her truck was running. She came out and her truck had been stolen.

881
01:13:18,190 --> 01:13:24,190
And the only reason they found it was because the guy that stole the truck had gone across the street to the gas station to fill it up.

882
01:13:25,870 --> 01:13:31,690
So I just think we have to be very smart about what we're doing as far as growth is concerned.

883
01:13:32,610 --> 01:13:39,710
I get that we're going to have to grow, I guess, but, you know, if we watch our independent farming,

884
01:13:40,690 --> 01:13:46,270
our small farms, and know our neighbors, I can't remember who said that, but know your neighbors.

885
01:13:46,410 --> 01:13:50,230
They may not be, but two miles away, but still know your neighbors and know who they are.

886
01:13:50,870 --> 01:13:55,830
We can help each other. I mean, remember when the, you know, the generators were shot out, right?

887
01:13:56,050 --> 01:14:01,690
There was a lot of people that needed help, and we can certainly be our own community to do that. Thank you.

888
01:14:07,880 --> 01:14:10,140
Thank you. We'll hear from speaker number 18.

889
01:14:13,850 --> 01:14:16,470
Good evening. I'm Angela Cummings-Thompson.

890
01:14:17,230 --> 01:14:25,310
I am a native of Bass and my, I grew up on a farm and I did not plan to come and speak.

891
01:14:25,310 --> 01:14:33,310
I'm also a realtor and I am the president elect of our Mid Carolina Association of Realtors MLS Board

892
01:14:33,310 --> 01:14:40,430
for next year. And so I just wanted to hear what everybody's had to say and then felt very comfortable

893
01:14:40,430 --> 01:14:47,650
here tonight listening to many of my neighbors and agree with just about everything everyone has said.

894
01:14:47,650 --> 01:14:54,870
I just wanted to bring up one more thing that wasn't brought up before and that I live on

895
01:14:54,870 --> 01:14:55,790
Morrison Bridge Road.

896
01:14:56,310 --> 01:14:59,830
So I know all about the development that's going on.

897
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:10,080
Because that was my dad's farm. That was a chicken farm. And I know everything about that land and the 311 homes that are going in.

898
01:15:10,700 --> 01:15:20,700
Also, the developer has the largest lawsuit in the history of any construction company in our country.

899
01:15:20,700 --> 01:15:28,500
And that was in South Carolina, D.R. Horton, and you can look up all the information about

900
01:15:28,500 --> 01:15:31,620
the lawsuits with that and the quality of those bills.

901
01:15:32,540 --> 01:15:41,000
Not to mention or to mention that that farm, that acreage, that development is on, I called

902
01:15:41,000 --> 01:15:42,460
the company to ask.

903
01:15:42,920 --> 01:15:47,840
As a realtor, if I'm going to be selling these houses in my backyard, do they have

904
01:15:47,840 --> 01:15:54,840
to have flood insurance. Because whenever Florence and Matthew were here, I helped 45

905
01:15:54,840 --> 01:16:02,220
of my neighbors demucked houses just down the road. And they lost, there were 45 homes.

906
01:16:02,960 --> 01:16:13,220
And several friends and other realtors helped. And I whenever that happened, I had to stay

907
01:16:13,220 --> 01:16:19,720
in my house I could not leave because if I left I was not allowed to come home because of the flood

908
01:16:19,720 --> 01:16:30,280
zone. So nobody's mentioned 311 homes after we talked about those 45 homes that were flooded

909
01:16:30,280 --> 01:16:38,120
and democked and not allowed to rebuild having trouble getting permits to rebuild their homes

910
01:16:38,120 --> 01:16:45,940
but then we have a development going in my backyard so I would urge you to check

911
01:16:45,940 --> 01:16:53,600
the flood zone the floodway for those and then also as a farmer's daughter and

912
01:16:53,600 --> 01:17:00,320
a realtor you know I feel really torn and I've had several friends neighbors

913
01:17:00,320 --> 01:17:05,600
asked me what my thoughts are on it well some of these people inherit

