Item:
Title
Approve the transfer of the County's existing conservation easement on 4100 Pickett Road (partial) to Triangle Land Conservancy.
Body
Date of BOCC Meeting: May 13, 2024
Request for Board Action:
Agenda Text
The Board is requested to approve the transfer of the County's existing conservation easement on 7.4 acres at 4100 Pickett Road (a portion of REID 138489) to Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC), and authorize the Manager to sign any documents. In September 2023 the Board approved the County's acquisition of this 7.4 acres as an addition to Hollow Rock Nature Park and approved amending the existing Durham County-held conservation easement to allow the parcel subdivision and purchase. The September 2023 Board approval did not specifically authorize the transfer of the conservation easement on the area of purchase to a third party.
The 7.4-acre addition is part of over 28 acres of Penny family land adjacent to the park. In 2006, as match to support the protection of land for Hollow Rock Nature Park, Wade and Carolyn Penny donated a conservation easement to Durham County. When the County's acquisition of the 7.4-acre addition is complete, the County will own both the land and the previously conveyed conservation easement. In these situations it is preferable, and a best management practice, for the conservation easement to be held by an entity other than the landowner. The Penny's, as original donor of the easement, have specifically requested that Triangle Land Conservancy hold the easement on Durham County's land.
Triangle Land Conservancy's Board of Directors has voted to accept the easement on Durham County's 7.4 acres, while Durham County will continue to hold the easement on the remaining Penny family land. TLC is an ideal entity to hold the conservation easement since they were a major partner in the original protection of Hollow Rock Nature Park. Their work included fund raising and ownership of two parcels in Orange County that were e...
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