County concentrates on rural development issues

Orange County is throwing a spotlight on farmland and open spaces preservation.

Limiting development in rural areas is a goal of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, which will meet tonight with the county planning board to discuss initiatives to aid area farmers.

The county acted on one such initiative Thursday with the joint purchase of a 125-acre conservation easement on farmland owned by John and Carolyn Lloyd with the Orange Water and Sewer Authority.

The easement -- a legal requirement applied to land -- will add to OWASA's ongoing efforts to protect the Cane Creek watershed.

"We try through various means to protect farmland, and a second goal is watershed protection," said county Land Conservation Manager Rich Shaw.

"Conservation easement is just one tool in the county's tool box to help farming," he said.

The Rural Enterprise Project, which the commissioners will discuss tonight, is another potential tool the county hopes will help farmers diversify their incomes, said county Planning Director Craig Benedict.

"We want to preserve the rural farm economy and keep farmland as viable as possible," Benedict said.

The project would create a conditional use district, allowing farmers who are mostly exempt from zoning regulations to establish small businesses without converting rural areas into commercial zones.

"We're in an area of the state where urbanization is going on," Shaw said. "We want to make sure that agriculture continues to be viable here in Orange County, because it's part of our heritage."

"There's no one solution to protect farms in Orange County," Shaw added.

Though farm goods account for only 3 percent of county retail revenue, farmland and forestry make up 40 percent of the land, Benedict said.

Some county officials say Thursday's easement will help protect that land, as well as preserve water quality in the area.

The easement is the 11th property secured by the county through its Lands Legacy Program, which began in 2000.

But it is the first joint purchase of OWASA and the county.

Toms Creek, which runs along the roughly $425,000 land purchase, is part of the Cane Creek watershed, OWASA's primary water source for Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

The conservation easement will place a 300-foot buffer around the stream, OWASA Planning Director Edward Holland said.

Cattle will no longer be kept on the land, and further development will be limited to two homes, in addition to the two existing homes, he added.

The new easement is part of an ongoing OWASA project to acquire a watershed buffer totaling 1,265 acres of land. The agency already owns about 930 acres.

Outside of county aid, OWASA received a $130,000 grant from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund to help with the purchase.

And Holland said OWASA is looking at purchasing another 50-acre tract.

"We're hoping to keep down the level of eventual development," he said.

Tonight's meeting will start in the F. Gordon Battle Courtroom in Hillsborough at 7:30 p.m.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.