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12 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOLS <br /> 1/22/2025 <br /> Cedar Ridge High School is located on a +/-69.58-acre property at the intersections of Orange <br /> Grove and New Grady Brown School Roads in Orange County, North Carolina. Orange County <br /> Schools is applying for a conditional zoning district to immediately allow for a new structure on <br /> the property to support an Agricultural Laboratory, and is requesting a condition to allow for <br /> further development of the property as a by-right zoning regulation. The school was constructed <br /> in 2001 and has a building footprint of approximately 270,022 square feet (6.20 acres), not <br /> accounting for the paved parking areas and walking paths. It was constructed prior to the <br /> regulation of stormwater runoff or nutrient management was required in this watershed by <br /> Orange County, the regulatory authority. Over half of the property is actively used for school <br /> purposes and, outside of the buffered areas on its perimeters and perennial streams, is generally <br /> managed and maintained as a lawn of fescue or Bermuda grass with ornamental shrubs. <br /> The property is located in the Lower Eno River Unprotected watershed, flowing into the Lower <br /> Eno River and, eventually, the Eno River and Falls Lake. There are no NC Department of <br /> Environmental Quality-identified "impaired" waters on site or downstream of the property. The <br /> property has two perennial streams on it: one identified in a 2000 site plan as Sand Branch, which <br /> defines the property's western perimeter; and an unnamed tributary ("UT") that transects the <br /> property east-west and feeds into Sand Branch.The UT was displayed by the US Geological Survey <br /> (USGS) as crossing the entire property but a Surface Water Identification conducted by Orange <br /> County Erosion Control and Stormwater staff identified an origin point immediately west of the <br /> high school's football stadium. It is possible that the construction of the campus in 2000 impacted <br /> the location and flow status of this stream. <br /> No wetlands are documented on site. The only possible wetland soils location is a band of <br /> Chewacla, a predominantly nonhydric soil, collocated with Sand Branch and its immediate area. <br /> No known Natural Heritage Elements or Element Occurrences have been documented on the <br /> property by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program (NHP). Sand Branch and its riparian <br /> buffer zone are identified in the 2019 Eno-New Hope Wildlife Habitat Connectivity (Triangle <br /> Connectivity Collaborative) Network as a "Higher"-ranked habitat patch and corridor (this is the <br /> second-highest classification). The stream and its buffer are protected by Orange County Schools <br /> by restricting access with an eight-foot chain-link fence. A site visit identified numerous exotic <br /> invasive species within the buffer but the canopy and undergrowth could largely be characterized <br /> as mature secondary successional growth. <br /> Orange County's 2030 Comprehensive Plan identifies "Resource Protection Areas" (RPAs) as <br /> "[I]and designated as Primary Conservation Area which contains sensitive environmental <br /> resources, historically significant sites, and features considered unbuildable because of their <br /> limitations or unsuitability for development". Two RPAs are identified on the Cedar Ridge High <br /> School property: one that is the same Sand Branch corridor that is identified by NHP; and another <br /> patch on the southeastern corner of the property that appears to be a legacy mixed hardwood <br /> Page 7of12 <br />