914
01:17:05,600 --> 01:17:10,860
farms. I inherited my parents' farm. My dad is no longer able to farm. He was a

915
01:17:10,860 --> 01:17:16,200
tobacco farmer, hay farmer, and chicken farmer. He is unable to do that anymore. So

916
01:17:16,200 --> 01:17:22,740
I have this land and thankful to a local farmer and neighbor in here that he's

917
01:17:22,740 --> 01:17:28,280
still working on the farm. But there's no money in that. There's none. And so

918
01:17:28,280 --> 01:17:33,440
people are having to sell their farms. And I always thought it was the 10.01

919
01:17:33,440 --> 01:17:38,120
one acres why. And that's what I always told my clients for the longest time I

920
01:17:38,120 --> 01:17:43,100
didn't realize that you could come out on or a zoning and put in a major sub

921
01:17:43,100 --> 01:17:51,300
division. And now I'm seeing it in my own backyard and it's not pretty. Thank

922
01:17:51,300 --> 01:17:53,880
you for all of these meetings I think it's great.

923
01:17:56,340 --> 01:17:57,960
What was the status of the

924
01:17:57,960 --> 01:18:03,000
insurance availability flood insurance for those homes. They told me that they

925
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:04,420
would get back to me and I've not heard.

926
01:18:06,960 --> 01:18:08,900
Thank you. Thank

927
01:18:14,880 --> 01:18:16,900
you. We'll now hear from

928
01:18:16,900 --> 01:18:17,920
speaker number 19.

929
01:18:28,930 --> 01:18:32,290
I really did not come prepared to speak but after sitting

930
01:18:32,290 --> 01:18:34,670
out there and listening for a little while and thinking about it I felt

931
01:18:34,670 --> 01:18:39,910
compelled to do so. My name is Blake Atkins. I'm married to one of Lou and

932
01:18:39,910 --> 01:18:46,450
Blue's daughters. I'm 34 years old and I've been here for 34 years. I farmed

933
01:18:46,450 --> 01:18:48,750
here with my dad and my brother for 34 years.

934
01:18:49,650 --> 01:18:51,950
Well, I'll say it pretty much 34 years,

935
01:18:52,090 --> 01:18:54,670
but I've never put in a job application anywhere

936
01:18:54,670 --> 01:18:55,750
in my entire life.

937
01:18:55,990 --> 01:18:57,190
I've never been off the farm.

938
01:18:58,990 --> 01:19:04,330
We had, oh yeah, and also we were awarded my dad,

939
01:19:04,430 --> 01:19:06,610
my brother, and I, the Moore County Outstanding Farm

940
01:19:06,610 --> 01:19:09,430
Business Family of the Year Award from this man right here

941
01:19:09,430 --> 01:19:10,770
back in 2017.

942
01:19:11,710 --> 01:19:13,830
We'd like to consider where we took a lot of pride

943
01:19:13,830 --> 01:19:15,090
in what we'd done for a living

944
01:19:15,090 --> 01:19:17,010
and we felt like we were pretty good at it.

945
01:19:18,410 --> 01:19:21,630
We had to sit down here about seven or eight months ago

946
01:19:22,070 --> 01:19:25,210
and make a decision that we wanted to keep on forming,

947
01:19:25,310 --> 01:19:27,170
but we could no longer make a full-time living

948
01:19:27,170 --> 01:19:27,950
doing it anymore.

949
01:19:28,650 --> 01:19:30,470
And then we were laughed at while we were young.

950
01:19:31,150 --> 01:19:33,030
My brother and I, he's three years younger than me

951
01:19:33,030 --> 01:19:36,130
before we wear our bodies out and wear everything out

952
01:19:36,130 --> 01:19:38,410
and all the land's gone and we wait too late.

953
01:19:38,730 --> 01:19:41,050
We need to figure something else out to go along with it

954
01:19:41,050 --> 01:19:42,250
to get us a sense of security.

955
01:19:42,850 --> 01:19:44,570
So that's kind of what we begin to do.

