Application to rezone 61 acers at 3531 Hwy 54 West - Forestar Group/Carolyn Rigsbee

[P&V]

Dear Commissioners,

We would like to follow up on the October 7th meeting on the above application that was approved.

Peter spoke and listened to the developer presentation and comments by County Commissioners and could not find what guiding principles commissioners used to approve this development, changing the R1-Rural Residential to R-CD Conditional District.

The property could have been developed freely as R1, so this was not about development or no development, it was about high density or low density in a rural district already showing signs of growth stress. Were commissioners using the developer's higher profit motive as their guide, or maybe an urgent need to address scarce housing, or maybe the almost saintly presentation by Carolyn Rigsbee to finally profit from inherited property? This developer already has another application for his cookie cutter development strategy. I wonder how commissioners will square a different decision to maybe deny that application, as we fear this decision will now serve as precedence. Potential community well water shortages cannot be predicted, which was a big issue in questions by commissioners, who ultimately decided the issue was for others to deal with - certainly not the then long gone developer.

We don't know how the 2050 Plan is being formulated and if there will be some concrete guiding of community principles that existing land owners can count on to preserve OUR quality of life - or at least mitigate and slow developer intensions to profit from a lower quality of life for Rural Orange.

I think a dedicated open and public discussion of guiding principles in development should occur for the 2050 plan so that decisions are more than gut feel.

Sincerely,

Peter & Vicki Childers