Agenda - 06-05-2001-5b - Laserfiche WebLink

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;` On April 2nd, I met with Soil and Water staff and staff from the Wetlands Restoration Program. The NCDWQ staff again stated their willingness to fund and manage the stream restoration. USDA-NRCS engineers have already been engaged in engineering and tEChnical design for the project, and the design is scheduled for completion soon. Soil and Water/NRCS staff will work cooperatively with the NCDWQ staff to provide engineering assistance and oversight of the installation of materials. The vegetative materials to be used will be selected from the Wetlands Restoration program's buffer guidelines, with mixed hardwoods and pines and specimen plantings of native vegetation. The State would like to plant in the fall of this year; with all site activity completed by December. In order for the project to proceed, the County must consider and grant a conservation easement of 30 to 50 feet on either side of the stream to the State. The project concept must be agreed to in principle before the State will commit any funds. As previously noted, the northwest corner of the Government Services Center will necessitate altering the easement in this area. The culvert at the stream intersection with Margaret lane will also likely need additional instream structures to provide protection to the Government Services Center building. Granting the easement will provide for stream restoration at the State's expense. The following are issues that need to be addressed before an easement is finalized in August/September (with thoughts from recent discussions in bold): 1. The conservation easement should be evaluated in terms of the Space Needs Study to address any impact on an easement to the plans for the proposed new Government Services Center Annex. Recent discussions by staff have identified the need to denote and reserve a potential future walkway From the existing Government Services Center to a future County building in Phase IV of the study. No other easement impacts were identified. 2. The County will need to identify all stream crossings (current and future) in the easement. The RiverPark Concept Plan shows three stream crossings. If this concept plan is still appropriate, these, plus the existing and proposed crossings at the Government Services Center, are expected to be meet stream crossing needs. 3. The County will also need to identify all terms that it desires to have in the easement (i.e., . specifying native vegetation, etc). The State has agreed to plant the corridor in native vegetation. 4. Long-term maintenance, post-monitoring and stewardship costs -will the County be expected to participate financially? The State may wish to explore discussion of the long- term maintenance costs of the area prior to conclusion of the project. Future maintenance is not expected to exceed that currently-provided. 5. The County may wish to consider the proposal to use cisterns to collect and distribute stormwater at the new building site - to help reduce runoff. This could be incorporated into the Space Study design. Environment and Resource Conservation PO Box 8181 / 306-A Revere Road Hillsborough, NC 27278 (919) 245-2597