956
01:19:44,570 --> 01:19:51,450
Now with all that being said that's not all has it a lot of some of that does not have anything to do with the county or had no control

957
01:19:52,190 --> 01:19:57,030
With with what's went on, but let's talk for a minute about what has what the county does

958
01:19:57,030 --> 01:20:02,630
What's went on in the county that does play a lot of factors and why we've had to make this decision. I

959
01:20:02,630 --> 01:20:03,510
will start with

960
01:20:04,130 --> 01:20:07,570
The neighborhoods and even some of the little hobby farms

961
01:20:07,570 --> 01:20:10,510
I much rather see the hobby farms all day long than the neighborhoods

962
01:20:10,510 --> 01:20:12,910
but we'll point kinda at both of them.

963
01:20:13,290 --> 01:20:15,330
They come out here and settle right in the middle

964
01:20:15,330 --> 01:20:18,890
of where we live and work at to put food on the table

965
01:20:18,890 --> 01:20:21,570
and hopefully like send our kids to college one day

966
01:20:21,570 --> 01:20:23,650
and all that, like what everybody else's dream is.

967
01:20:24,130 --> 01:20:26,150
Well, I have to go get pesticide license

968
01:20:26,150 --> 01:20:27,590
and all these different license

969
01:20:27,590 --> 01:20:29,330
and go through these rigorous processes

970
01:20:29,330 --> 01:20:31,650
in order for me to come up here to the farm supply

971
01:20:32,210 --> 01:20:35,130
and buy the things that I need to apply to my crops

972
01:20:35,130 --> 01:20:36,470
in order for me to make it.

973
01:20:36,470 --> 01:20:43,010
Well, a resident can walk in loaves or anywhere else and buy a product over the counter that

974
01:20:43,010 --> 01:20:47,730
has the same ingredients that I have to be licensed for that I consider myself a professional.

975
01:20:47,970 --> 01:20:49,490
Spray hundreds of acres every day.

976
01:20:49,610 --> 01:20:50,370
I know what I'm doing.

977
01:20:50,770 --> 01:20:52,730
I go to trainings on it a few times a year.

978
01:20:53,030 --> 01:20:55,790
They can walk in there and buy it and go spray around their yard.

979
01:20:56,270 --> 01:21:01,270
And that stuff drifts over on our crops and it doesn't only have to be the wind.

980
01:21:01,950 --> 01:21:05,510
Some of it, it volatiles is when the temperatures aren't right or there's a temperature

981
01:21:05,510 --> 01:21:10,370
and version taking place. It gets up and it takes off across the crops and when I

982
01:21:10,370 --> 01:21:14,790
say this over about the past five to six years we haven't lost no five or six

983
01:21:14,790 --> 01:21:18,490
thousand dollars. We've been affected to the tune of over a hundred thousand

984
01:21:18,490 --> 01:21:27,570
dollars in crop damages. That's number one. Number two I'll go on the risk, the

985
01:21:27,570 --> 01:21:31,130
risk of our our migrant workers that we have to pay a lot of money to get

986
01:21:31,130 --> 01:21:34,090
over here and provide housing for them to live in here. The North

987
01:21:34,090 --> 01:21:39,850
County Courage Association, they're not used, they don't speak English. They're

988
01:21:39,850 --> 01:21:45,090
not used to like all this traffic all over the place. These people in a hurry

989
01:21:45,090 --> 01:21:50,710
passing us on double yellow lines. We can't afford to carry the risk, the

990
01:21:50,710 --> 01:21:56,170
liability of something happening. We got 15 of them workers in a van and

991
01:21:56,170 --> 01:22:00,090
somebody or them driving a tractor up the road for us or pulling our trailers

992
01:22:00,090 --> 01:22:05,970
and these people were just, you know, everybody's in a hurry, nobody wants to get up 10 minutes

993
01:22:05,970 --> 01:22:10,250
earlier in the morning. And we have to get our work done in the morning, or somebody

994
01:22:10,250 --> 01:22:14,930
would die from the heat. Y'all know what it's like in the sand hills in the middle of July

