Agenda - 09-20-2005-10a - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNTY OF DURHAM a� ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT ° >> Open Space and Real Estate Division (1/ 1A1xa] 7_V1 1111u I September 16, 2005 MEMO TO: David Stancil, Orange County ERCD Director FROM: Jane Korest, Durham County Open Space and Real Estate Manager SUBJECT: Master Planning for the Hollow Rock Access Area This memo is in follow —up to a request made at the Durham - Chapel Hill- Orange County Work Group meeting on September 14, 2005. The Work Group was considering comments from the jurisdictions on the draft Interlocal Agreement for the Erwin Trace acquisition initially prepared by Durham County that is under consideration by Orange County, Chapel Hill and the City of Durham. The draft Interlocal formalizes the financial arrangements that were agreed to in the spring between the fourjurisdictions for the Erwin Trace/ Duke University acquisition and includes a proposal for a master planning process and advisory committee for planning the Hollow Rock Access Area of the New Hope Plan. During the Work Group's discussion, members from the Orange County Board of Commissioners requested that some additional background on the rationale for the master planning effort would be helpful for their Board's consideration of the draft Interlocal Agreement. The New Hope Creek Plan (the Plan) was adopted by all four jurisdictions in 1991. Since that time each individual jurisdiction and the Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) have been working to implement the preservation and recreation recormnendations within the plan. Recommendations for the Hollow Rock area are described in both components 4 and 6 of the Plan. The area includes two acres already acquired by the Triangle Land Conservancy, a trail easement negotiated by TLC and now held by Orange County, another 7 acres being acquired by Orange County from Duke University, lands owned by Wade Penny, and portions of the Erwin Trace property. The Plan proposes an access area with parking and picnicking facilities on the west side of Pickett Road, as well as trails through portions of all of the properties mentioned. In the late 1990's an initial plan for the access area was drawn up for TLC, encompassing the properties on the west side of Pickett Road area. The relatively small size of each of the properties and their relationship to each other makes master planning for trails and facilities important to be planned in a coordinated fashion. For instance, parking to provide access to the Erwin Trace property on the east side of Pickett Road should not be designed in isolation from the potential parking/access area planned on the west side of Pickett Road. Trails that traverse all of