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5/26/99 <br />IV. ADEQUATE AND TIMELY PROVISION OF <br />PARKLAND AND NATURAL CORRIDORS <br />A. Ensuring Recreation Needs Are Met <br />In Section II of this document, recreation needs have been identified for each <br />of the jurisdictions within Orange County, using previous works and new <br />assessments. While there are some differences between the jurisdictions, in <br />general the needs fall into the following major categories: <br />• Acquisition of lands for long-term park use ("land-banking"); <br />• School/park combinations; <br />• Acquisition of open space and natural areas for low-impact recreation; <br />• Acquisition and development of greenways, trails, and linear parks; <br />• Active recreation facilities and/or gymnasiums <br />• Larger community/district parks with a mixture. of activities <br />• Neighborhood-scale parks <br />If coordinated capital funding and long-term land acquisition is pursued, a <br />flexible process must be developed that would allow for revisions as well. as <br />the introduction of new priorities with a timetable that ranks needs and <br />establishes a reasonable timeframe to assure the communities' recreational <br />needs are being met. A model along the lines of the NCDOT seven-year <br />Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) might be a starting point. <br />A multi-jurisdictional committee charged with evaluating needs, funding <br />availability and long-term plans could undertake the development of this <br />mechanism. <br />B. Greenways in Urban Areas and Wildlife Corridors <br />in Rural Areas <br />One of the most prominent needs identified in both urban and rural areas are <br />the need to preserve green corridors. These corridors serve a variety of <br />recreation needs, while preserving visual and natural resources. In rural <br />areas, the need for wildlife corridors has been documented -areas that serve <br />as connectors between watersheds along streamways and ridges. Inside the <br />Towns, paved or gravel trails along utility easements and streamways have <br />been and continue to be a high priority -such as the much-used -Bolin Creek <br />Greenway in Chapel Hill. Other types of corridors merge these two concepts, <br />serving as a combination of the two (such as Eno River State Park and the <br />planned Riverwalk in Hillsborough/Orange County). <br />19 <br />