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1—4 Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan CHAPTER 1 - Summary of the Plan 1 Orange County Profile Before chartfng a course for the future it is always important to ground ourselves in the past and present. It is crucially-important for an effectfve future parks and recreatfon plan to understand both the nature of the resident populatfon and the future trends that appear evident – even with the under- standing that such trends and projectfons will change. As of 2012, Orange County has 138,000 residents - likely 140,000 as of the writfng of this plan in early 2014. Much of the county populatfon is urban and located in southeastern Orange County. Nearly 76,000 county residents (or just under 55% of the populatfon) live within the municipalitfes of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in that quadrant of the county. The Town of Hillsborough’s share of the county popula- tfon is 4.6% (6,271), around 1.5% of County resi- dents (around 2,000) live inside the City of Mebane. The remaining 39% of county residents (53,751 in 2012) live outside of the municipal boundaries. There are some unique components to the County’s overall populatfon makeup. Orange County is among the most-educated countfes in the natfon, with almost 55% of the populatfon over the age of 25 holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. The presence of the University of North Carolina within the county infuses the local populatfon with a high number of persons from 18-25 years of age. Orange County’s median family income of $56,055 in 2011 was 22% higher than the state average. Even so, this masks another statfstfc of note, that almost 17% of the populatfon resides below the federal poverty level. Planning and identffying service areas for a county is somewhat more complicated than for distfnct, defined urban areas. With the municipalitfes of Mebane, Chapel Hill and Carrboro having their own Parks and Recreatfon Departments and offering their own parks systems and recreatfon programs, the County’s traditfonal service area for its parks and recreatfon programs has been the populatfon of unincorporated Orange County and the town of Hillsborough. In 2012 this totaled approximately 60,000 persons combined. The geographical breakdown of this populatfon, as well as age, gender and racial compositfons of the populatfon may be found in Chapter 4. Looking to the future, three different scenarios of growth have been projected for the County in the 2008-adopted Orange County Comprehensive Plan 2030. While no one knows what the future rate of increase will be, the projectfon model with the closest fit for the period 2008-2010 indicates that Orange County could expect (and should plan) to include 154,000 persons by the year 2020 and 173,000 persons by the plan target year 2030. This would equate to an increase of another 35,000 persons by the end of the plan tfmeframe. Public Input / Community Needs Assessment Perhaps the most important component in the new Parks and Recreatfon Plan 2030 was the gathering of community input. This multf-faceted process included a statfstfcal random sample “Community Needs Assessment” survey, a follow-up online survey, a youth survey, surveys to increase minority partfcipatfon, and a series of focus groups, forums, open houses and other opportunitfes to gauge interest and solicit feedback. Specifically, the following public input initfatfves were undertaken: 1. An informal youth survey of camps and camp counselors was conducted by a UNC graduate student in the early stages of the plan process. 2. A random-sample scientffic survey of 4,100 Orange County households (paper mail survey with paid return mail, and follow-up postcard). 3. An online survey (identfcal to the mail survey above) publicized through email master lists and news releases. 4. Targeted paper surveys (identfcal to above) shared at minority events and meetfngs. 5. A series of focus groups on selected topics of interest with identffied stakeholders. 6. Two rounds of public input sessions (Fall/Winter 2012-13 and Spring 2014). 7. A radio interview, postcards, flyers and other word- of-mouth publicity. 8. Open houses, Expos, and other informal outreach efforts in early 2014. 18