995
01:22:14,930 --> 01:22:20,470
and August, but you're still in the debacle field from the debacle. So with that being

996
01:22:20,470 --> 01:22:28,710
said, that's pretty much all I've got. The neighborhood stuff out here in the

997
01:22:28,710 --> 01:22:31,930
middle needs to stop this like like Lewin said these people don't understand

998
01:22:31,930 --> 01:22:35,630
what they got if something happens to me I want my kids to be able to sell land if

999
01:22:35,630 --> 01:22:40,670
they want to we're in such a desirable place now in such a gym mind these five

1000
01:22:40,670 --> 01:22:44,950
ten acre tracks and plus will bring more money than what these subdivision

1001
01:22:44,950 --> 01:22:49,110
developments the only person that misses out is the track developer that

1002
01:22:49,110 --> 01:22:53,670
was never from from here anyways that doesn't give a rat's a double S about

1003
01:22:53,670 --> 01:22:56,630
this place we do but thank you all

1004
01:23:03,320 --> 01:23:05,580
thank you well now here from speaker number

1005
01:23:05,580 --> 01:23:11,600
20 and I believe this is the last speaker but if anyone else has signed up

1006
01:23:11,600 --> 01:23:20,060
just let us know after this one good evening thank you for your time in

1007
01:23:20,060 --> 01:23:24,720
your ears my name is Cameron Moore I am a Navy law enforcement veteran I've been

1008
01:23:24,720 --> 01:23:31,400
home for about three years now the biggest problem I have with all these

1009
01:23:31,400 --> 01:23:43,720
people coming in is our emergency operations. Since 2019 per NCDOJ, 506 fewer recruitment

1010
01:23:44,570 --> 01:23:52,160
tests have come in. So as more people come in, what are we going to do for crime, for

1011
01:23:53,000 --> 01:23:59,720
firefighter, EMS, NTE. Short and sweet. Thank you. Have a great night.

1012
01:24:07,440 --> 01:24:08,100
Thank you.

1013
01:24:08,260 --> 01:24:11,340
Has anyone signed up to speak that we did not call the number for?

1014
01:24:14,450 --> 01:24:15,730
Okay. So with

1015
01:24:15,730 --> 01:24:19,270
that, again, thank you all for being here tonight and sharing your thoughts, you

1016
01:24:19,270 --> 01:24:24,090
know, updating a land use plan. We can't do it without participation from the

1017
01:24:24,090 --> 01:24:27,990
public since it is your guys' plan in the end. So we really appreciate hearing

1018
01:24:27,990 --> 01:24:32,750
from all of you tonight and before you leave tonight don't forget to put your

1019
01:24:32,750 --> 01:24:36,150
comment cards in the comment box so if you have any written comments we can

1020
01:24:36,150 --> 01:24:41,510
check those off and then also the survey that was in your welcome packet for

1021
01:24:41,510 --> 01:24:45,270
public participation please fill that out as well and leave it at the front

1022
01:24:45,270 --> 01:24:48,890
welcome table and I will turn it over to the board now thank you.

1023
01:24:54,000 --> 01:24:54,660
Before I

1024
01:24:54,660 --> 01:24:59,100
make a couple comments I first want to let you know your planning board for

1025
01:24:59,100 --> 01:25:05,520
Moore County is sitting down here we have I'm gonna let you stand up and say

1026
01:25:05,520 --> 01:25:10,980
your name loudly so they know who you are and what you do so please

1027
01:25:33,790 --> 01:25:37,070
and they

1028
01:25:37,070 --> 01:25:41,550
work really hard to get to listen to a lot of things that you bring to the

1029
01:25:41,550 --> 01:25:46,410
planning board so that it then if it they they solve a lot of issues that

1030
01:25:46,410 --> 01:25:50,610
before it ever comes to the commission if it ever does let me say

1031
01:25:50,610 --> 01:25:58,650
this and I say this was all my heart. I'm sitting here, I'm looking at John Halsey. I worked

1032
01:25:58,650 --> 01:26:03,730
on their farm right across the street when I was a young and so I know what that heat

