Work Group Vision
North Carolina must promote a flexible, incentive-oriented, community-based, state-supported approach to preserving and protecting open space. The state's open space resources include parks, water supply watersheds, active farming and forestry operations, wetlands and floodplains, historic sites, gamelands, and many other significant natural, recreational, and cultural features. A priority should be placed on protecting those natural areas that play a vital role in protecting the environment and our economy. Measures to preserve the benefits of open space for present and future generations should support private stewardship and respect private property rights.
Purpose
The goal of the work group was to understand existing state, local and private-sector policies, programs, and organizations that affect farms, forestry and other aspects of open space preservation in North Carolina. The work group heard from those responsible for program implementation and from individuals who utilized and/or benefited from a program. Other states' approaches and programs were also reviewed. The work group examined the relationship of open space to water and air quality, sedimentation and erosion, economic viability of agriculture, hazard mitigation, preservation of cultural values, and quality of life.
Principles
- North Carolina has an obligation to protect its natural resources. Article XIV, Section 5 of the North Carolina Constitution states: "It shall be the policy of this State to conserve and protect its lands and waters for the benefit of all its citizenry, and to this end it shall be a proper function of the State of North Carolina and its political subdivisions to acquire and preserve park, recreational, and scenic areas, to control and limit the pollution of our air and water, to control excessive noise, and in every other appropriate way to preserve as a part of the common heritage of this State its forests, wetlands, estuaries, beaches, historical sites, openlands, and places of beauty."
- North Carolina has a commitment to protect its natural resources. GS 113A-240, enacted in 2000 to support the initiative to preserve one million acres, states: "It is the intent of the General Assembly to continue to support and accelerate the state's programs of land conservation and protection, to find means to assure and increase funding for these programs, and to improve the coordination, efficiency, and implementation of the various state and local land protection programs operating in North Carolina."
- Open space is integral to the lives and culture of North Carolinians.
- Open space takes many forms apart from parks, greenways and natural areas, including farms, forests and working landscapes.
- Protection of water supplies and waterways is essential to the public's health and safety.
- The State of North Carolina must take a leadership role in providing a greenspace safety net by providing planning, funding, oversight, and other support.
- The Million Acres Initiative is a key component of the state's efforts to protect open space.
- Preservation of farmland and open space requires mutually supportive partnership between citizens and state and local governments.
- Dedicated funding sources are crucial to the success of all significant state programs that protect open space.
- State policies should promote private land stewardship and respect private property rights.
- Open space and farmland preservation policies should be consistent with rural prosperity and affordable housing goals.
- The cost of open space preservation should be shared broadly among the beneficiaries.
1. THE STATE ROLE
Objective 1A.1: Protect floodways, 100-year floodplains and waterways.
- Limit contributing state assistance to state or local government construction located in floodways or 100-year floodplains, except for transportation projects, trails, and water access and wastewater collection and treatment facilities.
- Strictly limit impervious surface generated by state-funded transportation facilities in floodways or floodplains.
- Locate state-funded projects in a manner that minimizes destruction of existing wetlands.
- Adopt stormwater management plans for state-funded projects consistent with state and federal stormwater regulations.
- Ban the selling of, leasing of, and granting of easements to state lands to private industrial development projects that are located in floodways or floodplains.
- Ban the use of state funds, state tax credits, and state bond proceeds to private or public industrial development projects located in floodways or floodplains.
- Make public acquisition for protection of land in high-hazard floodplain areas a priority.
Objective 1A.2: Develop consistency with local plans.
- Promote coherence between state government funding and permit decisions and adopted local land-use, agricultural preservation, open space, urban growth, watershed protection, environmental, transportation, and other plans.
Objective 1A.3: Promote regional connectivity of dedicated open space.
- Make additional matching state funds available for planning for those jurisdictions with adopted Park and Open Space (POS) plans.
- Provide state financial support for regional open space planning that assists the linkage of local government plans across jurisdictional boundaries.
