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November 13, 1998 Christen D. Upper Karen S. Upper 8454 Highway 19 Cross Plains, WI 53528 608 798-2286 Members of the Dane County Board of Supervisors RE: Zoning Petition#7109 (Street/Keuler, Town of Berry). We are farmers who are facing potential damage by proposed development. Because the development will change the rural nature of our area, because it requires bending and breaking the rules of the Town Land Use Plan, because it appears to create an area of"landlocked" agricultural land and because it will have a negative impact on Indian Lake Park, we hope that the County Board will concur with the ZNR and defeat the petition. Interference with adjacent agriculture: Our primary objection to the Street/Keuler petition#7109 is that it presents a direct conflict with our farm business: specifically with the marketing of our crops. We grow vegetables and Christmas Trees and market them on a pick-your-own basis. One of the reasons that our customers come to our farm to buy our produce is the peace and quiet of the rural setting of our farm. Although we are fairly close to Madison, the area around our farm fields is little developed, and our customers feel like they are really out in the middle of nowhere as they harvest our vegetable and Christmas tree crops. This provides substantial recreational value for our customers, and returning business for us. The houses on the two western lots of the proposed rezone will be only a short distance from our fields, and will clearly change the "rural" feeling of the place, cutting into customer satisfaction and our sales. Thus, approving this zoning change will allow development at the expense of an existing agricultural enterprise. Would the County Board favor a rezone in an agricultural area that interfered with milk truck access to a dairy farmer's barn? Surely interfering with the ability of a direct marketer to attract customers has the same effect as preventing the milk truck from getting to the milkhouse. Conflict with the Town of Berry Land Use Plan: The proposed rezone violates the intent of the Berry Town Land Use plan. The land use plan requires each lot to have highway access. The intent of that requirement is to restrict development to areas with reasonable highway access. Although the redrawn survey map provides "paper" access to highway 19 (66 foot wide by approximately 1000 foot long access strips) it violates the intent of the land use plan because the strips cross hillsides so steep that it would be impossible to build driveways on them. A shared driveway is proposed to provide the only real access for all 4 lots. (This problem is not easily fixed by construction of a Town road instead of a shared driveway because developments that require a new Town road are prohibited by the Land Use Plan.) Construction is proposed on soil types considered inappropriate for that use by the Land Use plan. In approving the rezone, the Town Board has chosen to unilaterally