Agenda - 06-03-2014 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan CHAPTER 1- Summary of the Plan Orange County Profile Before charting a course for the future it is always important to ground ourselves in the past and present. It is crucially- important for an effective future parks and recreation plan to understand both the nature of the resident population and the future trends that appear evident — even with the under- standing that such trends and projections will change. As of 2012, Orange County has 138,000 residents - likely 140,000 as of the writing of this plan in early 2014. Much of the county population is urban and located in southeastern Orange County. Nearly 76,000 county residents (or just under 55% of the population) live within the municipalities of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in that quadrant of the county. The Town of Hillsborough's share of the county popula- tion is 4.6% (6,271), around 1.5% of County resi- dents (around 2,000) live inside the City of Mebane. The remaining 39% of county residents (53,751 in 2012) live outside of the municipal boundaries. There are some unique components to the County's overall population makeup. Orange County is among the most - educated counties in the nation, with almost 55% of the population over the age of 25 holding a bachelor's degree or higher. The presence of the University of North Carolina within the county infuses the local population with a high number of persons from 18 -25 years of age. Orange County's median family income of $56,055 in 2011 was 22% higher than the state average. Even so, this masks another statistic of note, that almost 17% of the population resides below the federal poverty level. Planning and identifying service areas for a county is somewhat more complicated than for distinct, defined urban areas. With the municipalities of Mebane, Chapel Hill and Carrboro having their own Parks and Recreation Departments and offering their own parks systems and recreation programs, the County's traditional service area for its parks and recreation programs has been the population of unincorporated Orange County and the town of Hillsborough. In 2012 this totaled approximately 60,000 persons combined. 1 -4 The geographical breakdown of this population, as well as age, gender and racial compositions of the population may be found in Chapter 4. Looking to the future, three different scenarios of growth have been projected for the County in the 2008 - adopted Orange County Comprehensive Plan 2030. While no one knows what the future rate of increase will be, the projection model with the closest fit for the period 2008 -2010 indicates that Orange County could expect (and should plan) to include 154,000 persons by the year 2020 and 173,000 persons by the plan target year 2030. This would equate to an increase of another 35,000 persons by the end of the plan timeframe. Public Input / Community Needs Assessment Perhaps the most important component in the new Parks and Recreation Plan 2030 was the gathering of community input. This multi- faceted process included a statistical random sample "Community Needs Assessment" survey, a follow -up online survey, a youth survey, surveys to increase minority participation, and a series of focus groups, forums, open houses and other opportunities to gauge interest and solicit feedback. Specifically, the following public input initiatives were undertaken: 1. An informal youth survey of camps and camp counselors was conducted by a UNC graduate student in the early stages of the plan process. 2. A random - sample scientific survey of 4,100 Orange County households (paper mail survey with paid return mail, and follow -up postcard). 3. An online survey (identical to the mail survey above) publicized through email master lists and news releases. 7