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in North Carolina for open space, but these entities do exist in other states, such as <br />Monroe County, FL. <br />An alternative to this substantial and structural change is creation of a partnership with <br />existing land trusts that have charters requiring the perpetual protection of lands. In this <br />scenario, the County might partner with (depending on the area of the County) an <br />organization such as Triangle Land Conservancy, the Eno River Association or the <br />Conservation Trust for additional land protection through a granted conservation <br />easement on lands acquired and owned by the County for Lands Legacy. The Board may <br />recall that such an arrangement has been used with the Town of Carrboro for the <br />County's participation in the Adams Tract, and the concept ~ of an additional-party <br />easement holder is also proposed for the jointly-held open space portions of the Greene <br />Tract. <br />A less-formal measure that could also be explored is that of registering or enrolling <br />lands in the County's Lands Legacy Program, to provide a special status and recognition. <br />This is similar to an approach taken by the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, which <br />encourages landowners to "register" their lands with the program, recognizing their <br />existence and importance, without a more formal protection measure that may be <br />accomplished at a later date. <br />Recommendation <br />Since it has been six years since this topic was researched, staff proposes to contact these <br />other local government land trusts (and any new ones formed) and examine their status, <br />successes and obstacles. In addition, staff would explore the partnership option with <br />existing land trusts, and discuss with the N.C. Natural Heritage Program the successes <br />and challenges in their program of registering lands. All of this information would be <br />incorporated into the report, which may include options for long-term mechanisms. <br />This report could be prepared and presented prior to the end of calendar year 2006, <br />(assuming no other new substantive research assignments). <br />