Photos provided by Dave Anderson. Mountain bikers in North Carolina’s Research Triangle area, home to about 2 million residents, are in a battle on multiple fronts to save access to more than a dozen miles of established trails, many of which were built nearly 30 years ago. In a fast-growing metro area that’s already short on singletrack, the loss would be devastating.
“Dirt trails to hike and bike and run on are a rare commodity in this burgeoning, growing area,” Dave Anderson, a spokesperson for the non-profit Triangle Off-Road Cyclists told me over the phone. Map showing the area that’s been proposed for lease to a developer. The majority of the trails in the park are located within this area. Courtesy TORC Facebook post . On Wednesday, January 29, the Raleigh-Durham (RDU) Airport Authority Board will hear public comments on a proposal to lease 136 acres of land within Lake Crabtree County Park for commercial development. The park land, which features eight miles of forested trails, is managed by the Airport Authority and has been leased to Wake County for just $1 a year since the 1980s. Though the Authority manages the land, it’s technically owned by a collection of government entities made up of the cities of Raleigh and Durham plus Wake and Durham counties. According to notes posted ahead of the January board meeting , one of the main development goals is to “increase non-aeronautical revenue to the Authority.”
According to the Authority, lakefront park facilities in Lake Crabtree […]
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