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1—11 Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan CHAPTER 1 - Summary of the Plan 1 Recommendation 6 – Build More Trails and Connect Open Spaces: One of the clear messages of the Community Needs Assessment surveys is that county residents want to get out into nature and walk, hike and bike more. There are several mechanisms in place that will help with this, buy virtue of building the planned future parks (see Recommendatfon 2). Determining a solutfon to the MST segment in Orange County, and providing trails at nature preserves are additfonal measures that are planned/proposed. Additfonally, there may be ways to connect trail systems that exist in Duke Forest and Eno River State Park to town and county parks and trails. The local governments that would mutually benefit from a connected trail system should look at joint funding mechanisms. Recommendation 7: Improve Access to Parks and Trails, and incorporate Healthy Lifestyles Design: Over the last 15 years, most parks have been constructed with an eye to providing access to the public, and actfvitfes for individuals to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles. However, an emerging issue in the fields of public health and parks planning is the integratfon of these concepts at the design level – parks designed with an eye to maximize opportunitfes for enhancing public health. Likewise, the potentfal for public transportatfon access to County parks is a consideratfon, but in a rural county with a need to provide service to different portfons of the county, this type of access is problematfc. Working park-and-ride lots into future parks, and looking at parks as possible transit stops are two mechanisms that warrant closer examinatfon and should be part of future planning for new parks. Recommendation 8 – Look to Add Programs in Areas Where Residents Have Identified needs, Consider Partnerships: Flexibility and responsiveness is critfcal to providing public recreatfon programs. Needs and interests change over tfme, and systems must be prepared to change with the tfmes. While it is not practfcal to provide every program that is desired by members of the community, the Community Needs Assess- ments provide a look at current needs and desires. Follow-up surveys should be conducted to deter- mine the depth of interest in new program areas, and at the same tfme, existfng programs should be evaluated to see if resource allocatfon should be altered. The County has partnered in recent years with private non-profit recreatfon providers for certain programs. A “partnership template” being developed will help determine whether a partner- ship is desirable or warranted, and opportunitfes with the school systems in this area may be fruitiul. Financing and Capital Investments As shown in Table 10-1, Orange County has positfoned itself through careful and proactfve planning to know what park and recreatfon facilitfes are needed, and through its Capital Investment Plan (CIP), a possible sequence of constructfon to fulfill the master plan outlined within these pages may be glimpsed. The funding needed for parks and recreatfon opportunitfes includes: new constructfon of planned parks, future phases of existfng parks, replacement and repair of aging facilitfes, and operatfng and maintenance funding. Approximately $10 million in park and public open space funding is identffied in the current CIP through 2018, and an additfonal $36 million is expected to be needed beyond 2018 to complete the vision of the park system outlined in this plan. An additfonal $467,000 within two years, and $923,000 in two to five years, is projected to be needed for renovatfons and improvements or repairs. As future financial planning is undertaken, the manner in which these needs may be funded will become more clear, as will the potentfal sources (including several potentfal grant projects). 25