Objective 1A.4: Establish as a prime principle in locating state or state-funded facilities, including those funded with tax credits, respect for open space protected by state, local, or private entities.
- Assess and minimize environmental impacts on open space protected by state, local, or private entities when siting state facilities following the guidelines set in the North Carolina Environmental Policy Act of 1971.
Objective 1A.5: Promote private land stewardship and respect private property rights.
- Programs should be voluntary, incentive-based, and to the greatest extent possible achieve permanent protection of resources.
Objective 1A.6: Make matching funds available for local governments, with preference given to those with adopted plans to protect farmland, watersheds, floodplains, and/or open space.
- Preference should be given to projects initiated by local governments or private entities that offer matching funds and have adopted appropriate long-range plans.
- Funds should be available to all local governments to execute the planning necessary to gain preference in acquiring matching funds.
- Matching funds should be available to all counties, with low or no matches required of those least able to pay, based on the economic tiers established by the NC Division of Community Assistance.
Objective 1A.7: Coordinate state programs and agencies dedicated to preserving, acquiring or otherwise protecting open space.
- Review state programs devoted to protecting open space to assure they are effectively coordinated and efficiently administered.
- Create an entity to coordinate all state programs associated with protecting or preserving open space, including farmland.
- Require long-range strategic plans for state entities that acquire and protect open space.
- Coordinate the dissemination of information about activities of state programs and agencies that acquire or protect open space, including the issuance of a comprehensive annual report.
Objective 1A.8: Support the Million Acre Initiative.
- Fund a coordinator and support staff for the Million Acre Initiative.
- Incorporate the Million Acre Initiative into existing state programs to acquire and protect open space.
- Create a Million Acre Advisory Panel, with representatives appointed by the governor and General Assembly to include private interests and local government.
B. State Land (universities, colleges, prisons, government facilities, parks, historic sites, gamelands, etc.)
Objective 1B.1: Lead by example
- Survey existing resources and significant natural features (unusual botanical communities, buffers along perennial streams, etc.).
- Develop protection plans for significant natural features.
- Prohibit construction of buildings, except wastewater treatment facilities, in identified floodways or in floodplains.
- Minimize impervious surfaces, including transportation-related facilities, located within floodplains.
- Respect floodplain, watershed, ridge, coastal, and other environmental regulations in siting state facilities and executing state policies.
Objective 1B.2: Support parks, natural areas, recreation areas, trails, historic sites, and other state-owned lands and state-protected waterways with adequate funding.
- Strengthen and expand the state park system to preserve sites of statewide significance.
- Update a long-range plan for acquisition and operations within the state park system.
- Develop and protect park properties as components of larger landscapes.
- Maintain the practice of free access to state parks for all North Carolinians.
- Charge a park entrance fee to non-North Carolina visitors.
- Station collection personnel only at single-entry, high-volume park facilities.
- Employ honor system collections at all facilities not staffed to collect fees.
- Incorporate protection of historic properties and vistas into state parks and recreation projects to the greatest extent possible.
C. Education
Objective 1C.1: Publicize existing parks and recreations facilities
- Improve signage indicating proximity of state parks, forests, and other natural areas along major interstate and U.S. highways and on public transportation routes.
- Create a map highlighting the existence of state, local and national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, historic sites, and other protected areas in North Carolina.
Objective 1C.2: Publicize existing programs that assist private property owners, including businesses, such as the Conservation Tax Credit program, Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, and the Forest Stewardship Program.
Objective 1C.3: Understand and promote the economic impact of greenspace.
- Work with the N.C. Department of Commerce to develop economic impact data that quantify the positive effect of protected open space at a local and state level in terms of park visits, enviro-tourism, agri-tourism, active recreation, public and environmental health benefits, increase in property values in urban areas, etc.
- Planning money should be available to local governments for cost of community service studies to demonstrate the fiscal impact of specific land uses.
- Develop market data to compare the sales value and tax value of conventional versus open space subdivisions.
Objective 1C.4: Develop a program for Smart Growth awards.
