RDU plans to put a fence around its property. Will that cut off Reedy Creek trail?
Fans of cycling and Umstead State Park who oppose Raleigh-Durham International Airport’s use of airport land near the park for a quarry are again upset with RDU, this time over the airport’s plans to fence off its property.
RDU plans to build or upgrade security fences around its perimeter. That includes new fencing along its border with Umstead State Park and around the 105-acre Odd Fellows property that the airport has leased to Wake Stone Corp. for a quarry.
When cyclist Matt Thompson learned about the fencing, he dug into the request for proposal documents on RDU’s website. Thompson noticed that a small section of the park’s popular Reedy Creek multi-use trail is actually on RDU property, where it makes a 45-degree turn, and that the airport’s fence would cross the trail in two places.
Thompson made a video about his discovery, locating the property markers in the woods and showing what the Reedy Creek trail would look like blocked by an eight-foot-tall chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
“They’re just going to permanently prohibit access to the park here through the multiuse trail,” Thompson said in the video, which was shared on social media.
That prompted RDU to make a video of its own to try to reassure people that the trail would remain open. Crystal Feldman, the airport’s vice president for communications, government and community affairs, stood on the same stretch of trail Thompson had and said that only recently did airport officials learn from the state parks department that it was on airport property.
“We have been in touch with them to ensure that our fencing plans do not disrupt people’s ability to use this multiuse trail,” Feldman says in the video. “While we put these fencing plans up we want to make sure that the Triangle still has access to this treasure that is Umstead State Park.”
Katie Hall, spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, said the state learned about the planned fence from the Umstead Coalition, the advocacy group for the park, and not from RDU. Hall said the parks department contacted RDU and have scheduled a meeting about the fence in early January.
Hall said she doesn’t expect any trails will be closed as a result of RDU’s fence.
“In the event that a fence on RDU’s property would cut off the Multi-Use Trail,” she wrote in an email, “I’m confident that our top-notch trail experts would find a way to re-route sections necessary to restore continuity of the trail.”
Umstead Coalition weighs in
The skirmish over the planned fence comes amid the ongoing dispute over the quarry. Opponents sued the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, saying it couldn’t lease land for the quarry without consulting the four governments that own the airport — Raleigh, Durham and the counties of Durham and Wake.
But a Wake County Superior Court judge disagreed and said the airport’s charter and other provisions of state law gave the RDU board the power to sign the lease. Opponents, including the Umstead Coalition and Triangle Off-Road Cyclists or TORC, have appealed.
On Monday, the Umstead Coalition asked state environmental regulators to block the airport’s fencing plans. The group said clearing a path through forested areas to build the fence could harm streams and wetlands and that the fence itself would impede the movement of wildlife.
The group also questioned why RDU wants to fence property that’s so far from the actual airport.
“The project could be considerably less extensive if it were moved to the perimeter of the airport’s operational facilities,” Jean Spooner, who head the coalition, wrote in a letter. “This could avoid sensitive buffers and wetlands, the impact to wildlife, and Umstead State Park, while affording RDU the same or higher level of security.”
RDU’s Feldman said security is one motivation for the fence, but that RDU also wants to “keep trespassers off our property.”
Airport officials have complained that off-road cyclists have blazed trails on the Odd Fellows property, slated to become a quarry, and on 151 acres of airport property across Reedy Creek Road. The airport has agreed to lease that land to Wake County for recreational use, though for now it, too, will be fenced off under the airport’s plans.
The Airport Authority has not yet approved a contract for the fencing work.
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 11:13 AM.
