Northern Park Master Plan (2005) - later renamed Cedar Grove Park

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• Protects important stream corridors and natural areas, and minimize grading of the natural landscape During the summer of 2004, staff began preparing background information for the project. The Master Plan's community meeting phase began in October 2004. Preliminary Concept Plan At the outset of each park design project, the process is initiated by the approval of a Preliminary Concept Plan by the Board of Commissioners. The "Pre-Concept Plan," as it is sometimes called, is to be used as a guiding tool to identify the types of activities deemed suitable for the park and to provide possible general locations for those activities. It also serves as the guide for the more-specific master plan that follows. The Preliminary Concept Plan for this park was adopted in 2003. It projected continued use of the existing ball field and playground as shown, along with an area for future active recreation along the northern portion of the property. The portions of the property to the south and west were projected to include low- impact recreation - retaining the mixed hardwood and pine forest that exist, with hiking trails, picnic areas and benches. The Master Plan that has been created by the community meetings reflects two changes from the Preliminary Concept Plan. First, the buffers for a new stream identified on the site (for additional information, please see the following section) effectively took away part of the area originally identified for active recreation. To compensate for that, an area of loblolly pine to the southwest was opened up for active recreation, since this was the least sensitive area of the forested portion of the tract. SITE ANALYSIS / OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS REPORT One of the background products developed by staff for the project was an "Opportunities and Constraints" report that was presented at the initial meeting in October 2004. This report evaluated the natural and cultural features present on site, and provided an overview of zoning and other planning issues. The full report may be found as Appendix 2. This property is identified in the Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan as part of the Agricultural Residential (AR) classification, within the Upper Eno Protected Watershed, and is zoned AR (Upper Eno Watershed Protected). This zoning district provides primarily for agricultural and residential land uses, with a minimum lot size of 40,000 square feet per dwelling unit. Additionally, the 2