1033
01:26:03,730 --> 01:26:11,070
is like in the summertime and I saw her smiling a lot. I love Moore County and I love you

1034
01:26:11,070 --> 01:26:17,590
guys for coming in here and speaking what you feel is in your heart. We can't govern

1035
01:26:17,590 --> 01:26:23,010
and help change and do things without knowing what you're speaking and I know

1036
01:26:23,010 --> 01:26:27,710
it takes a lot of guts to get up and speak in front of Mike and in front of

1037
01:26:27,710 --> 01:26:33,210
other people and speak your heart but I'm so so so proud of you for doing it

1038
01:26:33,210 --> 01:26:40,350
believe me we're hearing and we're listening I can tell you I can help Nick

1039
01:26:40,350 --> 01:26:44,050
me and Nick was silent we thought about starting the law firm call it

1040
01:26:44,050 --> 01:26:48,350
Nick and Nick. What do you think? Sounds good, doesn't it? Nick and Nick Law Firm?

1041
01:26:49,070 --> 01:26:54,830
But anyway, Nick, we'll make one comment for you. We have not decided on if we're

1042
01:26:54,830 --> 01:26:58,630
having steering. We haven't gotten that far yet. We decided to do the listening

1043
01:26:58,630 --> 01:27:03,110
sessions first and then we'll have a discussion on Friday and you're welcome

1044
01:27:03,110 --> 01:27:08,190
to come at 2 p.m. Senior Enrichment Center. Well, we will

1045
01:27:08,190 --> 01:27:12,950
start discussing how we take what we've heard and start formulating game

1046
01:27:12,950 --> 01:27:17,050
plan. You know you hear a lot of different sides of the story. I heard

1047
01:27:17,050 --> 01:27:22,890
tweak the plan. I've heard rewrite the plan. I agree as well that the plan was

1048
01:27:22,890 --> 01:27:29,190
pretty well done back in 2013. They did magnificent work and we and we don't

1049
01:27:29,190 --> 01:27:33,870
want to lose what we got here. I certainly don't. I'll be honest with you.

1050
01:27:33,930 --> 01:27:38,290
I have a hard time going to Southern Fines now driving so I'm getting older

1051
01:27:38,290 --> 01:27:40,670
and we're all getting a little bit older, right, John?

1052
01:27:40,930 --> 01:27:43,610
I'm 70 years old now, so she told me that,

1053
01:27:43,650 --> 01:27:45,030
so I can say that up here.

1054
01:27:45,910 --> 01:27:47,290
So yeah, there you go.

1055
01:27:47,690 --> 01:27:47,890
See?

1056
01:27:48,170 --> 01:27:48,910
We're good friends.

1057
01:27:49,150 --> 01:27:51,790
That's what good friends do and good neighbors do.

1058
01:27:52,310 --> 01:27:55,350
So, and I appreciate everybody coming here and speaking.

1059
01:27:55,810 --> 01:27:57,250
I'm gonna let each commissioner,

1060
01:27:57,330 --> 01:27:59,210
if they'd like to make a closing comment,

1061
01:27:59,510 --> 01:28:02,530
and then I'll ask for a motion to close.

1062
01:28:03,110 --> 01:28:05,690
We invite you to come to Northmore and speak again

1063
01:28:05,690 --> 01:28:13,130
If you would like on Thursday at 5 30 will be doing the same thing and then again like I say on Friday 2 p.m

1064
01:28:13,130 --> 01:28:20,590
Senior Enrichment Center will start formulating the plan and we feel the same as you do. We don't want to lose what we got

1065
01:28:20,590 --> 01:28:23,410
We don't want to become a

1066
01:28:23,410 --> 01:28:29,250
Fable and apex or any of that. So you're not speaking to deaf ears

1067
01:28:29,250 --> 01:28:36,190
We all have that same heart and I think you'll find out that we got to just figure out how to do the process

1068
01:28:36,190 --> 01:28:41,930
so that everybody's treated fairly and that should be done. Everybody should be treated fairly.

