COM 0426.005 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Aloha Council Members, My name is Dorothy Walsh. Most of you have already received a letter from me regarding my position concerning the agricultural tourism bill. Before going any further though, I want you to know that I applaud the county and the commissioners attempt to develop viable economic opportunities for our community. I appreciate the challenges you face with so many competing interests. And I trust you will consider them all and make wise decisions that will balance these interests and benefit our community for years to come. Thank you for facilitating this forum and the opportunity to contribute to the formation of this bill. As you know, I have very personal reasons for making this submission. This is why I have come today. My family lives next door to an emerging agricultural tourism business. I can speak from first-hand experience about the important, practical and sensitive issues to be considered when thinking about the implications of this bill on those residents whose homes are nearby to the businesses covered in this bill. I would like to share several issues from our experience and raise them for your consideration from the point of view of those living nearby to potential ag tourism businesses. We are a case study of the issues raised here. We live less than 100 feet from a new local tourism venture. Their exit is 5 feet from our properly, emptying onto a private road. This company is attempting to be a world class visitor center giving tourists an experience in the history and the process of local coffee production. They operate 6 days a week. There are probably a hundred vehicles of one sort or another including tourists, supply trucks, construction workers, in and out. They run a coffee processing pleat. The challenges we have been faced with are issues relating to a still-on-going three year building process, significantly increased traffic and wear and tear on our small private road; and, very loud, industrial level noise for hours at a time from the coffee processing machine. These may not sound important spoken here today. But imagine these things going on right next door to your home, your place of refuge from the busyness of our everyday work world, and I think you can appreciate our concerns. We built our home before the development of this tourism project. We didn't intend on living near a commercial business. And it has had significant implications on our lives. What I would like to ask you today is to please outline the issues you've considered regarding the impact of these proposed new ag businesses on their neighboring community. And then, the ways you intend to protect the interests and rights of homeowners neighboring them. In other words, what safeguards have you considered to protect the iuterests of community members living around emerging companies from, say, the deterioration of their private road, significantly increased, prolonged industrial noise, and other equally important considerations that have been a part of our daily lives that I have not listed here for the sake of time. Comm. No. Ref. To: ~re~ar~i Ref. core _ SF PL (1 90f15