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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: January 16, 2024 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 8-j <br /> SUBJECT: Resolution of Approval — Terry Road Farm, LLC Conservation Easement <br /> DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, Parks <br /> and Recreation (DEAPR) <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> 1. Resolution of Approval David Stancil, 245-2510 <br /> 2. Location Map Christian Hirni, 245-2514 <br /> 3. Site Map <br /> 4. Draft Conservation Easement <br /> PURPOSE: To adopt a resolution to approve the joint acceptance and purchase of a conservation <br /> easement for Terry Road Farm, LLC property by Orange County and Triangle Land Conservancy. <br /> BACKGROUND: The acquisition of conservation easements to protect important natural and <br /> cultural resource lands in Orange County is a longstanding goal of the Board of Commissioners, <br /> and a priority of the Lands Legacy program. Since 2001, the County has partnered with <br /> landowners and other entities to protect 2,850 acres of significant natural areas and prime <br /> farmland with permanent conservation easements, leveraging well over $3 million in outside <br /> funding and grants toward these easements. <br /> Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) staff contacted DEAPR staff in 2023 with interest in the joint <br /> holding of a farmland conservation easement by TLC and the County for a 50-acre tract in the <br /> Little River watershed and Little River Township. This project was being pursued in the spirit of <br /> TLC's new Good Grounds Initiative, a program to address historic racial inequities in farmland <br /> ownership. After the sale and closing on the easement, the landowner will sell the property to the <br /> farmer (a person of color who is currently leasing the farm) at a discounted price, based on the <br /> sale of the 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 preserve. <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 />