July 2004

The Board of Directors of Triangle Greenways Council met for its regularly scheduled meeting at The Healing Place at 7:00 p.m. on July 26, 2004.  Before the meeting there was some e-mail correspondence with regard to whether we should meet.  The President, Bill Bussey, ultimately determined that the Board should meet, but that, due to conflicts, he and others would not be able to attend.  Don Belk was asked to preside.  Other Board members attending were, Norman Camp and Bill Flournoy.  Also attending was Larkin Kirkman.  It was acknowledged that a quorum was not attending.

The meeting began at 7:13 p.m., due to the late arrival of the contact for The Healing Place, who had the key.

Norman reported on various contacts with Bruce Lightner.

Larkin distributed a letter he had on this day sent to the managing editor of the News & Observer.  This letter addressed the newspaper’s insinuation of wrongdoing in a recent article on payment for court-appointed representation of indigent persons.

An agenda was adopted:  1. Grant application. (This could not be addressed, as William Breazeale was not present.). 2. Minutes.  (Adopted by consensus.)  3.  Treasurer’s Report.  (Accepted by consensus.)  4. Land Trust Committee Report.

Land Trust Committee:

Bill Flournoy reported and distributed various materials.  Due to the sensitive nature of some of the land initiatives, the reports and minutes will suppress some of the specifics of the reports.

First: Bill passed out a summary of a Workshop with Marc Smiley held in July.  The focus of this meeting was on collaboration of North Carolina land trusts.  There was also discussion of possible merger of appropriate land trusts.  Bill said he had acknowledged this workshop and forthcoming summary at the last meeting.

Second:  Tract of 32 acres on Crabtree Creek.  This is the tract for which Bill had shown slides at the June meeting.  He had prepared a handwritten document discussing the applicability of the TGC Criteria for Land Accumulation to this tract and distributed this document.

The Criteria are a series of questions adopted by the Board which the Committee answers with regard to each tract that is seriously considered for acquisition.  Bill passed out this document for two reasons, namely, to show its applicability to the tract that is being considered, and to remind of and familiarize the Council with the process followed by the Committee.  For this reason the document is set out here in the minutes:

TGC Criteria for Land AccumulatioN

Is the land included on any municipal or county openspace/greenway plan?

Yes, it is part of Raleigh’s Capital Area Greenway Master Plan.

Is the land along a stream of water course?

Yes, it is north of and adjoins Crabtree Creek and one of its tributaries.

 

Does the land provide for general connectivity to other greenway opportunities?

Yes, east-west along the north side of Crabtree Creek. The City already owns land to the east.

Does the land have any significant natural or historic interest in addition to greenway purposes?

Yes, indirectly.  See next Q & A.  Approximately ½ is riparian corridor and floodplain, and ½ is high ground.  There is little to no jurisdictional wetland. Structural artifacts exist on site from past habitation and perhaps a former railroad siding.  Site inventories will be conducted, as necessary, to clarify these conditions.

Is it a specific corridor to other land parcels?

             

Yes, it adjoins the TGC’s Elliott Tract to the west; being on either side of New Bern Avenue, and connected beneath the bridge over Crabtree Creek and the railroad.

Can the property be managed and maintained in an efficient manner?

             

Yes, in cooperation with the N. C. Museum of Natural Sciences the TGC is attempting to combine the two parcels for use as a natural sciences magnet school site.  This tract is required for road access and a building envelope.  The existing TGC tract will serve as outdoor classrooms.  See next Q & A.

 

Does the property have the potential to be rolled over to another management agency in a reasonable time frame?

Yes, to the Wake County School System or N. C. Museum of Natural Sciences, and perhaps the City of Raleigh.

Can the property be acquired with reasonable effort in relation to its value?

             

Yes, through grant applications to the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.  The value of a conservation easement on the Elliott tract will be required as a match offer on the grant application.

 

Can the property support and be maintained for public trail development and use?

Yes, the City of Raleigh expects to cross Crabtree Creek where the Buckeye Trail is expended to the east.  Thus, the trail will cross the [designated] property and may cross part of the Elliott property.  Also, the magnet school function would require an internal trail system in support of environmental education activity.

Bill pointed out that the Phase I would answer the fourth question.  The Elliott tract is 75 acres upstream.

Bill submitted that the designated parcels will qualify and can support a school function and trail connection.  There would possibly be a reverter interest to TGC.

Bill was contacted last week by the realtor and discussed family interest and tax credits and charitable deductions.  (See June 24 entry under item four, below.)

Third:  The Elliott Tract: 

We have heard from Progress Energy.  Progress Energy has offered us $10, 300.00 for less than ¼ acre of this land for placement of a power line connection. They have not accepted our suggested appraisal of some $20,000.00

Bill suggested a cooperative relationship with Progress Energy could be very valuable.  He suggested that the matter be referred to the Land Trust Committee for recommendation at the next meeting.  Exchanges of property may be considered.

