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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: December 12, 2023 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 8-f <br /> SUBJECT: Approval of Participation in Conservation Easement — Terry Road Farm, LLC <br /> DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, Parks <br /> and Recreation (DEAPR) <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> 1. Location Map David Stancil, 245-2510 <br /> 2. Site Map Christian Hirni, 245-2514 <br /> PURPOSE: To consider participation in and the co-holding of a conservation easement in <br /> conjunction with Triangle Land Conservancy for the Terry Road Farm property. <br /> BACKGROUND: Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) staff contacted DEAPR staff earlier this year <br /> with interest in the joint holding of a farmland conservation easement between TLC and the <br /> County for a 50-acre tract in the Little River watershed and Little River Township. This project was <br /> being pursued in the spirit of TLC's new Good Grounds Initiative, a program to address historic <br /> racial inequities in farmland ownership. <br /> After the sale and closing on the easement, the landowner will sell the property to the farmer (a <br /> person of color) who is currently leasing the farm at a discounted price based on the sale of the <br /> easement value. <br /> The property has just over 1,500 feet of stream frontage on the South Fork of the Little River, part <br /> of the water supply for the City of Durham and ultimately, via Falls Lake, the City of Raleigh. The <br /> property also directly abuts the 170-acre Reimer Nature Preserve owned and managed by TLC. <br /> Access to the property would be through the adjoining TLC owned lands. <br /> The tract is almost evenly split between active agriculture and a forested buffer along the creek <br /> (50% forest, 50% agricultural fields). The open areas (23 acres) are currently utilized for a typical <br /> Piedmont farm rotation of corn and soybeans. The remaining forested areas provide a valuable <br /> buffer to the adjacent Reimer Nature Preserve and a hardwood buffer to the South Fork of the <br /> Little River. Portions of the open areas within 100 feet of the river will be converted into perennial <br /> ground cover and eventually forested to further protect the water quality and reduce erosion and <br /> sedimentation. <br /> This property ranks in the medium-high to high protection category via the County's farmland <br /> conservation ranking criteria. These factors, in addition to the forested buffer to a major water <br />