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Public commenters urge trail funding and land conservation; county to consider funding in capital plan
Summary
Speakers at the public-comment period urged commissioners to budget for the Haw River State Trail segment and to provide local matching funds for land-conservation grants; speakers cited rising land prices and a pending state Land and Water Fund round.
During the public-comment period at the May 19 meeting, three speakers urged county attention and funding for outdoor recreation and land preservation initiatives.
Gretchen Smith, president of Friends of the Lower Haw River, asked the board to include the county’s Haw River State Trail segment in the FY2025–26 capital budget. Smith noted the county’s prior support for a High (Haw) River Trail study and inclusion of projects in the capital improvement program and emphasized trails’ social, environmental and economic benefits. Smith cited statewide outdoor-recreation statistics and a local return-on-investment estimate: she said trails are free to use, serve broad demographics and that “every $1 spent on trail construction generates $1.72 in annual return on investment for local economies.” She urged urgency because land prices and development pressure along the Haw River corridor are rising.
Margaret Sands, associate director for land protection at Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC), described a forthcoming updated inventory by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program that the county funded. Sands said 56 natural areas in Chatham met the program’s significance criteria. She said TLC has requested over $3 million from the state’s Land and Water Fund this cycle for multiple Chatham projects—two parcels totaling about 180 acres in the Haw River State Trail corridor, a 62-acre addition to TLC’s White Pines Nature Preserve and a 62-acre project in the Deep River State Trail corridor—and that the Land and Water Fund faced strong statewide demand (some 138 applications requesting roughly $132 million while the state appeared likely to have about $30 million to distribute). Sands asked the county to consider local matching funds to strengthen applications.
Shelly Paradise offered remarks on tax policy, urging repeal of real‑estate and personal‑property taxes in favor of a uniform state sales tax and raising constitutional claims; the county chair reminded the speaker her time had expired and that the public-comment period has a formal time limit.
The commissioners did not take immediate action during public comment but the requests were made on the record for budget and capital-planning consideration.
