A Brief history of Lake Crabtree County Park and ....

... why the Raleigh-Durham Airport (RDU) should NOT be allowed to deforest and develop long-planned (via public money) public park land between I-40 and Lake Crabtree.

Cary’s Old Reedy Creek (ORC) Trailhead is located at 2139 Old Reedy Creek Road (Cary, NC) in the midst of an area known locally as the Old Reedy Creek (ORC) recreation corridor. Cary’s ORC Trailhead is directly adjacent to the Lake Crabtree dam AND Lake Crabtree County Park (LCCP), an area fed by major greenways such as Cary’s Black Creek Greenway and the Umstead State Park Multi-Use Trail (MUT). A good portion of the land in the ORC area has long been planned via public planning money to be kept as forested conservation and recreation land due to its location and the number of tributaries, streams, and creeks in the area. Even though these lands are remote to the actual Raleigh-Durham Airport (RDU) terminals, RDU took management control of them KNOWING that they were already planned forested recreation lands and filled with creeks and waterways.

Instead of respecting this public planning process and the hundreds of thousands of public dollars invested to date, RDU is incrementally destroying ALL of the planned forested recreation land, wasting public money and time and destroying a very unique public asset. RDU has already deforested over 100 acres adjacent to Haley’s Branch Creek (known as 286 West) for the Park Economy 3 extension project. RDU, in conjunction with Wake Stone Corporation (aka Vulcan Materials Company), has started destroying the most critical tract of forested land adjacent to Umstead State Park (known as Odd Fellows) for a rock quarry (even though there are several active lawsuits).

Now, RDU is taking the next steps in destroying the publicly planned forested recreation corridor and proceeding with plans to develop Lake Crabtree County Park (LCCP), the most used Wake County Park, into an office complex. In addition, to wasting public planning money and obstructing established public plans, RDU’s destruction of LCCP, in conjunction with the RDU-Wake Stone quarry, isolates Umstead State Park, cutting it off from the wildlife corridor.

Earlier this year (Jun/2024), RDU presented plans to Wake County to subdivide the LCCP park land. This information was NOT proactively disseminated to the public. At the December 2024 RDU Airport Authority (RDUAA) meeting, the Chair announced that RDU would hold a public session to “discuss” LCCP at the end of January 2025. RDU claims they want input from the public, yet they did not announce a specific date for a meeting only a few weeks out! In my opinion, this vague date announcement minimizes public involvement as people cannot plan to attend. Also, having participated in the public sessions for the Vision 2040 process, RDU’s “public” meetings were poster presentations with only one-way dialogue. Will RDU really consider public input? Time will tell. Considering what RDU did with the most critical tract to Umstead State Park (Odd Fellows), I have my doubts. But I will continue to fight and pray … and write!

RDU claims that they are doing nothing to LCCP because they will not be developing anything in the area between the LCCP Park road and Lake Crabtree. Well, that is the flood plain area and it cannot be developed! Also, it just a pittance of the whole Park. RDU claims that the land between I-40 and the LCCP Park road is not really part of LCCP. Well, that is not the reality of the situation in the eyes of the public. Nor is it the reality when one looks at the history of LCCP and how RDU came to manage this land. Long story short – RDU took management control of this land AFTER recreation plans were initiated and then RDU refused to relinquish the land when it was clear that the land was not needed for Airport use.

The seeds for Lake Crabtree County Park were planted in the 1950’s with the creation of the Crabtree Creek Watershed Work Plan which was established to mitigate flooding along Crabtree Creek after a series of very destructive and significant floods. This 1950’s plan not only called for the creation of Lake Crabtree as it exists today in its current location, it also acknowledged that there would be recreational use at flood control structures (e.g., dams that created lakes).

Willie York, a prominent developer in the Wake Co. area in the 1950’s onward, had projects and land in the Crabtree Creek Watershed Work Plan corridor. His land is mentioned in these 1950’s plans; he was aware of the plans for the lakes, including Lake Crabtree.

