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Last
week the Wake Forest commissioners
agreed Parks and Recreation Director
Susan Simpson could proceed with plans
to buy 70 acres on the north side of the
Neuse River.
Together with the Trust for
Public Land, the town will apply for a
$417,900 grant from the Clean Water
Management Trust Fund. The total price
of the tract is $717,900. To make up the
$300,000 difference, the town plans to
ask for $150,000 in Wake County Open
Space funds and match that with $150,000
of town money.
If successful, this would be
the third CWMTF grant the town has
received. The fund approved $1.28
million for Smith Creek conservation
easements for greenways and open space,
and $50,000 for the rehabilitation of
Richland Creek. Deputy Town Manager Roe
O’Donnell plans to apply for more funds
to complete the work at Richland Creek,
which will be (hopefully) be upgraded
from the Franklin County line to Durham
Road.
“There’s every indication
we’ve gotten [the grant],” Simpson said
this week. “It meets every criteria for
clean water management.” The land is
under contract.
The land, called the
Clinebelle tract, is mostly flood plain,
Simpson said, although there may be a
little bit of higher ground.
The purchase would protect
3,100 feet on the north side of the
Neuse River and 2,200 feet on both sides
of an unnamed stream and the entire
floodplain area.
The town plans now are to
build a greenway connecting to the top
greenway priority, the Smith Creek
trail, perhaps add some picnic
facilities or interpretive nature
features. “We will not heavily program
it.”
The Mountain-to-Sea trail
planned by the state’s Division of Parks
will run along Falls Lake and the Neuse
and could cross the Clinebelle property.
The application for the
grant says no more than 10 percent of
the land will be developed with an
impervious surface.
The tract’s availability and
its location – just east of U.S. 1
(Capital Boulevard) and near other lands
the town, Raleigh and Wake County own –
are reasons for the purchase now. There
is deeded access from Burlington Mills
Road.
“We all realize if you don’t
acquire property now, there’s nothing
left to acquire,” Simpson said. She said
she appreciated the support of the town
board for this and other projects. “I
think these are exciting prospects.”
Meanwhile, the latest
section of the Smith Creek Greenway,
1,500 feet from the Smith Creek Soccer
Center to Rogers Road, is complete. The
60-foot bridge over Smith Creek has been
built, the greenway has been paved and
the banks have been seeded.
The paved trail will
eventually be a 7-mile corridor from the
Franklin County line to the Neuse River.
There is an existing paved section that
runs three-fourths of a mile from
Burlington Mills Road to the river. The
town has acquired much of the
right-of-way for other sections through
negotiations with subdivision
developers.
This latest section of trail
cost about $219,000, partly paid for
through a $50,000 state Recreation
Trails grant. The town’s portion of the
cost is in this year’s budget,
2005-2006. |
