BC 1977 06 09 - Laserfiche WebLink

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34 Commissioner Hammett made motion to approve the grade, drain, base, pave and seeding of SR # 1206 and SR # 1207 with funds reserved for participation by property owners. Motion seconded by Commissioner Cook and vote carried unanimously. Mr. Gene Cook presented the report, Airport '77 and stated that federal funding levels were decreasing in September 1978. Mr. D. M. Holding asked for formal adoption of the report and to proceed with the construction of a general avaition airport. Attorney Mills gave the following statement in opposition to an airport for the county: "Mr. Chairman and Commissioners for Cabarrus County: We represent a large number of citizens and residents of Cabarrus County who have organized themselves in a group known as the "Concerned Citizens Against Airport '77". More than 789 of these citizens nave signed a Petition in which they express resentment for the fact that the Cabarrus County Airport Authority has been working in secrecy trying to withhold facts relating to their activity in hopes that this matter could be ]?resented to this Board without an opportunity for anyone to object, rlans for presentation of the report to this body were not discovered until Wednesday, June 1, and it was not until Friday, June 3, that the citizens ¢,btained a copy of the proposed plans through our efforts. Now let me state at the outset that all of the people who have signed the petition are not against an airport in Cabarru~ County. The citizens we represent are against the proposed plan, and we will endeavor to outline to you some of the reasons. The Airport Authorit'! notes that Cabarrus County is the largest and most progressive county in th~ State of North Carolina without air facilities. Thus it appears that th,~ "study committee" has begun its investigation on the premise'that Cabarrus County needs a public air facility. But if you do much commercial fl~;ing, you know that it takes about the same amount of time to get to your destination in most cities from the airport as it dOes to drive from Conch.rd to the Douglas Airport in Charlotte. It is noted that the Airport Authority, on page 2 of its report, states that it has been working since the early 1960's in an attempt to determine the need for a local airport and to find suitable space for such a facility before economical land has be~.n depleted. The Authority has not presented you with any fact which wou~d justify a need, and we do not know where the Authority has been looking for economical land or what they call economical. Based upon the consideration for land transactions of which we have knowledge, we would have to classify the value of the land site picked by the Airport Authority as astr¢,nomical rather than economical. There is still an abundance of land in Cabar]~us County, which can be bought for $1,000.00 or less. Yet the Airport Authority proposes to pay $2,500 per acre for 130 acres. This 130-acre tract is .~ part of a 1,200-acre tract which appears on the tax records of Cabarrus County at an average of $380.05 per acre. Now this land is supposed to be o~ the books at 100% valuation. If you will examine the records, you will fiad that tracts of land con- taining more than 130 acres have been transferred during the last 6 months, which lie closer to both the City of Concorf and the City of Kannapolis, for less than $1,000 per acre. Likewise, the p}~ysical features of the land to which we have reference are more adaptable to the construction of airport runways than the terrain encompassed in the 130-acre site proposed by the Air- port Authority. Next, it is noted that the primary concern of the Authority was to find a location that would meet various criteria, which it listed as follows: (1) A location that would be central to the largest population centers in the county - Concord and Kannapolis. We will agree that the proposed site is about as far from Kannapolis as it is from Concord, but all of the citizens of Cabarrus County will be subject to tax to raise the money to finance this project, and all the citizens of Cabarrus County will likewise suffer by reason of any loss of revenue by reason of the construction of the proposed airport. Anyone who thinks that this airport is going to produce $1.00 of revenue in excess of that which will be required for its maintenance and operation is afflicted with delusions of grandeur. Cabarrus County is approximately 25 miles from east to west, and approximately