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Orange County <br />Ex4r1Y nment & Resource Conservatiorl <br />306-A Revere Road / PO Box 8181. <br />Hillsborough, NC 27278 <br />Phone: (919) 245-2590, Fax: (91.9) 644-3351 <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Board of Commissioners <br />John Link, County Manager <br />FROM: David Stanci'1, Envronment and Resource Conservation Director <br />OP i <br />DATE: August 20, 2004 <br />RE: Lands and Related Funding Sources - Status Report <br />The following pages contain a status report of five different funding sources that are <br />either dedicated for Lands Legacy, or have been used to fund Lands Legacy acquisitions. <br />Some, such as the School/Park Reserve and the Subdivision Payment-in-Lieu fund, <br />provide funding to more than just Lands Legacy acquisitions. Others, such as the 2001 <br />Parks and Open Space Bond (Lands Legacy component) or the Lands Legacy <br />Opportunities Fund, are tied to the program. <br />I feel confident in stating that the first four years of the Lands Legacy program have been <br />a rousing success. In its first four years of operation, funding provided by the Board has <br />enabled acquisitions (completed and pending) of 1300 acres of critical resource lands <br />and/or future park sites. This has been accomplished in conjunction with avariety of <br />partners and over $2.7 million in Federal and State grant funds - which these local funds <br />allowed us to leverage. Given the fact that the County had practically no land holdings <br />for resource conservation or parks prior to the Lands Legacy Program, this has been a <br />dramatic increase largely "from scratch." <br />The status report would tend to indicate that the availability of funds to accomplish our <br />list of short-term priorities varies from one funding source to another, The burgeoning <br />interest in conservation easements over the past three years has largely exhausted <br />currently available funds for easements (another $1 million in easement funding is <br />scheduled for the upcoming two fiscal years in the CIP). Funding for new park sites and <br />other publicly- accessible lands is available in the short-term, however funding needs for <br />the remaining priority projects in the Lands Legacy Action Plans and longer-term <br />