- Establish Governor's Smart Growth Awards to be given annually for significant achievements by government, non-profit, business, and private entities in different categories, with a specific category of recognition for protection of open space.
Objective 1C.5: Develop database of land-use design techniques for conservation.
- Enlist an appropriate public entity (such as the Institute of Government, Division of Community Assistance, Council of Governments or agency designated to address smart growth) to compile model strategies that incorporate protected open space into developments through land-use plans, subdivision designs, and local ordinances.
- Develop a defensible model for protecting open space in new developments and through the subdivision process in North Carolina.
- Encourage compact urban service areas by asking the Institute of Government or other appropriate entity to investigate a model land use classification of public water/wastewater line that will restrict the capacity of tap-ons according to local land-use or watershed protection plans.
Objective 1C.6: Promote understanding of farmland and forestland as open space.
- Educate urban and suburban residents on the contribution of farmland and forestland to preservation of open space, protection of the environment, and promotion of economic vitality and cultural values.
- Enlist the Institute of Government or other appropriate institution to educate local and state elected officials on what statutory and programmatic resources are available to promote preservation of open space by individuals and government.
Objective 1C.7: Consider developing an environmental educational/training program at the Institute of Government or other similar entity for elected and appointed officials.
Objective 1C.8: Provide benchmark reports.
- Track annual progress toward state objectives in open space protection programs, and report to the General Assembly and the people of North Carolina.
D. Planning and Mapping
Objective 1D.1: Assist local governments in providing baseline data, with matching funds available based on ability to pay and on the existence of an appropriate plan.
- The state should undertake studies on behalf of the poorest counties.
- An adopted farmland preservation plan should continue to qualify for preference in gaining matching funds.
- An adopted Park and Open Space plan should qualify for preference in gaining matching funds, as in agriculture, based on ability to pay.
Objective 1D.2: Encourage regional open space planning.
- Supply matching funds for regional open space planning.
- Encourage inter-connectivity of regional open space plans.
Objective 1D.3: Identify prime, threatened, and culturally or environmentally significant farmlands in every county for protection through voluntary, incentive-based programs.
Objective 1D.4: Develop a state priority protection plan for farmlands.
- Once mapping is completed, reserve funds to preserve farmlands that merit high priority from a statewide perspective, consistent with providing an open space safety net.
Objective 1D.5: Finish update of mapping of floodplains in North Carolina.
Objective 1D.6: Develop accurate mapping of wetlands and a wetlands inventory tracking system.
Objective 1D.7: Pursue completion of natural areas inventories in all 100 counties for protection through voluntary, incentive-based programs.
Objective 1D.8: Notify owners of relevant mapping designations that might affect their property.
Objective 1D.9: Make Natural Heritage Trust Fund monies available to counties and qualifying land trusts on a matching basis to protect identified significant natural areas.
Objective 1D.10: Assist local governments to develop land-use inventories and land suitability analyses which portray the areas of development most at-risk to natural and environmental hazards.
2. PARTNERSHIPS
A. Local Governments
Objective 2A.1: Encourage local governments to protect open space.
- Provide incentives to secure state funding for planning and acquisition programs. All local governments should be eligible for matching funds in acquisition.
Objective 2A.2: Empower local governments to more easily protect open space.
- Provide legislative authority to allow broader avenues for raising revenue and devising innovative regulatory and land-use strategies.
B. Land Trusts
Objective 2B.1: Support efforts by non-profit land trusts to preserve open space.
- Allow supplemental grant funding for building capacity to protect more land and to educate landowners about conservation options and tax incentives through the existing Conservation Grant Fund.
- Allow some part of matching grant funds to be applied for operations.
- Authorize the NC Attorney General to enter into agreements to defend and enforce conservation lands and easements held by land trusts.
- Amend statutes to allow direct grants to qualified land trusts from the NC Natural Heritage Trust Fund and Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, as is already the case with the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Farmland Preservation Trust Fund.
- Make low-interest loans available to qualifying land trusts to acquire, protect and manage open space.
C. Private Land Owners
Objective 2C.1: Encourage private property owners to protect open space.