1069
01:28:42,510 --> 01:28:43,910
So with that, Frank?

1070
01:28:44,810 --> 01:28:48,350
Thank you, Nick. And thanks to everybody who came out tonight.

1071
01:28:49,030 --> 01:28:53,310
It was informative. A couple of weeks ago at Pinecrest High School,

1072
01:28:53,310 --> 01:28:59,330
So we heard many people from the Southern Pines, Pioneers, Dabardine area.

1073
01:29:00,190 --> 01:29:08,390
Tonight we heard so many people from Bass, Cameron, Carthage, Rural, Eastern, Moore County.

1074
01:29:09,930 --> 01:29:14,690
Didn't hear, in Pinecrest, maybe one farmer.

1075
01:29:14,690 --> 01:29:22,230
tonight we heard from so many farmers and small and large who this is how you

1076
01:29:22,230 --> 01:29:28,010
make a living and it's a lifestyle too that's important and it's one of the

1077
01:29:28,010 --> 01:29:33,550
important features about Moore County that attracts us all so we we're getting

1078
01:29:33,550 --> 01:29:38,770
that we're hearing that and I hope we hear from folks in the western part

1079
01:29:38,770 --> 01:29:42,890
northern part of Moore County when we're up at Northmore this Thursday

1080
01:29:42,890 --> 01:29:50,030
I will ask you, if you know someone that lives up in that area that would like to come out

1081
01:29:50,030 --> 01:29:53,930
and tell us what they think, please call them.

1082
01:29:54,010 --> 01:29:57,510
Encourage them to come out and let us hear from them.

1083
01:29:57,730 --> 01:29:58,690
We really want to.

1084
01:30:00,180 --> 01:30:10,600
We're learning, we're listening, and we're appreciative of your sincere interest and willingness to come out and speak up tonight.

1085
01:30:11,240 --> 01:30:19,780
And we want to hear from you. Those of you here that did not speak to us, write us an email, write us a letter, go to the website.

1086
01:30:20,060 --> 01:30:27,580
There's a way to fill out a questionnaire. We really want to hear more because it helps us all. Thank you.

1087
01:30:34,060 --> 01:30:36,720
Again, thank you all for coming out here.

1088
01:30:37,000 --> 01:30:40,620
We're listening hard and everything that you're saying

1089
01:30:40,620 --> 01:30:43,940
out there has been resonated before and is resonated now.

1090
01:30:44,540 --> 01:30:46,380
We need to get back to local builders.

1091
01:30:46,960 --> 01:30:48,800
We've got, and I call them carpet baggers,

1092
01:30:48,900 --> 01:30:50,280
you can print that if you want to.

1093
01:30:50,940 --> 01:30:54,100
They're coming in and they're building shoddy houses.

1094
01:30:54,460 --> 01:30:55,700
They're LLCs.

1095
01:30:55,880 --> 01:30:58,400
You can't even sue them for the damage they're doing.

1096
01:30:59,140 --> 01:31:01,040
We need to have bigger lots out there.

1097
01:31:01,040 --> 01:31:05,800
where we travel around a lot and we get a lot of calls to these developments that have

1098
01:31:05,800 --> 01:31:10,620
been thrown in there and the children don't have yards to play in.

1099
01:31:11,040 --> 01:31:16,180
A lot of them are playing in the street and that's not what children should do.

1100
01:31:16,840 --> 01:31:20,880
We need to preserve our history and I'll use another word I call them Taliban.

1101
01:31:21,280 --> 01:31:24,740
We've got people coming in here and trying to destroy things that have been here

1102
01:31:24,740 --> 01:31:30,560
for 200 years and they need to go back and they need to and they're going to

1103
01:31:30,560 --> 01:31:34,640
make tens of millions of dollars when they're destroying it and that's going

1104
01:31:34,640 --> 01:31:39,200
to be taxpayers you're paying and you're paying for them to come in and take

1105
01:31:39,200 --> 01:31:43,220
our history away so we're all going to stick together we all need to be

1106
01:31:43,220 --> 01:31:48,360
neighbors and family and we are and and I didn't hear anybody say West End

1107
01:31:48,360 --> 01:31:52,820
earlier we need to keep remembering Lakeview and West End because they're

1108
01:31:52,820 --> 01:31:56,780
out there and they've been here a long time but no we're listening we're

1109
01:31:56,780 --> 01:32:02,440
gonna do whatever it takes and we need to take care of the county and we need to

1110
01:32:02,440 --> 01:32:06,100
take care of our neighbors as well and thank you for coming out.

