State says it would be willing to buy airport property next to Umstead State Park
The state Division of Parks and Recreation has objected to Raleigh-Durham International Airport’s plans to erect a fence between RDU and William B. Umstead State Park and asked the airport to consider alternatives, including potentially selling some of its land to the state.
In a letter Wednesday, the state proposed three options that could preclude the fence. The first would be increased patrols by park rangers to prevent mountain bike riders from trespassing on airport property, one of the airport’s main goals for erecting a fence.
Longer term, Reid Wilson, the chief deputy secretary for the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said the state would be willing to buy the airport property used by mountain bikers and have it added to Umstead State Park. Alternatively, Wilson said, the state would be willing to work with Wake County, which has expressed interest in leasing some of the airport land for recreation.
“State Parks and the county could work together on enforcement and management of trails on the property,” Wilson wrote.
Bill Sandifer, the airport’s chief operating officer, said the airport is barred from selling property under its agreements with the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Absolutely a nonstarter,” Sandifer said in an interview. “We can’t do it.”
But leasing property for temporary use, such as hiking and mountain bike trails, is permitted, Sandifer said. That’s how Wake County is able to lease airport property for Lake Crabtree County Park, south of Interstate 40.
The state’s interest in RDU’s property was enough for Sandifer to recommend the RDU Airport Authority postpone awarding a contract for the fence on Thursday.
“We think it’s an appropriate time to pause — to take a short pause — to see if we can find a solution,” he told board members. “The solution could potentially be leasing some airport property for recreational use.”
Sandifer says RDU is willing to allow the public to hike and bike on its wooded land near Umstead but that it would require someone to lease the property and take on liability insurance and get environmental permits for the trails.
The trails that cyclists have blazed on the property include 34 homemade jumps and obstacles, Sandifer said. He showed the board slides of a jump over a creek that was removed in September 2017 and rebuilt and removed again last summer. A third slide showed the jump had been replaced again last week.
“We removed it again,” Sandifer told authority members. “And we will continue to remove it again and again until folks stop trespassing on airport property.”
Wilson’s two-page letter listed several reasons why it opposes RDU’s plans to build an eight-foot fence, topped with barbed wire, between Umstead and the airport. They include that the fence would bisect the park’s popular Reedy Creek multi-use trail and would create a “permanent eyesore” and mar the look and feel of the park.
“The Department understands RDU’s need to control trespassing and prevent the unauthorized construction and use of mountain bike trails on airport property for legal and environmental reasons,” Wilson wrote. “However, a fence as proposed presents multiple problems for the park and its users.”
State, Wake both interested in airport land
Wilson said the state is willing to explore buying what’s known as the “286 property,” a wooded 151-acre area the airport owns along Reedy Creek Road. The airport put that land up for lease two years ago and received one offer, from Wake County, which proposed to make it available for hiking and biking.
The Wake board of commissioners voted unanimously to pursue the lease in 2017. The offer came at the same time Wake Stone Corp. and The Conservation Fund, a national environmental organization, made competing offers on 105 acres of airport land across the road known as the Odd Fellows tract.
The Airport Authority eventually chose Wake Stone and its proposal to lease the property for as long as 35 years for a quarry. Opponents of the quarry, including the Umstead Coalition and Triangle Off-Road Cyclists (or TORC), filed suit, saying the board exceeded its power when it approved the mineral lease. A Wake County judge ruled that the mining lease was legal under state law and the airport’s charter, but the opponents have appealed.
Jean Spooner, who heads the Umstead Coalition, said the group welcomes the state’s interest in buying or supporting a lease of the 286 property and will continue to fight the quarry and oppose the fence.
“The fence itself is an environmental tragedy,” Spooner said. “So we’re glad there’s a pause. But we think the solution forward is to look at the viable alternatives that do not involve a quarry and do not involve a fence.”
Wake waiting for dust to settle
Meanwhile, negotiations between RDU and Wake County over the lease of 151 acres came to a halt in the fall of 2018, said county spokeswoman Dara Demi. She said the board has not discussed the issue since November 2018, when Wake Stone offered to contribute $3.6 million to help the county lease the land as part of its quarry agreement with the airport.
The $3.6 million offer still stands and is part of the mining lease that the Airport Authority approved in March 2019, said company spokeswoman Melanie Jennings. Wake Stone would pay $360,000 a year to help a government or qualified nonprofit lease the airport land, Jennings said in an email Thursday morning, “but to our knowledge, no entity has shown an interest to date.”
The decision to pursue a lease of airport property in 2017 was the last word on the matter from Wake commissioners, said board chairman Greg Ford. The board also endorsed The Conservation Fund’s offer for the Odd Fellows land, in hopes all 256 acres could be preserved for hiking and mountain biking, Ford said.
“That still remains the position of record of the board of commissioners,” he said. “Since we’ve had an election, the board has not made any effort to change that position since that time. That’s significant.”
But Wake’s attorneys have advised the county not to get involved with the 151 acres it hoped to lease until the lawsuit seeking to block the quarry has played out, Ford said.
“The dust needs to settle, and we need to see clarity on options moving forward,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have that clarity soon.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 3:07 PM.