- Provide incentives to secure state funding for easements and other protection measures.
- Improve publicity for, and dissemination of, information for landowners on open space protection strategies.
Objective 2C.2: Include private property owners in planning.
- Farmland and open space plans should be crafted through a public process that specifically includes participation by affected property owners.
D. Business Community
Objective 2D.1: Encourage private-public partnerships.
- Develop an Adopt-A-Greenspace program, similar to the existing Adopt-A-Highway program.
- Encourage the banking industry to provide revolving/low-interest loan funds to qualified land conservation organizations to acquire and protect important open space lands.
E. Federal Government
Objective 2E.1: Coordinate protection efforts with existing federal facilities.
- Encourage the federal government to develop plans to protect significant natural areas on its properties within North Carolina.
- Extend state open space protection planning to complement federal parks, forests, historic sites, wildlife refuges, military bases, and other resources.
- Seek partnerships where appropriate to combine resources with the federal government.
F. Other Jurisdictions
Objective 2F.1: Coordinate protection efforts with tribal nations and tribes recognized by the state of North Carolina
- Encourage development of plans to protect significant natural areas on tribal properties.
- Offer planning support and funding incentives to develop protection strategies.
- Seek the same protection standards upheld elsewhere in North Carolina.
Objective 2F.2: Coordinate protection efforts with neighboring states.
- Stress the interconnectivity of open space, and pursue joint planning efforts.
- Promote joint efforts based on protection of water quality.
3. FORMS OF OPEN SPACE
A. Improve Farm Preservation
Objective 3A.1: Retain and improve existing programs that strengthen the ability of farmers to sustain economically viable agricultural operations and to serve as prime stewards of the land. (For example: present use-value, Farmland Preservation Trust, CREP, wetland restoration).
Objective 3A.2: Adopt a statewide goal to minimize loss of prime, threatened, culturally or environmentally significant farmland after surveying the state's farmland.
Objective 3A.3: Support N.C. based agricultural economies.
- Encourage universities, colleges, prisons, and other state institutions to give first buying preference to NC food and fiber.
- Develop the capability, either within the NC Dept. of Agriculture or in coordination with local governments, to provide small operators with financial planning assistance and brokerage of products to local institutions.
- Create regional value-added agricultural processing centers where producers can lease or purchase services or facilities.
- Devote research funds to develop alternative crops to replace tobacco, and to finding alternative uses for the tobacco plant.
- Support environmentally sensitive aquaculture.
Objective 3A.4: Streamline state regulations to simplify agricultural diversification by small operators.
Objective 3A.5: Increase participation in, and use of, Voluntary Farmland Preservation Districts.
- Institute speed limit reduction within designated Voluntary Farmland Preservation Districts so farmers may safely move equipment on secondary public roads.
- Waive the rollback tax on farmer-to-farmer transfer for non-linear descendants.
- Allow easement leasing, as for 10-year periods. (The state's priority funding should continue to go to property owners granting permanent easements.)
- Permit a local government option to forgo some taxes in exchange for short-term easement leasing, such as property tax on buildings and equipment or deferring property tax.
- Increase protection from condemnation, such as requiring a hearing before the local agriculture board.
Objective 3A.6: Improve the existing Present Use-Value Taxation program.
- Establish uniform interpretation for calculating value.
- Allow a low-impact conservation option for forestry (county option).
- Allow reduced size, but not income, to qualify under agricultural operation.
- Waive rollback tax for all [farmer-to-farmer] transfers, and provide that a purchasing farmer is immediately eligible for the use-value tax benefit.
- Allow land protected by conservation easement to qualify for present-use value.
Objective 3A.7: Provide funds to local governments and land trusts engaged in farmland preservation.
- Continue to allow counties with adopted agricultural preservation plans to qualify for matching state funds for farmland protection.
Objective 3A.8: State Responsibility.
- Reserve part of any funding pool for projects directly sponsored by the state. (For instance, protection of farmland that meets numerous preservation criteria such as containing prime soils, located in water supply watershed, culturally significant, and/or includes significant natural area. See 1D.4).
