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16 <br />The 1999 JMRP report recommended that the new Inter - Governmental Parks <br />Work Group explore establishment of an impact fee or tax. <br />IV. Orange County Lands. Legacy Program <br />Both the 1997 Coordination report and the 1999 JMRP report note the role that <br />the County could play as a lead entity in coordinating future parks and recreation <br />land acquisitions. As noted in the 1999 report, if the County and Towns wish to <br />pursue joint capital funding for parks, a vehicle now exists at the County level to <br />provide for coordinated parkland acquisitions. <br />On April 4, 2000, the Orange County Commissioners adopted a new voluntary <br />program designed to provide for a comprehensive approach to the conservation <br />of priority resource lands in the County. The Lands Legacy program has five <br />areas of emphasis: <br />1. Parkland (active and low - impact) <br />2. Natural areas and wildlife habitat <br />3. Prime Farmland <br />4. Cultural resource lands (containing historic, archaeological or visual <br />sites of significance) watersheds <br />5. Riparian buffers in water supply <br />The Lands Legacy approach uses a GIS ""comprehensive resource databe�i to <br />evaluate ; and prioritize critical resource lands, and also includes <br />evaluate lands for each of the resource variables listed above. Funding for Lands <br />Legacy acquisitions comes from a Lands Legacy fund in the Orange County CIP, <br />bond funds, and aggressive pursuit of outside grant sources. <br />The Lands Legacy program was developed concurrent with the completion of the <br />JMRP report. With this in mind, the program is designed to function countywide, <br />if desired, to facilitate conservation of important resource lands. Management <br />structures were explored that could, in the long -term, be of a joint County /town <br />nature. As discussed in the JMRP report, the County's role as lead entity for <br />parkland acquisitions for all local governments could become operational <br />through: <br />the methods described above for synchronizing capital funding sources, and <br />• the Annual Action Plan program for Lands Legacy <br />The 1999 JMRP report saw this program as a coordinating that the broader <br />parkland acquisition by both County and Towns <br />definition of parks in the report brings the inter - relationship between natural <br />resources and recreation facilities into focus: <br />