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• Protects important stream corridors and natural areas, and minimize <br />grading of the natural landscape <br />During the summer of 2004, staff began preparing background information for the <br />project. The Master Plan's community meeting phase began in October 2004, <br />Preliminary Concept Plan <br />At the outset of each park design project, the process is initiated by the approval <br />of a Preliminary Concept Plan by the Board of Commissioners, The "Pre-Concept <br />Plan," as it is sometimes called, is to be used as a guiding tool to identify the <br />types of activities deemed suitable far the park and to provide possible general <br />locations for those activities, It also serves as the guide for the more-specific <br />master plan that follows. <br />The Preliminary Concept Plan for this park was adopted in 2003. It projected <br />continued use of the existing ball field and playground as shown, along with an <br />area far future active recreation along the northern portion of the property, The <br />portions of the property to the south and west were projected to include low- <br />impact recreation -retaining the mixed hardwood and pine forest that exist, with <br />hiking trails, picnic areas and benches, <br />The Master Plan that has been created by the community meetings reflects two <br />changes from the Preliminary Concept Plan, First, the buffers for a new stream <br />identified on the site (for additional information, please see the following section) <br />effectively took away part of fhe area originally identified for active recreation, To <br />compensate for that, an area of loblolly pine to the southwest was opened up for <br />active recreation, since this was the least sensitive area of the forested portion of <br />the tract. <br />SITE ANALYSIS / <br />OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS REPORT <br />One of the background products developed by staff for the project was an <br />"Opportunities and Constraints" report that was presented at the initial meeting in <br />October 2004, This report evaluated the natural and cultural features present on <br />site, and provided an overview of zoning and other planning issues. The full <br />report may be found as Appendix 2. <br />This property is identified in the Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan <br />as part of the Agricultural Residential (AR) classification, within the Upper Eno <br />Protected Watershed, and is zoned AR (Upper Eno Watershed Protected), <br />This zoning district provides primarily for agricultural and residential land uses, <br />with a minimum lot size of 40,000 square feet per dwelling unit, Additionally, the <br />