Agenda 03-19-24; 4-a - Eno-New Hope Landscape Conservation Plan Presentation

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25 recommendations to the four local governments that have enabled the protection of 323 acres along this corridor since 1991 (Jane Korest,Durham Open Space&Real Estate Division,pers. comm.). The Durham County Open Space Corridor System plan(Durham City-County Planning Department 1993) set the stage for completion of open space plans for individual"natural area corridors" along major streams in Durham. This plan also established policies to support the open space corridor system, including working with landowners to preserve corridor areas, supporting private and public-private efforts, cooperating with other public agencies, coordinating city and county efforts, encouraging clustered development away from natural areas,requiring inclusion of open space in new developments, and educating the public on the value of river and stream corridors. The Triangle GreenPrint Regional Open Space Assessment(NC Division of Parks and Recreation et al. 2002)was not explicitly a landscape corridor plan. The aim of the project was to"facilitate development of a regional vision for [connected] open space in the Triangle."The plan produced a map and GIS layer of"significant open spaces for parks,greenways,historic areas,natural areas, and water quality." The resulting map represents a system of coarse-scale reserve areas (some of them already protected) connected by riparian corridors. COUNTY LAND PROTECTION AND OPEN SPACE PLANNING The use of NCNHP data(from county inventories and other surveys) for land use decision-making has been incorporated into county planning documents to some degree for all four counties. In addition, all four local governments involved in creation of the New Hope Corridor Open Space Master Plan(Coulter Associates and New Hope Corridor Advisory Committee 199 1) endorsed the plan, and two local governments,Durham County and Orange County, incorporated the findings into their comprehensive land use plans. Orange County specifically incorporated the mapped corridors (each 300 meters wide)from the Orange County inventory and Hall's(2008,2009)LHIG work for the Eastern Piedmont into the county's comprehensive land use plan(as part of its Resource Protection Areas overlay) and amended its zoning and subdivision ordinances to include provisions that would help protect the areas from future development. More recently,the Wake County Consolidated Open Space Master Plan(2003,2006) and the Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Chatham County(Robert J. Goldstein&Associates,Inc., and Biocenosis, Inc. 2011)have identified high-priority lands for protection in Wake and Chatham counties, respectively. The Wake County plan funded and incorporated open space plans from its municipalities. The plan also maps priority open space corridors and recommends linking protected lands using corridors wide enough to protect water courses, conserve wildlife habitat,preserve historic landscapes, and beautify area roadways. Aspects of the Chatham Comprehensive Conservation Plan related to wildlife habitat conservation and connectivity have been incorporated into Plan Chatham(2017),Chatham County's recently completed comprehensive plan. Efforts to implement landscape conservation recommendations and priorities included in the various plans are carried out by area land trusts (such as the Eno River Association,Triangle Land Conservancy, and North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation),local government land conservation programs(such as the Orange County Lands Legacy Program,Durham County Open Space Program, and Wake County Open Space Program), and other partner entities including Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill. These land conservation programs have all worked to conserve lands within the Eno-New Hope project area, and the results of this report provide new data and a plan to build on past work and existing priorities to conserve a functional habitat-corridor network across the project area. 12 A Landscape Plan for Wildlife Habitat Connectivity