BOA minutes 101314 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Approved 12/8/2014 OC Board of Adjustment – 10/13/2014 Page 5 of 17 hear us talk about programming as if it is existing that is because it is. A piece of it is existing program and we want 1 to talk about future planning. One thing that Ms. Baer and Ms. Tysinger will get into this, we decided to get as much 2 feature programming as we could think of into a single permit because Triangle Land Conservancy doesn’t have the 3 resources to come back every time we want to build a building or change a structure so what you will see is a lot of 4 perspective planning. When we talk about phasing, it is over a 30 year horizon that is pretty much resources and 5 capacity permitting. This project may never grow large to expand to what we have proposed. Or in 30 years you 6 have exactly what we have proposed. I’m going to let Ms. Baer and Mr. Tysinger talk. I am also going to bring over 7 our site plan. 8 9 Michael Harvey: I would like to address a point made by Mr. Morphis. He is correct that TLC is engaged in an 10 operation providing a retreat/camp level of service to interested parties. This has been done with the full knowledge 11 and support of the county staff in preparation for this eventual hearing so it is not as if TLC has been engaging in an 12 operation in direct violation of County Zoning and Land Use regulations. They have been doing it in coordination with 13 staff in preparation for this hearing. 14 15 Katherine Baer: My name is Katherine Baer. I am the Director of Conservation for Triangle Land Conservancy. Mr. 16 Walt Tysinger is our Senior Land Manager. I have been sworn. Thank you for having us tonight. We are really 17 excited to talk to you about the Urban Conservation Center. I want to tell you about Triangle Land Conservancy for 18 you who are not familiar with us and then jump into what the purposes of the conservation center are and then Walt 19 will walk you through some of the places on the maps to clarify what we are looking for in potentially proposed uses. 20 Triangle Land Conservancy has been around for 30 years and protects almost 17,000 acres of land and our mission 21 is to create a more livable and vibrant triangle region and we do that by protecting and conserving land for clean 22 water, connecting people’s nature, supporting farms and food and protecting natural habitats. In Orange County in 23 particular, we have been partnered with the county over the years. We were partners in setting up the Little River 24 Regional Park, a cooperative of Durham County. We worked with the county on the Hollow Rock Preserve which is 25 coming on line and we operate the Johnston Mill Preserve on Mt. Sinai Road which is a 300 acre preserve opened to 26 the public from dawn to dusk. Overall in the county, we have preserved about 3,000 acres and that includes 27 conservation easements on private land. Urban Preserve is a special place in our preserve. We have five preserves 28 throughout the triangle. This is our sixth one. Those five are open to the public, dawn to dusk, hiking trail, and 29 people running on them. This one is special because it was bequest to us by the Urban family. Mrs. Urban 30 specifically said I don’t want this to be an open preserve to anyone but I want to steward it for the environmental 31 characteristics of the land but also create partnerships for education and agricultural heritage and education so when 32 we received the property that was in our mind as to how are we going to do that given our expertise and strengths in 33 land protection. This triggered us to think about can we do programming with special groups in the community. Can 34 we start partnerships to unlock the assets of the land to create those benefits that Ms. Urban was concerned about 35 but also within keeping of the preserve? The entire property is 269 acres and the conservation center we are 36 proposing is the 25 acres up in the front part. You can see the front is close to Jones Ferry Road. 37 38 T.C. Morphis: For a point of clarification, there is actually two tracts. It is all controlled by Triangle Land 39 Conservancy. The smaller tract, which is about 25 acres, is what we are seeking special permit use for. The 40 remaining 200 plus acres will not be under special use permit and it needs to be in farming and conservation use. 41 42 Katherine Baer: There are three main uses we are proposing as part of the conservation center. They are 43 educational and agricultural educational uses and programming. Secondly the stewardship offices for our staff and 44 general membership and fundraising events. To start talking about the agricultural educational where I will show you 45 a short video about one of our partners transplanting to a community farm who is our partner on the site working on 46 agricultural and agricultural education. (Video playing). To provide an overview of that part of our programming is 47 Walt. 48 49