Objective 3A.9: Increase annual state funding for the Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, with establishment of dedicated funding sources to supplement general appropriations.
- Increase funding for trust fund from the present $1.5 million to at least $15 million.
- Establish a surcharge on public water supply users, to be set aside for protection of critical water-quality protection lands in the watershed where the water resource is to be protected.
- Establish a mitigation fee for every acre of farmland taken out of agricultural production for development purposes, either a flat amount or a percentage of the sale price.
- Dedicate rollback taxes obtained within a county to fund farmland preservation.
Objective 3A.10: Enable counties and municipalities to defer or eliminate property taxes on private land subject to conservation easements or other long-term conservation management agreements.
B. Enhance Protection of Forests
Objective 3B.1: Support increased coordination with local government.
- Improve coordination of state forestry management staff and practices with local government land-use, open space, watershed, and natural area protection plans.
- Enable counties to enact ordinances for tree protection that are equivalent in statutory authority to those powers already afforded to some municipalities.
Objective 3B.2: Support notice prior to cutting.
- Support legislation to give the NC Forest Service and local government pre-harvest notification of thirty (30) days.
Objective 3B.3: Develop strategy to protect significant natural areas.
- Encourage purchase of timber rights for significant natural areas identified and adopted by a county following a natural areas inventory. Require Forest Service to notify property owners of areas that are so designated, and to coordinate cooperation between the local government and private landowners.
- Add low-impact conservation forestland as another category of private property eligible for present use property tax assessment, in addition to lands used for active forest management, agriculture, and horticulture. Currently only forest plans that include cutting qualify for property tax reductions. (See 3A.6).
Objective 3B.4: Encourage forestry protection programs.
- Increase the assessment per ton on processed wood and use to fund Forest Legacy Program, more water quality monitoring personnel, and possible purchase of timber rights program.
- Encourage forest cover in protected watersheds and wetlands, and to buffer waterways.
- Require the Forest Service to promote selective harvesting techniques and consultations with registered foresters.
- Examine environmental impacts of forestry practices to achieve improved methods for protecting forestland, especially in urbanizing counties where forested cover is crucial to watershed protection and to reduction of runoff and erosion, air quality, wildlife habitat, and connectivity of natural and wildlife resources.
Objective 3B.5: Update state forest inventory analysis and develop a comprehensive state plan for forest sustainability.
C. Improve Water Quality Protection
Objective 3C.1: Enhance Clean Water Management Trust Fund
- Provide greater flexibility for the use of funds within watersheds to allow, among other things, installment purchases and application of grant monies not tied strictly to a 300-foot distance from a waterway.
- Support reclaimed water programs.
- Refine standards for funding by convening a conference with the CWMTF board and previous award winners, those denied funds, land trusts, representatives of local government and of the development and agriculture communities.
- Give added weight in granting funds to jurisdictions that have an adopted land-use, watershed protection, or other plan that bans development in floodways, floodplains, and wetlands.
- Give added weight in granting funds to jurisdictions that have AN adopted Park and Open Space plan, watershed protection, or comparable plan that are linked to water quality protection and restoration.
- Consider some geographical, as well as strictly merit-based, criteria for allotting funds, with special attention to river basins.
Objective 3C.2: Enhance programs to assure optimal operation of on-site wastewater treatment systems.
- Develop a pilot septic tank monitoring program through the N.C. Division of Environmental Health to be possibly replicated by local governments.
- Enhance educational programs to inform homeowners on the function and maintenance of septic tanks and non-conventional wastewater treatments systems.
- Develop a repair fund to assist low-income individuals to pay for repair of failing systems in water supply watersheds and sensitive coastal areas.
Objective 3C.3: Develop measures to improve stormwater management.
- Require vegetative buffers along all waterways in North Carolina, and mitigate to an equivalent degree any exceptions to the preservation of the buffers.
- Ensure low tax value, as in present use value taxation, for required buffers.
- Develop policies that eliminate loss of streams to piping and other development.
