Development of Greene Tract stalls, to continue after property lines drawn

The Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro governments intend to continue plans of developing the Greene Tract once property lines are defined – although not much has occurred regarding the Tract since last year.

In November 2021, the three jurisdictions passed a resolution allowing development to provide room for affordable and mixed-income housing, as well as a future school and outdoor recreation site.

Orange County Planning and Inspections Director Cy Stober said that once the plan is signed by all jurisdictions, planning for the Tract will continue to progress, but there is no known prediction on a time for further progress.

They plan to set aside land for an elementary school, park and affordable housing. Approximately  60 acres are set aside to be preserved. 

The 164-acre plot of land is 3.4 miles north of downtown Chapel Hill, east of Rogers Road in southeastern Orange County. It is part of the Historic Rogers Road Neighborhood, a historically Black community.

The land was purchased in 1984 by Orange County, the Town of Chapel Hill and the Town of Carrboro and was originally intended to be used for a landfill. The land is still jointly owned and managed by the three jurisdictions.

As previously stated, 60 acres are designated as the “Headwaters Preserve” by Orange County. The remaining 104 acres are split between Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro. 

"We need to do some planning for what the future holds in terms of either recreation or conservation,” Orange County Deputy County Manager Travis Myren said.

Major aspects of planning for the Headwaters Preserve and the Greene Tract are defining property lines and producing a management plan dedicated to the protection of the environment of the Tract, Stober said.

“The recombination plan has been drafted, and it has been drawn to separate the Headwaters area from the remainder of the Greene Tract," Stober said.

In 2017, elected officials of the three jurisdictions decided to prioritize constructing an elementary school and park sites, preserving valuable environmental features, protecting historical and cultural resources, encouraging cost-effective infrastructure and identifying areas for future development in the Tract.

“This continues to be a cooperative effort between the three jurisdictions, and so we'll continue that cooperation into the future,” Myren said about the plan.

Despite the 2021 decision which solidified the plans for the Greene Tract, scientists and citizens still have environmental and wildlife concerns about the effects of construction.

Will Harlan, staff scientist and senior conservation advocate for the North Carolina Center for Biological Diversity has written a letter to Orange County about the Tract and how it may disrupt the habitat of ecosystems that rely on the watersheds within the Tract, specifically a species of four-toed salamanders native to the surrounding wetlands.

“I think prioritizing the needs of the historically Black community and the needs of these really rare and imperiled salamanders would be the best and highest use of a really important tract,” Harlan said.

The Friends of the Greene Tract Forest group was formed to advocate for the preservation of Tract land in 2019 and suggested 80 percent of forest land should be protected in the 2021 resolution. 

John Dempsey, a citizen involved in the group and a public commenter in the November 2021 meeting, said that urban stream syndrome, which is when urban growth causes degradation of nearby streams, was a threat to the Tract.

Dempsey said, while there have been concessions made to protect the biology of the area, more need to be made.

"They didn’t go far enough to assure that there won’t be biological degradation,” he said.

Stober said environmental concerns have been closely monitored for the Tract plan and that the County has been working with other governmental organizations on the environmental plan.

An environmental assessment on the Orange County website details the management strategy for the Tract.

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