Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
9 <br /> programs as needs change. She continued challenging the <br /> Board to prepare individual park master plans with <br /> considerations given to all the findings and recommendations <br /> in the larger comprehensive plan and the same challenge would <br /> be presented for a Greenway/Open Space Master Plan. She <br /> concluded asking that the plan be updated and be used to <br /> determine the level of leisure services Orange County will be <br /> providing. <br /> Lindsey Efland, speaking as a property owner whose property <br /> will be affected by the Plan, indicated he appreciated the <br /> County's efforts to provide parks for its citizens living <br /> outside municipalities but expressed objections to the <br /> proposed greenways system. He stated he felt this proposal <br /> diverts attention from the acquisition of land for community <br /> and district parks. He continued that Orange County is not <br /> ready for a mandated network of greenways involving private <br /> land and that most citizens would view this as a taking of <br /> property rights. <br /> Mr. Efland continued expressing concerns that resources are <br /> not available to adequately control and administer such a <br /> plan. He cited the Efland Sewer Project as an example <br /> indicating it is a necessary and worthwhile project but has, <br /> in his opinion, been poorly administered. He indicated that <br /> he had some slides that showed the destruction of a creek in <br /> Efland with the implementation of the sewer project. He <br /> noted that had a private developer been responsible for such <br /> environmental destruction, he felt the County would have <br /> secured a court injunction stopping construction until good <br /> practices were restored. He expressed concern that Orange <br /> County is not acting as a good steward of the land in this <br /> case. He continued that he felt the language of the Master <br /> Plan is too vague for his support of the greenway plan. <br /> Mr. Efland stated that while the County needs to be aware of <br /> the continuing development pressures, the government mandated <br /> public access across private land is not the answer. He <br /> asked that the committee concentrate on the location and <br /> development of specific park projects so that the public can <br /> focus positively on that process rather than react negatively <br /> to the entire package primarily because of objections to <br /> greenways. <br /> Mr. Efland, as an Orange County School Board member, stated <br /> that he felt a representative of Parks and Recreation should <br /> make a presentation to the school board explaining how these <br /> proposals will affect property owned by the school system. <br /> He indicated that some staff had participated in discussions <br /> of the plan but his concern was that there had been no direct <br /> address to the school board. <br /> At this point, he presented the slides demonstrating that <br /> there is a thirty to fifty foot cleared space at the location <br /> where the property owners had signed to the County a twenty <br />