- Adopt stormwater management plans for state-funded projects consistent with state and federal stormwater regulations.
- Develop and implement a coordinated and comprehensive statewide stormwater management education and awareness program.
- Encourage local governments to require stormwater management plans consistent with state and federal stormwater regulations.
- Allow local governments to include stormwater management fees in annual tax billings, including applying unpaid fees as a lien against property.
- Link funding for infrastructure to implemented stormwater management plans that are sufficient to meet water quality standards.
Objective 3C.4: Wetlands protection should be strengthened.
- Articulate statewide goal of no net loss of pristine and coastal wetlands, as defined in Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
- Develop accurate mapping of wetlands and a wetlands inventory tracking system.
- Locate state-funded projects in a manner that avoid wetlands where possible or practical and requires mitigation where impacts are unavoidable.
- Support and adequately fund the Wetlands Restoration Program, already in existence.
- Develop the long-term capability within state government to check and monitor all lands set aside for protection. Maintenance, enforcement, monitoring should be a general requirement for all land conserved. There should be special provisions for maintenance, monitoring, and enforcement for wetlands due to their unique nature.
- Link funding for infrastructure to adopted and implemented plans that protect wetlands.
Objective 3C.5: Require urban water users to participate in protection of the watershed from which their water supply is derived.
- Establish a surcharge on public water supply users, to be set aside for protection of critical water-quality protection lands in the watershed where the water resource is to be protected.
D. Promote Establishment and Protection Of Local Parks, Greenways, Recreation Areas, and Historic Sites.
Objective 3D.1: Encourage comprehensive open space planning at a state and local level.
- Promote creation of local Park and Open Space plans that address both low-impact and active recreation.
- Achieve a general statewide balance, geographically and along urban/ rural lines, in securing protected open space.
- Give preference in granting state funds or other support to facilities that are shared by multiple local governments or by schools and local governments.
- Promote connectivity of greenways and recreation areas across jurisdictional boundaries.
- Support coordination of open space planning and watershed protection.
- Support increased funding and planning for protection of historic landscapes and scenic viewsheds.
Objective 3D.2: Recognize the public benefit of open space in urban areas.
- Pursue acquisition and protection of open space for active recreational purposes as well as low-impact purposes.
- Respect privately held open space.
- Preserve open space as a key component in urban settings, and provide low-impact recreation in urban areas.
E. Promote Establishment and Protection of Natural Areas and Wildlife Habitats
Objective 3E.1: Encourage linkage of water quality and open space planning.
- Provide incentives for local governments that include floodplain protection in Park and Open Space plans.
- Provide incentives for local governments that exceed required buffers on all waterways, including greenways and wildlife corridors, within their jurisdiction.
- Provide state matching funds to compile regional and statewide inventories and mapping of high priority environmentally sensitive areas.
- Encourage local governments to incorporate information about locations of threatened species, habitats, or natural areas into local land-use and open space protection plans.
- Increase funds available to Natural Heritage Trust Fund.
Objective 3E.2: Refine state policies to increase protection of natural areas.
- Improve coordination of economic development with open space protection.
- Prevent state-funded projects, including those funded by tax-credits and other assistance, from creating adverse impacts on protected open space as well as wetlands, floodplains, and other sensitive natural areas.
Objective 3E.3: Keep beaches public and unspoiled.
- Continue to aggressively defend the public right to the sandy oceanfront beach by maintaining the state’s ban on hardened structures and the public right to use the beach.
- Identify which barrier islands, or parts of barrier islands, are appropriate candidates for renourishment and which are not, based upon a beach plan that is scientifically and technically defensible, and includes realistic cost estimates.
- Develop density restrictions as well as specific public access requirements for beach communities that receive public funding for beach renourishment.
- Develop and implement exit strategies for those beach communities where beach renourishment is not appropriate or feasible.
- Existing trust funds dedicated for natural heritage, recreation, and water quality protection should not be used or allocated to fund beach renourishment projects.
