PRC meeting notes 090220 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Phase 2: Cane Creek Area – An 11-acre property was purchased south of Cane Creek Reservoir along NC 54, with a future trail corridor that could in the future connect the NC 54 property to the south boundary of Caterpillar Creek. However, for the foreseeable future the trail will use Mebane-Oaks Road. Within those negotiations staff was able to negotiate an easement donation from Ms. Duprez, who owns the Bingham Inn Bed & Breakfast. This easement connects property that was formerly the Knight tract to the intersection with Mebane Oaks Rd and NC 54. Hirni added that staff has finalized the negotiations between OWASA, Clean Water Trust Fund and the State Attorney’s office to amend another landowner’s easement language to allow for the trail - this will be moving into negotiations for easement donation. This potentially will provide a direct route out onto a primary road for entry/exit from the OWASA Cane Creek Reservoir property. Another trail easement within the Cane Creek OWASA boundaries is being worked on and this would allow a small parking area and trailhead. Continue to meet with OWASA to discuss future easements, possible land swap, and discussions of amendments to a Memorandum of Understanding where there is a bit more potential for trail location and future negotiation of trail construction. Eno River State Park – Hirni stated that the friends of the MST and NC State Parks did a great job negotiating a pedestrian walkway on the proposed bridge replacement on Pleasant Green Road. This was slated to be the next major DOT project in the county, but Hirni stated there may be a stall on future bridge projects. He is following up and continues to attempt contact with a series of landowners on Lawrence Road regarding a potential crossing point – this will require negotiations across private lands. The Friends of MST have worked on new road routes that allow connection between existing and proposed trail segments and are listed on their website. Fred Dietrich, with the Friends of the MST commented that it was great to hear the update. He stated that the Friends of MST look forward to continuing to work with Orange County on this. Rhodes asked about the portion of the MST coming from Alamance County into Orange County. Stancil responded that Alamance County has a preferred route they want to use that will bring the trail over from Saxapahaw coming in on Morrow Mill Road as opposed to Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Road. In the Orange County section of this part the trail would likely use road right of way. Zhao asked if staff know the number of people using the trail each year. Hirni explained that this is not known the MST as a whole because the sections are not completely connected. Dietrich stated that there are currently very few through hikers, probably a few hundred a year or less. But there are lots of local people using the trails. Only a tiny fraction of users are the through hikers. Hirni and Stancil will work to see if they can get some numbers from Riverwalk and/ or Eno River State Park. Zhao asked if we can get numbers for hikers and numbers for bicycle riders. Tippin asked about the Friends of the MST website – looking for a specific one for Orange County. Bill Boyarsky, from the Friends of MST spoke saying there is