CARPENTER PARK MASTER PLAN REPORT. Town of Cary Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources

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1 REPORT Town of Cary Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources APPROVAL DATE JANUARY 10, 2013

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3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Acknowledgements...5 Project Introduction...7 Project Process...11 Site Inventory...13 Site Analysis...21 Initial Park Concepts...25 Park Master Plan...29 Opinion of Probable Construction Costs...44 Appendix...45

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5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 Town Council Members Harold Weinbrecht Mayor Gale Adcock Mayor Pro Tem Jennifer Robinson Don Frantz Jack Smith Lori Bush Ed Yerha Town of Cary Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Staff Doug McRainey Director Paul Kuhn Parks Planning Manager Lyman Collins Cultural Resources Manager Denise Dickens Public Art Manager Town of Cary Advisory Staff Kyle Hubert Engineering Matt Flynn Stormwater Jerry Jensen Traffic and Transportation Lori Cove - Engineering Kevin Hales Planning Citizen Design Committee Kay Struffolino PRCR Advisory Board Robert Bush Greenway Committee Teresa (Terry) Prichard Public Art Advisory Board Lora Greco David Ferrell Daniela Cammarota Ross and Candace Tonkens Steven Trombetta Greg Heitman Georgette Foster Marci and Rich Anderson Design Consultant Team Graham Smith DHM Design Luke Wallenbeck DHM Design Walker Christensen DHM Design Sean Dolle Falcon Engineering Sean Clark Falcon Engineering Landon Lovelace Falcon Engineering Erin Sterling Lewis In Situ Studio Matthew Griffith In Situ Studio Christine Bourdette Public Artist Staley Smith Smith and Smith Surveying

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7 PROJECT INTRODUCTION 7 In 2007, the Town of Cary purchased 45 acres of open space for $6.4 million in Carpenter for the purpose of protecting Cary s agricultural history from urban development. This purchase actually included two future sites. It included the 29 +/- acre historic A.M. Howard Farm located on the north side of Morrisville Carpenter Park and an additional 16 +/- acres on the south side of Morrisville Carpenter designated as a future neighborhood park. In addition, in 2008, the Town purchased a 3 acre parcel located 1 mile west of the A.M. Howard Farm and adjacent to Ruritan Park. This site included the C.F. Ferrell Store along with 2 additional storage buildings. All three properties are within or adjacent to the Carpenter Historic District. This District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as a well-preserved rural crossroads that retains its village character and depicts the interplay between agriculture and commerce in Wake County s development. In addition, these three properties are also located within the plan boundaries of the Carpenter Community Plan. Created in 2005, this Plan established the Town s official long-range vision and recommendations for future land uses, parks, roads, sidewalks and greenways in a 475-acre area in northwestern Cary. The protection and preservation of the area s historic and cultural resources and the revitalization of Carpenter s commercial crossroads are primary objectives of the plan.

8 8 PROJECT INTRODUCTION The site for the Carpenter Park is the above-noted acre site, located south of Morrisville Carpenter Road, east of Louis Stephens Drive, west of the homes on Hamilton Hedge, and north of Carpenter Town Lane. The site was purchased in 2007 using State of North Carolina funds via the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (NCPARTF). It has been determined that Carpenter Park must be under construction by June 22, 2014 to ensure full compliance with the land acquisition transfer with the State. LOUIS STEPHENS DRIVE Carpenter Park is designated as a neighborhood park with the Town of Cary s Parks and Recreation Master Plan. A neighborhood park is one of the ten classification types within the Cary park system. The neighborhood park is the basic unit of the park system, typically serving the passive recreational needs and informal active recreation needs of Cary residents. This type of park should accommodate a wide variety of uses. To encourage social interaction neighborhood parks should be highly visible from the adjoining street and have frontage along the street that is adequate to accommodate local events that will draw people into the park.

9 PROJECT INTRODUCTION 9 Typically a neighborhood park has a service area of less than 1 mile radius and is roughly 5-25 acres in size. Due to the limited size of neighborhood parks, multi-purpose rectangular fields are not recommended for neighborhood parks in the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Master Plan. Instead those facilities should be included in larger community and metro parks. Therefore, standard program elements include such things as: a children s play area paved/unpaved looped trails open grass areas for multi-generational, informal activites such as kite-flying, dog walking, youth activity areas and Frisbee tossing, etc. preserved natural areas picnic areas with a mix of single, double and large group lighted court sports community gardens restrooms parking and vehicle access public art During the initial Request for Proposal response period, the design team interview process and initial project scoping meetings, the following goals for Carpenter Park were clarified as follows: Provide Recreation Space for Community Preserve/Respond to Agricultural Identity Preserve/Respond to Natural Areas

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11 PROJECT PROCESS 11 Overall, Carpenter Park Master Plan has been created utilizing the following process: Park Master Planning Phase: Site Analysis and Data Review January 2012-March 2012 Park Master Planning Phase: Conceptual Master Planning March 2012 June 2012 Initial Public Meeting Introduction of Project/Process + Gather Initial Feedback (March 6, 2012) Town of Cary Development Review Committee Discussion of Initial Thoughts (March 7, 2012) Initial Citizens Design Committee Meeting Introduction of Project/Process + Gather Initial Feedback (March 19, 2012) Design Team/Town Staff Charette (March 21, 2012) Flight 3379 Memorial Discussion Meeting with Andersons Discussion of Memorial Concepts (April 13, 2012) Final Citizens Design Committee Meeting Presentation of Three Concepts + Gather Feedback for Final Concept (May 15, 2012) Public Art Advisory Board Meeting Presentation of Three Park and Public Art Concepts + Gather Feedback for Final Concept (May 16, 2012) Public Feedback Session at Western Wake Farmers Market - Presentation of Three Concepts + Gather Feedback for Final Concept (May 26, 2012) Town of Cary Development Review Committee Discussion of Final Concept (March 7, 2012) Final Public Meeting Presentation of Final Concept (June 26, 2012) Park Master Planning Phase: Master Plan Report and Documentation July 2012-January 2013 Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Advisory Board Presentation(s) Town Council Presentation(s) Town of Cary Engineering Department and NCDOT Meetings (Various dates) Town of Cary Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department Meetings (Various dates) After the Master Plan is approved, the expected schedule is as follows: Design Development, Permitting, and Construction Documentation Februrary 2013-February 2014 Project Bidding and Construction Spring 2014-Spring 2015 (per NCDENR Grant project must be under construction by June 22, 2014)

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13 SITE INVENTORY 13 The park site has been inventoried and studied via many different inventory tools both on-site and desktop, as well as via community conversations and oral histories. Throughout the process, it was determined that several critical site elements should be further highlighted, studied, or protected. Those items are as follows: Edge Conditions Views into the site and out from the site Former Agricultural Pond Pedestrian Connections Presence of Wetlands and/or Streams Significant Hardwood Forest on Southern End of Site Presence of Forest Succession Occurring Edge Conditions The project site is bordered by three public right-of-ways and one row of houses directly abutting the park land (homes along Hamilton Hedge Place). Louis Stephens Drive forms the western boundary, Morrisville Carpenter Road forms the northern boundary, while Carpenter Town Lane creates the southern boundary. There are trees planted between most of the houses along Hamilton Hedge and the park. There are significant trees (forested area) along the entire frontage of Carpenter Town Lane. Louis Stephens Drive is currently built to full right-of-way width at 115. Morrisville Carpenter Road is currently built to 40 right-of-way width and will ultimately be built to 100 width. It should be noted that most of the future expanded width of the Morrisville Carpenter Road will be on the north side of the road, which will not greatly affect this park. However, it will significantly impact the A.M. Howard Farm site and existing farm house. Carpenter Town Lane is currently built to a 50 right-of-way width, and no further expansions is expected. Morrisville Carpenter Road - Northern Edge Carpenter Town Lane - SouthernEdge Houses on Hamilton Hedge Place - Eastern Edge Louis Stephens Drive - Western Edge

14 14 SITE INVENTORY Views The project site is visible from all four sides three public right-of-ways as noted above and the houses abutting the site along Hamilton Hedge Place. Residents along Hamilton Hedge Place will have views directly into their park via their back yards. Residents along Carpenter Town Lane will have views (limited in spots due to the extensive forested areas) into the park site via their front yards. Drivers will have views in from all three abutting public roads. Views from the site are very similar in that park users may be looking into the rear yards of the residents along Hamilton Hedge Place while visitors within the park will also be able to see vehicles travelling along the three public right-of-ways paralleling the site. Given the existing open landscape more views into and out of the site will occur along the western and northern boundaries. The red arrows below show the views both by home owners along Hamilton Hedge Place and Carpenter Town Lane as well as the smaller arrows showing the views into the site from drivers and pedestrians on Louis Stephens Drive and Morrisville Carpenter Road: LOUIS STEPHENS DRIVE

15 SITE INVENTORY 15 Former Agricultural Pond The site appears to have had a pond on the site for agricultural purposes for a minimum of 25 years as the team has photographic evidence that shows the pond in 1981 and then in It apparently was drained around The two aerial photos on this page show the pond in 1981 and Oral history dates the pond as having been created long before It is an iconic part of the landscape for this parcel and the surrounding landscape as agricultural ponds were often created as part of the farmstead. LOUIS STEPHENS DRIVE

16 16 SITE INVENTORY Pedestrian Connections There are significant traffic flows along Louis Stephens Drive and Morrisville Carpenter Road. Traffic flows on these roads is expected to increase in future years as development continues to occur. Therefore, safe and effective pedestrian connections are of the utmost importance with crosswalks and potential pedestrian refuges needed at all surrounding intersections. Sidewalks currently do border the site along the west and the southern boundaries, however a walk along its northern boundary must be installed as well as secondary and midblock pedestrian connections should be considered. For the future, a possible underpass connecting this park to the A.M. Howard Farm site may be of consideration, if it were considered as an effective method for connecting the two sites and linking the usefulness of each site. There is an existing greenway ending in the southwest corner of the intersection of Louis Stephens Drive and Carpenter Town Lane that needs to be connected to the park. There is a proposed greenway connection that may cross the A.M. How ard Farm site, however at this point current greenway plans don t show much for integration within the park site nor do they show desired crossing directions. Morrisville Carpenter + Louis Stephens Drive Looking North Morrisville Carpenter Road + Louis Stephens Drive - Looking West Louis Stephens Drive + Carpenter Town Lane - Looking East

17 SITE INVENTORY 17 Presence of Wetlands and/or Streams The site was analyzed and tagged for streams and wetlands by the design team. The wetlands were then field verified by the US Army Corps of Engineers. It was determined that the site has 7 wetlands ranging in size from.013 acres to.38 acres. There is a total of.92 acres on the site. The streams were field verified by the State of North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. There are two streams on the site, but they are noted mostly as intermittent and thus not regulated by the State. However, one small stretch of stream in the southeast corner was noted as perennial and is therefore protected with a 50 buffer (from top of bank) by State regulations and an additional 50 beyond that by the Town s regulations. All of the documentation for these field verifications and recordation are with the project files. The diagram below further highlights the streams, buffers, and wetlands on the site.

18 18 SITE INVENTORY Significant Hardwood Forest on Southern End of Site Along the two noted stream corridors along the southern boundary of the site and directly abutting the entire length of Carpenter Town Lane there is a mixed hardwood forest. Some of the forest is linked to the wet soils along the stream corridors while other parts of the forest are more upland canopy areas with clearer site lines through the forest cover. This area of forest seems to act as a buffer for the residents directly abutting the park along the southern end of Hamilton Hedge Place and the residents across Carpenter Town Lane.

