State aids local conservation effort

Orange-Durham partners get grant

Efforts to preserve woodlands along New Hope Creek on the Durham-Orange county line are paying off for local governments.

The state has set aside more than $1 million in the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund to help pay for a former piece of Duke Forest and adjacent land, at Erwin and Pickett roads.

Durham County, Orange County, Chapel Hill and the city of Durham teamed up with the Triangle Land Conservancy and neighbors of the property in April to buy a 43-acre parcel of former Duke Forest for $1.5 million.

The land, for which a developer had planned houses, will instead become a part of a planned 15-mile urban greenway called the New Hope Corridor.

While the local governments were working on that purchase, deals on neighboring property were falling into place.

Orange County moved ahead with previous plans to buy seven acres that will provide road access to the future trail, called the Hollow Rock Access.

And Wade and Carolyn Penny, who owned adjacent property, offered to put 34.5 acres in a conservation easement free of charge and to sell additional land to Orange County at a discount. The easement will keep the land from being developed.

Most of the 43 acres from Duke were in Durham County, so that government put the most money in the pot -- $900,000. The terms of the multigovernment deal spelled out that Durham County would receive the first $500,000 of any grant money awarded. The rest would be split among the governments.

Ellen Reckhow, chairwoman of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, said she expected some grant funding but not the full request.

"I think the Clean Water Management Trust Fund was impressed that we were able to pull together so many stakeholders to be involved in this effort," Reckhow said.

The grant designates $1 million for the Duke Forest parcel and $112,000 for Orange County's purchase of the 23 acres from the Pennys.

In total, including lands that the Pennys are conserving, about 100 acres are being preserved, Reckhow figured.

She called the location key.

"It's right in the midst of the rapidly growing Durham-Chapel Hill area," she explained. "It will provide a very visible access point to the New Hope Corridor area."

Now the governments are hammering out the details of an interlocal agreement.

Once that is done, Reckhow is hoping a park master plan committee can be set up by early fall.

Barry Jacobs, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, said as soon as Orange County completes its land deal with Duke, a sign letting people know the area is the "New Hope Preserve" will go up.

"Just to give people a sense that they're passing someplace where we're going to try to do something special," he said.