In the 1960’s, Willie York became Chairman of the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development (NC C&D). The NC C&D is made up of many divisions with contradictory goals – Development, Mining, and Parks were under the same roof! The Chairman position was a very high-level position, answering only to the Governor. The Chairman had power over many different divisions and knowledge of many different department plans. As such, essentially one person, the Chairman, could orchestrate the use of an area - to decide if there was to be industry or mining or a park on a given tract of land. The Chairman of NC C&D was not only aware of the plans for Lake Crabtree, he was also aware of the development plans being made by the Raleigh-Durham Airport (RDU) and aware of the land acquisition plans for Umstead State Park.

In the 1960’s, RDU was in need of building a second main runway. Instead of following the original 1940’s Airport Layout Plan (ALP) which called for the new second runway to be built on the opposite side of the initial runway (and away from Umstead State Park), RDU aggressively pursued building the new runway directly adjacent to Umstead State Park (Plan A). When Plan A failed, RDU then aggressively set out to build two new main runways parallel to I-40 (Plan B). Plan B would have projected all flights directly over Umstead State Park, the Research Triangle Park, and downtown Raleigh. Thankfully, when Plan B failed, RDU finally went back to the original 1940’s plan which resulted in the runway layout we have today (Plan C).

Unfortunately, during the time when RDU was pursuing Plan A and Plan B, RDU, taking advantage of their access to federal money, took management control of planned park land even though these runway plans were not fully vetted and approved. RDU’s first land grab occurred in 1967 when, in one very large acquisition, they took management control of all of the planned Lake Crabtree County Park land and all of 286 (East and West). This acquisition was made using federal money (FAA Grant for Project 9-31-011-C709)!! RDU claims they did not use federal money as, several years after this acquisition, they reconfigured how the money was used. But, bottom line, most likely RDU could not have taken control of this unneeded land if they had not had access to federal money. Interestingly, all of this land had been purchased in the late 1950’ and early 1960’s by a developer and friend of Willie York named EN Richards.

Of note, to this day, the land associated with RDU is deeded to Wake Co., Durham Co., and the cities of Raleigh and Durham. RDU does not own the land; the four public owners of the Airport own the land. The public owns the land.

RDU did NOT and does NOT need the land where LCCP is (nor Odd Fellows, nor 286 East). In my opinion, RDU and their connections (e.g., Wake Stone, etc.), are blocking the publicly funded recreation and conservation plans. Here is why I say this ...

Under RDU’s Plan B, all of Lake Crabtree County Park (the land and the lake), all of Odd Fellows, and a portion of 286 were FULLY OUTSIDE OF THE Airport boundary as seen on the 1975 FAA approved Airport Layout Plan (ALP). In fact, under Plan B, all of the Lake Crabtree County Park land was designated as “Recreational / Open Space” and all of Odd Fellows was designated as part of Umstead State Park. If RDU did not needs these lands for Plan B, they certainly did not need them for Plan C given Plan C developed the Airport on the total opposite side!!!

Also, in the mid-1970’s, the federally funded Upper Crabtree Creek sewer project acknowledged the idea “… to develop the land around the SCS structure 23 [the Lake Crabtree dam] into a recreational area…” The stretch of I-40 in the area of Lake Crabtree was built in the late 1960’s. Publicly available documents indicate that the best location for a park at Lake Crabtree was just off of I-40, using the land between I-40 and the Lake.

In the early 1980’s, Wake County was formally planning for Lake Crabtree County Park, including all land between I-40 and Lake Crabtree. Per public records, Wake County observed that this area was not needed by the Airport and they asked RDU to sell the land to them. Unfortunately, by this time, Willie York (former Chairman of NC C&D and a prominent developer) was not only a member of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority (RDUAA), but he was also head of the Land committee. In his role as an RDUAA member, Willie York refused to sell the land to Wake County even though he knew of the long-standing plans since the 1950’s for it to be a park.

Thankfully, Wake County leased the land from RDU and established Lake Crabtree County Park anyway. Through a series of leases, Wake County was able to create the entire park they had planned – with all land between I-40 and Lake Crabtree.

Since the 1980’s, Lake Crabtree County Park has emerged as one of the most used Wake County Parks and hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money and volunteer hours have gone into creating a local gem. The Airport manager in the 1980’s through 2011, John Brantly, seemed to respect the historical plans for the remote lands that RDU managed; under his lead, no plans emerged which called for development within LCCP, Odd Fellows, or 286 East and only minimal development emerged for 286 West.