1111
01:32:10,840 --> 01:32:11,760
Well ladies and

1112
01:32:11,760 --> 01:32:16,240
gentlemen I do also want to thank you for being here tonight and I must say

1113
01:32:16,240 --> 01:32:23,860
that I appreciate the passion with which you have spoken and also combined

1114
01:32:23,860 --> 01:32:30,160
with the decorum and civility that really is the signature of our

1115
01:32:30,160 --> 01:32:33,740
community because we do know each other and we do have a sense of community.

1116
01:32:34,520 --> 01:32:40,000
So just this meeting tonight is a shining example of why living in Moore

1117
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:43,800
County is so great. So I appreciate you for that. I thank you for your ideas and

1118
01:32:43,800 --> 01:32:48,260
thoughts that you have shared. We are listening and taking everything into

1119
01:32:48,260 --> 01:32:53,020
account and we look forward to seeing you all come come on up-to-up from

1120
01:32:53,020 --> 01:32:57,140
Moore County on Thursday and be with us again at Northmore High School.

1121
01:32:57,140 --> 01:33:06,440
but I look forward to hearing more and working with everyone as we strive to have the best

1122
01:33:06,440 --> 01:33:07,820
county that we can.

1123
01:33:08,280 --> 01:33:10,000
So thank you so much, each and every one of you.

1124
01:33:13,470 --> 01:33:14,210
Thank you, Board.

1125
01:33:14,570 --> 01:33:17,090
You can see why it's such a pleasure to work with these gentlemen.

1126
01:33:17,810 --> 01:33:21,090
There's other folks I'd like to thank.

1127
01:33:21,250 --> 01:33:22,230
Our staff is here.

1128
01:33:22,690 --> 01:33:26,830
We've got our attorney and our planning director, our clerk to the Board and our

1129
01:33:26,830 --> 01:33:31,270
county manager. They do a fantastic job of listening to you and operating this

1130
01:33:31,270 --> 01:33:36,210
county without them. We could not make that's why people wanting to come and

1131
01:33:36,210 --> 01:33:40,390
also our law enforcement standing over here in the on the in behind the scenes.

1132
01:33:40,390 --> 01:33:45,550
But thank God for we need them and they keep the disability and that's one

1133
01:33:45,550 --> 01:33:50,450
of the reasons they're coming out of Cumberland County. I can attest you

1134
01:33:50,450 --> 01:33:53,430
don't want to live in Cumberland County. You want to live in more

1135
01:33:53,430 --> 01:33:59,150
county and we wanted to keep it that way so we have listened to you now one last

1136
01:33:59,150 --> 01:34:04,810
thing gentlemen raise your hands all the gentlemen in here raise your hands

1137
01:34:04,810 --> 01:34:10,750
gentlemen if you're a gentleman raise your hands what is tomorrow is

1138
01:34:14,200 --> 01:34:15,180
Valentine's

1139
01:34:15,180 --> 01:34:23,130
Day take care of your sweetheart and that is a county ordinance just kidding

1140
01:34:23,130 --> 01:34:28,270
I get in trouble for doing that with that I need a motion to adjourn I have

1141
01:34:28,270 --> 01:34:33,230
motion from Commissioner Von Cannon, seconded by Commissioner Ritter, any further discussion

1142
01:34:33,230 --> 01:34:34,750
on favor say aye.

1143
01:34:35,890 --> 01:34:36,830
We stand adjourned.

1144
01:34:36,930 --> 01:34:38,450
Please be safe going home.