Fourth: Land Trust Committee activities:

Because the Committee feels the obligation to keep the Board informed of pending developments which may emerge quickly and require decisions on a short term basis, Bill felt it would be informative to have the Board follow his activities for the Committee over the last two months.  He set out such a chronology and elaborated on it.  [Again, the identifying information has been in part suppressed.]

May 20  Meeting at St. Ambrose with Norman Camp and HW about funding for the Y—tract and sale of the church tract.  The one tract involves a family and some 30 acres.  An offer has been made without any counter offer.  This may involve open space bond money and may involve application by December to the Clean Water Trust Fund for a grant.  There may be limited time for application for a grant.

The church tract is 4 acres and may involve Ecosystem Enhancement Program money.

June 9 Meeting at State Property Office with BP about H--- P--- tract and c--- tract.  These tracts constitute part of a corridor on Walnut Creek.  Transfer could relieve the State of a burden and transfer could be made to the City, if the City should want the land.  As the the H—P—tract, the property is held by the State Property office and it would involve much work to release it from brownfield limitations.

June 16  Tour with Linda Creasman of possible EEP and other tracts along Walnut Creek.  Ms. Creasman is coordinator of the EEP Project for the Conservation Trust of NC.  The intent was to show the type projects in an urban area.  One could argue that this represents the best of what is left (land which is disturbed and full of invasive plants).  We may not get EEP money.

June 24 Meeting with BW, sister, CW, and JW about BG tract on Crabtree Creek at New Bern Avenue.

June 28 Marc Smiley workshop in Salisbury, on land trust collaboration and merger, sponsored by Conservation Trust for NC.

July 2 and 14  Wake County GIS to secure maps for various tracts.  They do a map as specified.  Cooperative agreement with the county for access to maps.

July 7 Meeting with CG about C---J—tract and house.  This involves an historic property, some 12-13 acres near the beltline and Old Wake Forest, a total of some 25 acres.  The land is on the market.  There was talk of a bargain sale, conservation of the property, Natural Heritage Trust Fund money that is available to state agencies, and a conservation easement.  The price is high.  It is possibly waiting on developing capital gains legislation.

July 7  Meeting with Bill Hamilton about Land Trust Committee capacity to produce EEP and CWMTF applications.

July 13 Meeting with Smith Barney about Sam Wiley Endowment Funds.  Bill Bussey, Jeff Brewer, William Breazeale, and Bill Flournoy met with Smith Barney about funds.  Smith Barney has an agreement that may be excessive for our needs.  There is not a charge for managing money for non-profits.  There is a question of how aggressive one wants management to be.  There was a discussion of the importance of protecting the principal.  (William Breazeale was expected to make a recommendation on this tonight.)

July 22  Meeting in Cary with Breazeale and Belk about Land Trust Alliance Capacity Building Grant application.  (Report will be refined and distributed prior to the next meeting.)

July 23  Meeting with AP about T—C—tract.  This property near Umstead involves land on the Raleigh Greenway Plan.  This propery may be available for this year.  The owner has been advised that we require at least two months.

July 1 and 24     Draft letters for EJ as representative for the Y—heirs tract.

July 26 Meeting with Progress Energy contract realtor about powerline on Elliott tract.

Bill asked that the minutes be expedited so that the many Board members absent tonight could be drawn into awareness of this presentation.  He saw that the importance of this is that we understand the process by which we arrive at decisions about acquisition of land.  Don wanted Bill to send out his attachment [but that has been largely incorporated into these minutes and may not be otherwise forthcoming].

Other comments about this list:  Phone calls are largely left out of the recounting.  The Habitat property was to be transferred in the last two weeks.  DHIC property was not discussed.  We could have 50-100 acres transferred this year.

Fifth:  There will be a Land Trust Alliance meeting, October 28-31, in Providence, RI.  The character of the meeting is changing; it is more like a professional conference.

Sixth: Bill has a bill from the Conservation Trust for Jeff and will deliver it.

Seventh: Storm water fees.  Bill has written Raleigh City Council member Thomas Crowder clarifying our ownership interest in Hymettus Woods and the lack of impermeable surface on the Crabtree Creek tract, believing this clears up any obligations asserted against us for storm water fees.  He has a copy of a revised bill for the Elliott tract showing that there is no impervious surface.

Eighth: Bill passed out a leaflet entitled “How to Build a More Effective Non-Profit.”  This is put out by ESC (Executive Services Corps of the Greater Triangle), which did our last retreat.

Ninth: Eco-Access, a volunteer group, which does web stuff, has contacted us last year.  It sought support for a grant application to create a web site with trail maps.  The grant was not received, but the opportunity for the two organizations to work together is being explored. 

The meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Larkin Kirkman

Secretary