Minutes - 19871123 - Laserfiche WebLink

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309 Chair Marshall stated that the Board felt that condemnation of land was a very serious issue and there is no intent to condemn land for the Master Recreation and Parks Plan. With an adopted plan, there is a way to acquire those lands under the Subdivision Regulations or the Planned Development procedures. Also, payment-in-lieu of recreational space, enables the building of a fund to buy land that may be vital to the Plan a Mr. Warren responded that he felt such options should be "spelled out" in the plan. Ms. Marshall concurred. Linda Heitzer expressed concern and opposition to the greenway plan. A copy of her comments in a letter to the Durham Morning Herald is in the permanent agenda file in the clerk's office. Laura Lloyd stated that her family are property owners in the Joint Planning Area and Bingham Township. She expressed opposition to the proposed .greenway system which would allow the unsupervised public to walk up and down most of the creeks in Orange County. She asked that the portion of the Plan be omitted which called for the taking of private lands for a public greenway system. She expressed concern that she had already had to donate easements on her property with a five-acre lot subdivision in order to have the subdivision approved with a private road. She felt that the County did not have the right to take private land for public use and she did not desire to have people walking along her property which is in a protected watershed. She continued asking if the County would be securing the stream buffer easements from private property owners in the same manner it had with her subdivision. Max Kennedy, member of the Orange County Board of Education, expressed concern with priorities. The two that he was most concerned about were education and water. He was concerned with the figure of $43,000,ooo.p0 to be spent on recreation over a period of twenty years when he felt that education and water are not adequately addressed both in the current and capital point of view. He questioned whether or not parks could be maintained for the figures presented even if park lands were donated. He expressed concern that the schools had been mentioned as one of the agencies involved in the development of the plan. He noted that the orange County School Board had not been involved in the project even though some personnel have contributed information for those involved in the plan development. He emphasized that his Board had neither endorsed nor condemned the Plan at this point nor were they part and parcel of the Plan. Mr. Kennedy continued in reference to the comment that greenways would develop as adjacent property is developed, that it would be required of the individual developers to donate to the County as a provision of the Subdivision Regulations. He expressed concern that the rights of property owners are subordinate to those desiring to walk on their property.