Agenda - 10-06-1986 - Laserfiche WebLink

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in 11 dumping g grounds for building construction or plowing under without recordation of the site. It asks that the integrity of the County's cemeteries, many of which date back to the 1700 's be respected and, if authority of law exists to disinter, that its data be fully recorded. Sites of historical significance is also broadened to encompass more than buildings and cemeteries. It includes dams, functional or destroyed but still evident, at mill sites that once provided for the economic well-being of the County. It also includes sites of commemorative markers either placed by the state (such as that identifying the site of the hanging of the regulator leaders) or by private citizens, such as that memorializing the site of the old Elm Grove School in northern Chapel Hill Township. Churches and rural community centers, including recreational sites, should be acknowledged in the Land Use Plan as important to the County and its planning process. Their existence imparts a cohesion and identity to rural communities. Even though the church buildings may be new and not of historical value, the same is not true of the communities and congregation, some of which have already celebrated their bicentennial. The majority of material within the appendix was taken from current registries provided by state agencies including the Division of Archives and History and Archeology branch of the Department of Cultural Resources, the N.C. Wildlife Commission, and the N.C. Natural Heritage Program. The inclusion of other data, especially that concerning cemeteries and mill sites, required extensive fieldwork and relied upon every available source for clues, from 90 year old maps and minutes of Baptist Association meetings to handwritten fieldnotes of members on the Chapel Hill Historical Society which are on file in the Registrar of Deeds Office. One note as to entries--the entries for archeological sites are as cryptic as they are because the Archeology Branch has asked that they be presented that way. Although complete data on sites, including location, is now on file in the Planning Department, there is a fear that public disclosure of exact locations will invite disruption of the sites. New measures of protection that may arise from this work will depend entirely on whether any new protection beyond the status quo is warranted. Potential measures could range from Zoning Ordinance amendments to simply informing a state agency responsible for a particular site's protection that development is proposed for that site to no new measures at all. What new measures or simply new awareness that might arise from this work stems from its basic premise, Orange County's natural heritage should not be compromised, its cultural heritage not forgotten. Planning Staff recommends approval of amendment to the text and incorporation of inventory as appendix to the Land Use Plan. Commissioner Marshall noted this was an impressive study and one which was needed but questioned, under the religious area of the study, if Black Baptist was a specific denomination. Torgan responded that the document he had to work with was the Orange County Directory which was put together in 1952 and that directory made the distinction between White Southern Baptist Churches and Black Baptist Churhes.