Agenda - 01-21-2016 - 7-b - Mountains-to-Sea Trail – Master Plan for Segment 11

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1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: January 21, 2016 Action Agenda Item No. 7-b SUBJECT: Mountains-to-Sea Trail — Master Plan for Segment 11 DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, Parks PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No and Recreation (DEAPR) ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: MST Master Plan Segment Map David Stancil, 919-245-2510 Proposed Process / Timeline of Activity PURPOSE: To review a proposed process for the planning and identification/creation of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail "Segment 11," from Occoneechee Mountain to the Alamance County line. BACKGROUND: On November 18, 2015 representatives from the NC Division of Parks and Recreation presented the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) Statewide Master Plan to the Board. Responding to petitions from the Board and members of the public, staff was asked to return with a draft plan for addressing the MST in Orange County. The topic of the MST location in Orange County dates back a number of years. A regional planning process with State Parks ca 2005 began by identifying general corridors or "swaths" on maps where the trail might best connect Clingman's Dome on the North Carolina/Tennessee border in the west to Jockey's Ridge State Park on the North Carolina Outer Banks. Some segments of the trail — mainly ones that exist in state or federal park or forest land — already exist. Other segments in urban areas have utilized city greenways as segments of the MST. One of the more-challenging segments, and the subject of trail planning efforts in the last five years, is the Eastern Piedmont Section from Bryan Park (north of Greensboro) to Falls Lake. Much of this identified corridor runs alongside river courses such as the Haw and Eno rivers, but a way to connect the Haw River corridor to the Eno (Neuse) requires bridging the two major river watersheds of the Cape Fear and the Neuse. Orange County, as a headwaters county, contains much of the boundary between the Neuse and Cape Fear, and this is the area where this "over-ridge" segment of the trail is needed. This portion of the MST is addressed and proposed for completion in both the Orange County Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2030 and the 2015-2020 Capital Investment Plan (CIP).