4. TOOLS
A. Expand Local Government Flexibility
Objective 4A.1: Give local governments greater access to land-use tools.
- Support the transfer of density within a jurisdiction as the simplest and potentially most equitable method for shifting development toward and away from certain areas.
- Support legislative authority for pilot programs at the local level for use of transfer of development rights program with a review of the program after a certain period of time.
Objective 4A.2: Expand application of the present use value system.
- Allow local governments, at their option, to establish additional categories of land use to qualify for present use value taxation.
Objective 4A.3: Grant local governments equivalent taxing authority.
- Grant to all local governments the taxing powers already allocated to some local governments.
- Allow local governments to expand their taxing options subject to voter approval for purposes of protecting open space through application of impact fees and taxes, increased real estate transfer and local option sales taxes, prepared meal and other levies.
Objective 4A.4: Promote planning.
- Give preference in providing state matching and grant funds to jurisdictions with adopted Park and Open Space plans, farmland preservation plans, watershed protection plans, stormwater management and other natural resource protection plans.
B. Promote Conservation Easements
Objective 4B.1: Broaden means of extending tax benefits to conserved land.
- Automatically qualify land subject to conservation easements at present use value rate.
- Allow counties and municipalities to defer or eliminate property taxes on private properties that are subject to conservation easements.
- Grant counties the ability to qualify low-impact forest conservation plans for present use value taxation.
Objective 4B.2: Improve Conservation Tax Credit program.
- Increase to 10 years the period to recover allowable state income tax credits for land conservation.
- Expand categories of land qualifying for the conservation tax credit to include all types of environmentally significant land resources.
- Assure adequate dissemination of information and other technical assistance to promote conservation tax credit system among all property owners.
Objective 4B.3: Protect land covered by a conservation or other open space preservation easement.
- Discourage the siting of state- or locally-funded projects, or utility projects, in a manner that adversely impacts land previously protected by easement.
- Require a public hearing at which reasonable alternatives are considered prior to permitting state, local or utility projects to cross or destroy land subject to a conservation easement.
5. FUNDING OPTIONS
A. Support Existing Open Space Protection Programs
Objective 5A.1: Support the broad range of existing North Carolina open space protection and other land conservation programs.
- Ensure adequate funding for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, Natural Heritage Trust Fund, and Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.
- Long-range plans to sustain open space efforts require a reliable and predictable source of funding.
- Dedicated sources are key to providing stable funding.
B. Identify and Authorize Additional Funding Sources For Open Space Preservation
Objective 5B.1: Identify potential funding sources to bolster existing resources dedicated to open space protection. Some potential sources are:
- Allow North Carolina income tax payers to specifically designate a portion of their taxes for open space protection programs.
- Increase the fee for a North Carolina driver's license by one dollar ($1.00) per year, dedicating the additional revenue to open space protection programs.
- Remove the tax ceiling on luxury vehicles, dedicating the additional revenue to open space protection programs.
- Consider a seven hundred fifty million dollar ($750,000,000) bond issue to support open space protection and the Million Acre Initiative.
- Establish a surcharge on public water supply users, to be set aside for protection of critical water-quality protection lands in the watershed where the water resource is to be protected.
- Establish a mitigation fee for every acre of farmland taken out of agricultural production for development purposes, either a flat amount or a capped percentage of the sale price, to be shared between state and local farmland protection programs.
- Charge a two-dollar park entrance fee to non-North Carolina visitors, to be dedicated to the Natural Heritage and the Parks and Recreation trust funds.
- Increase the real estate transfer tax (deed stamp tax) statewide by one dollar per one thousand dollars (one-tenth of one percent), including an exemption from the increase for farmer-to-farmer transfers and lower income housing, to be shared equally between the state and the originating local unit of government, the additional revenue to be dedicated to appropriate state and local open space protection programs.
- Increase assessment per ton on processed wood and use to fund Forest Legacy Program and possible purchase of timber rights program.
Objective 5B.2: Authorize all local governments that meet smart growth planning criteria to make use of revenue sources currently authorized for a limited number of jurisdictions.
