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APPENDIX B – WAKE COUNTY PROGRAMS TO MITIGATE SECONDARY AND CUMULATIVE IMPACTS
B-5
at the initiative of the Wake County Board of Commissioners to develop a county-wide
consensus for growth management. Building on existing collaborative approaches, the
task force sought to develop a new, comprehensive growth management strategy that
recognized both the interdependence and uniqueness of each of the communities. Local
officials realized that effective regional solutions would only occur through the
cooperation of all the governments working together in an open and participatory
process.
Wake County’s Growth Management Strategy, which was drafted in 2002, laid the
foundation for achieving many of the County’s goals and objectives. The County
periodically reconvenes the Growth Management Task Force, now the Growth Issues
Task Force, to evaluate progress on the Strategy’s goals. In 2008, the Growth Issues Task
Force met and asked each participating entity to identify the most pressing growth and
development issues facing the County. The top three issues were:
A high-quality educational system
Increased mass transit opportunities
Local government joint planning and cooperation
Other goals identified included utility collaboration, economic stability, sustainable
development and environmental protection, land use planning, and water supply
security (Wake County, 2008).
The County developed a Land Use Plan, adopted in 1997and updated in 2003, which
laid the groundwork for growth management (Wake County, 2003). This Plan called for
comprehensive Area Land Use Plans that would provide further detailed land use
classifications. The Southwest Wake County Area Land Use Plan, which occurs in the
SCIMMP Planning Area, was developed in 2007. This Appendix includes excerpts from
the 2007 Southwest Wake Land Use Plan and Land Use Map, which was amended in
2010 for updates in the Harris Lake Drainage Basin (Wake County, 2010a).
B.3
Open Space Preservation
In the County, open space protection can provide additional land around the
municipalities that serves as wildlife corridors between important habitat areas within
the municipal boundaries. The County has several mechanisms to preserve open space.
These include open space plans and initiatives, land use plans, and UDO provisions. In
addition, programs such as the Voluntary Agricultural Districts help preserve the
County’s rural character. Each of these initiatives is described in greater detail below.
Wake County Consolidated Open Space Plan
The purpose of the Wake County Consolidated Open Space Plan accepted by the Board
of Commissioners on March 17, 2003, and revised in September 2006 is to protect and
conserve County land and water for current residents and future generations. Open
space is defined as protected lands and waters that are owned and managed by the
County, its public-sector partners, the municipal governments of the County, State of
North Carolina, the federal government, and the County’s private-sector partners,
including non-profit land trusts (CH2M HILL, 2006). Open space consists of any parcel
or area of land and water that is devoted to: