Proposed lease of RDU land for park receives lukewarm response from Wake commissioners

Five years after Raleigh-Durham International Airport agreed to lease 151 acres to Wake County for recreational use, county commissioners got their first look at the terms of the agreement this week.

The reaction was mixed.

Some commissioners acknowledged that the wooded property, off Old Reedy Creek Road between Umstead State Park and Lake Crabtree County Park, is an ideal place for off-road cycling. The property, referred to as “286,” is laced with trails that mountain bikers have blazed through the woods without the airport’s permission and that the county would manage and maintain.

“I’m in support that we should legitimize the trails, that we integrate them into our recreational portfolio,” commissioner Maria Cervania said. “I think it’s a smart move in terms of the benefit of our community.”

But some also said they were surprised by the cost — more than $8.8 million over 10 years. That’s in addition to an estimated $3.3 million in operating costs during that time and $3 million to rebuild the trails and put in a gravel parking lot, composting toilets and a shelter.

“We’ve been talking about potentially taking control of this land since I came on the board four years ago, and in the beginning I thought it sounded like a win-win,” said commissioner Susan Evans. “But I’m finding the pill a little harder to swallow now that I see the updated costs.”

Others were concerned that the terms of the lease tie the county to Wake Stone Corporation’s success in obtaining a state permit to quarry stone from another piece of airport property across the road.

The Airport Authority agreed to a mineral lease with Wake Stone in 2019 that would allow the company to operate a quarry for as long as 35 years. A state agency has denied a mining permit for the property, citing potential impacts on Umstead State Park, but Wake Stone has appealed.

Wake Stone’s agreement with the airport requires it to pay $360,000 a year toward the county’s lease for up to 10 years. The company has made those payments so far. But the payments would stop if the company has to abandoned the quarry project, said Michael Landguth, RDU’s president and CEO.

Landguth said the county would need to make up the $360,000 if Wake Stone doesn’t pay.

“If for whatever reason they don’t get a permit or want to terminate the lease, at that point in time, they would no longer be obligated to pay that money,” he told commissioners. “So that is the risk.”

Years ago, Wake commissioners voted to remain neutral on the controversial quarry proposal, and this week several members expressed unease with the company’s contribution being part of the lease.

“I am very uncomfortable with the fact that there’s that contingency there,” Cervania said. “If it ends up being Wake Stone’s position changes, we will have some number that we will be responsible for.”

A vote on the lease could come Monday

Chris Snow, the county director of parks, recreation and open space, presented details of the proposed 286 lease at a commissioners work session on Monday. The board is scheduled to vote on the proposal this coming Monday, before the Thanksgiving holiday.

The annual lease rate begins at $764,060 the first year and increases 3.5% each year, to a little over $1 million in year 10. The towns of Cary and Morrisville have tentatively agreed to chip in $350,000 a year toward the lease; factor in Wake Stone’s share, and the county’s payments would range from $54,060 the first year to $308,915 in year 10.

The lease payments were based on an appraisal of the property done by the airport, which values the land at more than $15 million, Snow said.

At about $100,000 an acre, that value seems too high for property that the Federal Aviation Administration would not allow to be sold or developed for a non-aeronautical use, said commissioner Vicki Adamson. In addition, Adamson said, at $8.8 million over a decade, the county and town governments could easily pay more than the land is worth over 20 years and still not own it.

“And I do see us fixing a problem for the airport, which is the illegal use of these trails,” she said. “So there should be some consideration for that.”

Wake has no competition for the 286 property

RDU acquired the wooded property along Old Reedy Creek Road in the 1970s as part of an unrealized plan to build a new runway. It put the property up for lease in 2017, to generate income for airport projects, and received one bid for 286, from the county.

Lease negotiations between RDU and Wake County were suspended in the fall of 2018, when Wake Stone offered to contribute $3.6 million toward the lease as part of the company’s quarry agreement with the airport. Because quarry opponents were fighting the project in court, Wake’s attorneys advised the county not to get involved with the 151 acres until the lawsuit played out, said Greg Ford, the board’s chairman at the time.

Wake Stone and the RDU Airport Authority prevailed in that first lawsuit. Sig Hutchinson, the board’s outgoing chairman and the driving force behind the park idea, wants to get the lease signed before he leaves office this year. The land’s location at the confluence of greenway trails and near Umstead and Lake Crabtree County Park will make it very popular with cyclists, Hutchinson said.

“This is going to be the greatest destination for recreation in the Triangle,” he said in an interview.

It’s not clear if a majority of commissioners will support the lease on Monday. Some said they would like to see the lease re-negotiated to remove Wake Stone’s contribution and reduce the payments by $360,000 a year, something RDU has not indicated it would do.

Lake Crabtree County Park is next

The negotiations over the 286 property are a prelude to another land lease agreement between RDU and the county.

Lake Crabtree County Park sits on land owned by RDU. The county has leased 33 acres on the lake, where it built a boat house, bathrooms and parking lots, since 1988. It has leased another 148 acres used for mountain biking trails since the early 1990s.

The annual rent for both properties is $1.

The county and RDU have agreed to renegotiate when the lease on the lakeside land expires in 2025, and the county expects to pay considerably more than $1 a year, said Snow, the parks director. That’s in part because the FAA now requires airports to try to get fair market value for leased property.

In this case, the airport land is adjacent to an Interstate 40 interchange in the heart of the Triangle.

“We’re talking about a fair market value lease for 286, and you see roughly what kind of cost we’re talking about,” Snow said. “We will have a very similar conversation, a very similar lease rate conversation, about Lake Crabtree.”