Orange County NC Website
<br />4 ~' <br />NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the US Land & Water Conservation Fund) We <br />have obtained rough consulting estimates ranging from $30,000-$50,000. We made a similar <br />request to the Chapel Hill Town Council last November and the Carrboro Board of Aldermen in <br />January. Both towns responded enthusiastically to our proposal. We are keenly aware of the <br />success of the New Hope Master Plan which has served as a blueprint in identifying critical <br />parcels for acquisition and protection over the past decade and believe that this approach will be <br />similarly useful in guiding the acquisition and preservation of the Bolin Creek Corridor. <br />Why should we preserve the Bolin Creek Corridor? We believe the following four <br />reasons are very important: <br />(1) With burgeoning growth in southern Orange County, this is a critical period where it is <br />essential to carefully manage urban growth in the Bolin Creek Watershed. If the <br />watershed is not preserved over the next few years, the opportunity will be lost forever. <br />Although the Chapel Hill sections of the watershed are largely built out, construction <br />upstream in Carrboro and the Northern Transition Zone could have enormous impact on <br />the entire watershed, exacerbating the chronic flood problems in the University <br />MalUCameiot Apartments area. <br />(2) There is an important need to establish connectivity of natural areas, existing and <br />planned parks and greenways. Chapel Hill has built a very popular, extensively used <br />greenway/bikeway stretching along Bolin Creek from the Community Center on Estes <br />Drive to Airport Road, but it is a long way from there to the headwaters! It is our dream <br />to continue the Chapel Hill Greenway from Airport Road to Umstead Park and Estes <br />Drive, to have the state DOT restore the streambed under Estes Drive Extension and <br />build a bridge over the creek wide enough to allow wildlife and greenway corridors (as <br />part of the improvements that will be made to Estes Drive to accommodate traffic to the <br />new Horace Williams Campus), connect to Wilson Park and the planned Carrboro <br />Greenway, run connectors to Seawell Elementary, Smith Middle and Chapel Hill High <br />Schools, a possible connector along the tributary which arises on the Greene Tract, and <br />another segment continuing through Winmore up Jones Creek to the planned County <br />Park. <br />(3) We want to preserve the last intact stretches of native forest habitat remaining in <br />southern Orange County. Two studies by Triangle Land Conservancy within the last <br />five years identified much of the forest areas in the Horace Williams Tract and the <br />Northern Transition Zone as botanically sensitive and ecologically valuable (A <br />Landscape With Wildlife for Orange County and A Landscape With Wildlife for Orange <br />County, Part II by Haven Wiley, Steve Hall and Livy Ludington). Another natural <br />treasure is the Adams Tract, about 30 acres between Estes Drive and Wafters Road in <br />Carrboro. This jewel is an important gateway and access to the park and preserve that <br />we want to establish. Carrboro has already obtained about 200K from the NC Clean <br />Water Management Trust Fund, has requested 750K bond funds from Orange County, <br />and is exploring a variety of other funding sources to purchase this tract. We view <br />acquisition of the Adams Tract as the first critical step in realizing the proposed master <br />plan! <br />