Since the 1980’s, State and local planners, using public money for planning, continued to designate the lands that make up today’s Lake Crabtree County Park as land for open space, conservation, and parks. For example, the 2013 Umstead State Park General Management Plan, not only calls for the Odd Fellows tract be a part of Umstead State Park (not part of RDU and not another rock quarry), it also calls for all of Lake Crabtree County Park to be considered “Conservation Land” (not a business complex).

In 2011, under new leadership (Mike Landguth and Bill Sandifer), RDU starts the behind-the-scenes development of a new Airport master plan. The Raleigh Durham Airport Authority (RDUAA) already had a few developer and quarry friendly members (Robert Teer, Jr.; etc.). After the arrival of Mike Landguth and Bill Sandifer, more developer and quarry friendly people finagled their way onto the RDUAA and joined into the behind-the-scenes planning (e.g., John Kane, Dickie Thompson, Sepi Saidi, Larry Zucchino, etc.). RDU has failed to provide records regarding discussion of the master plan outside of RDUAA meeting minutes. Interestingly, several members of the RDUAA are friends with the owners of Wake Stone Corporation.

In 2015, RDU applied for a federal planning grant to develop the Vision 2040 Master Plan, Airport Layout Plan, and Property Map. Per the federal Grant Agreement RDU “… [agreed] to coordinate [the Vision 2040] master planning study …” with “… other local planning agencies…” and to “… consider any pertinent information … currently available or as will become available.” This means that RDU should coordinate their plans with the like of Wake County’s open space and park plans (which include Lake Crabtree County Park).

Most importantly, the federal Grant Obligations that correspond to RDU’s 2015 planning grant for the development of the Vision 2040 Master Plan, related ALP, and related Property Map indicate that RDU’s Vision 2040 is to be “… reasonably consistent with plans (existing at the time of submission of [the Vision 2040] application) … “

Well, RDU failed at their agreements and obligations. RDU’s Vision 2040 land use plan and property map are far from consistent with plans there were in existence at the time of their federal grant application! In fact, RDU’s land use plan is the exact opposite of decades of publicly funded planning. As such, RDU’s plans break federal grant obligations and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money!

RDU plans to develop Lake Crabtree County Park into a business complex. A business complex is not consistent with the long-standing, publicly funded plans for a park to exist. Given RDU has already deforested 286 West for the Park Economy 3 expansion; given RDU’s destruction of the Odd Fellows tract, the most critical tract of land on Umstead State Park’s land acquisition, via leasing the land to Wake Stone Corporation who is deforesting one of the most unique tracts of land in this corridor and turning it into a 400’ deep rock quarry pit; and given RDU’s plans to eventually develop 286 East, it is important to keep Lake Crabtree County Park fully intact and fully forested.

RDU claims that the FAA is making them develop the land as they are supposed to make the most money they can off of land they manage. But this high-level guidance does NOT negate the federal Grant Obligations associated with the Vision 2040 Planning Grant.

The Vision 2040 Grant Obligations require that RDU’s plans be consistent with forested recreation given that forested recreation plans existed at the time of their Grant Application. Considering how RDU came to manage this planned park land and that RDU knew it was planned park land when they took management control of it, RDU should bring their land use plan to be in concert with the existing State and local plans.

Can a compromise be reached? Yes, one such compromise was proposed in 2017 – the RDU Forest concept. But RDU ignored it, claiming they are not in the land development business. This compromise plan is still somewhat viable, but, given 286 West has been fully deforested for the Park Economy 3 expansion project, RDU needs to immediately stop the RDU-Wake Stone quarry on Odd Fellows (which can be done given the border issue), agree to not deforest any of 286 East and only deforest a minimal amount of 286 North, and only develop a small portion of Lake Crabtree County Park.

This compromise plan benefits both the Airport and the parks. RDU’s plans kill the parks to their benefit (and wastes decades of public planning money).

For a bit more detail, please see this slide set:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k5NyB4E6IvhRbFbDHssW7L3RAONWJ-Mh/view?usp=drive_link

Disclaimer: I am an independent researcher. The information presented above is what I have found through publicly available records and my opinions formed from these records. I seek the truth, so if you see any errors or have additional input, please let me know.