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The Board received a special presentation from the Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) on their recent report "State of Open Space 2002, The Status of the Triangle's Green Infrastructure." Kate Dixon, Executive Director of the Triangle Land Conservancy, said that they work in six counties (Orange, Durham, Wake, Johnston, Chatham, and Lee) and their report is about how all of these counties are doing in protecting open space. She said that TLC is anon-profit that works to protect open space through conservation easements, land purchase, and land donation. To date, they have protected 4,500 acres of land and about 48 different properties. About 1,400 acres of this are in Orange County, including 18 different tracts. They have done more land projects in Orange County than anywhere else. This is the second time this kind of report has been produced by the TLC. They found that 6,000 acres were protected in the 2.5 years between January 1, 2000 to June 30, 2002. The rate of land development was about 72,000 acres, which is about two and a half times the size of Cary. There has been a big increase in the amount of land being protected. They also found that most of the new land being protected has been by local governments and non-profits and Orange County is a real model in open space protection. Local funding for land protection has also increased. Orange County has played a big part in this. Within the two and a half year period, Orange County (itself) protected 658 acres. They are trying to improve the definitiveness of the numbers being collected. She made reference to page 21, which highlights Orange County as an example of work in land acquisition. Chair Brown asked about others getting this information and Kate Dixon said they would be visiting with all of the counties and about six of the largest municipalities and with their advisory councils on open space. All other elected officials have received a copy of it through the mail. 7. PUBLIC HEARINGS a. 2003-13 County Capital Investment Plan (CIP) Public Hearing The Board considered conducting a public hearing to receive citizen comments regarding the County Manager's Recommended 2003-13 County Capital Investment Plan (CIP) John Link said that the Board of County Commissioners received the presentation on the CIP for 2003-2013 for County projects in April and on May 22"d there will be a presentation on school projects for both school systems. Budget Director Donna Dean gave a review of the presentation that was given in April. She gave a PowerPoint presentation. Examples of projects included in the County's CIP include parks and open space, senior centers in Chapel Hill and central northern Orange County, equipping most County and school facilities with emergency generators, and Orange. County satellite campus of Durham Technical Community College. Many of the projects will be undertaken with the community partners. Examples of unfunded County projects include future park sites, renovations to the Northern Human Services Center in Cedar Grove, construction of the new animal shelter facility, and public safety communications infrastructure. The next step for the Board is for the presentation of the school CIP on May 22"d and after several work sessions, adoption will be on June 26tH PUBLIC COMMENT -none Chair Brown asked when the County Commissioners could add to the list of projects and John Link said to email any additions to the other Board members and to him at any time before the end -of the budget process. Commissioner Gordon said that there was a work session on this and it is still the Manager's recommended budget. Some items were flagged and there were some suggestions made by the Board. She would like a chart on how much the community partners are going to contribute. John Link said that they would come back with a better definition of "partner". Commissioner Gordon asked how John Link was going to follow up on work session suggestions. John Link said that they would report back on what the staff understands the suggestions to be and then see if there are any other suggestions or additions. Chair Brown said that the Cedar Grove Park and the Northern Human Services Center are the same property and should be put together on the same page.