19 SITE INVENTORY 19 Presence of Succession Occurring The site is a textbook example of a Piedmont landscape going through natural succession with the four noted zones of succession fallow field; upland woody/scrub; loblolly pine forest; and hardwood forest. It also has two types of wetlands an open meadow wetland and a forest wetlands. All of the plant communities are occurring naturally within this 16 acre parcel. Many of these plant communities are visible from multiple spots within the site and/or immediately adjacent to the site, thereby possibly creating numerous opportunities for highlighting the landscapes. FOREST WETLAND SMALL HERBACEOUS SMALL WOODLAND SPECIES OPEN MEADOW WETLANDS - GRASSES & SMALL HERBACEOUS PLANTS SUCCESSION ZONE FALLOW FIELD

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21 SITE ANALYSIS 21 After the initial inventory occurred, the design team began to synthesize the data to begin to understand what it meant for the site s development as a neighborhood park. First, we synthesized all of our inventory approaches into one overall analysis. As is visible from this graphic, there are a lot of elements identified within the site as shown below on the graphic. FOREST WETLAND SMALL HERBACEOUS SMALL WOODLAND SPECIES OPEN MEADOW WETLANDS - GRASSES & SMALL HERBACEOUS PLANTS SUCCESSION ZONE FALLOW FIELD

22 22 SIET ANALYSIS As a final part of our analysis, we created a very simple land use diagram based on the following key inventoried elements. They are as follows: Create a viable and logical vehicular access system that includes access to both Louis Stephens Drive and Carpenter Town Lane Recreating a Pond On the Site Preservation of the Meadow Preservation of the Forest Strengthening Pedestrian Connections Develop the park where it is easiest and most cost effective to develop The proposed land use diagram for the park is shown below: We have further described the top two elements as further study was conducted on those elements. Those two elements related to the vehicular access options and the possibility of recreating the pond. Vehicular Access Options Vehicular access to any proposed parking area is gained from either Louis Stephens Drive to the west or Carpenter Town Lane. The access drive to Louis Stephens Drive is designed to be the main entrance/exit point with a right in / right out access point. Per the Town of Cary s Connectivity requirements, two access points

23 SITE ANALYSIS 23 have been requested. In addition to complying with the town ordinance having both entrances, the site will be easily accessible for emergency vehicles as well as a variety of park visitors. The design team did conduct a simplified Traffic Analysis of the current and future traffic movements at three intersections along Louis Stephens Drive - one at Caprenter Town Lane, one at the new intersection with the park access, and one at Morrisville Carpenter Road intersection. The traffic analysis studied whether full movement at this intersection would not restrict any turning movements or require any lane realignments at Carpenter Town Lane or Morrisville Carpenter Road. This report is part of the Appendix. As for the secondary connection point, both Morrisville Carpenter Road and Carpenter Town Lane were evaluated. For many reasons Morrisville Carpenter Road was not selected therefore there became a need to have the secondary access off of Carpenter Town which would allow full access movement from the park at the existing full movement intersection of Carpenter Town Lane and Louis Stephens Drive was chosen. Much discussion has been had with the residents and Town staff. This secondary access drive has been located to be on the high ground between two stormwater/stream channels and is located to minimize any impact on the wetlands in the southern portion of the park site. It should be noted that the secondary access request was not verified by Town Engineering Staff until after our initial concepts were completed, thus the reason those three concepts each show only one park entrance. Pond The most prominent design feature of the Carpenter Park Master Plan is a re-creation of a pond on the site, to harken back to the previous agricultural pond. The pond will require some additional time due to permitting, however all early indications are that it is doable and achievable with limited expenditures. This was a constant community request from our first feedback session and the 1.37 acre pond has therefore become the central design element. The design team has done an initial analysis of existing conditions and thus has had 40,183 s.f. of wetlands determined within the location of the former agricultural pond. These wetlands are now regulated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. However, in having numerous conversations with the US Army Corps of Engineers, the design team is hopeful that the permitting process for allowing the pond to be reflilled will be rather seamless and will occur with a 45-day permit. The USACOE is aware of the pond s past history and has been briefed on the Town s desire to refill the pond. The fact that this due diligence was completed gives the team confidence in moving forward with this concept. After analyzing the site, inventorying the critical aspects of the site, discussing the project program with the

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