We are pleased to announce that the State has finalized the purchase of three new tracts of land for William B. Umstead State Park – an effort many years in the making. We played an active role throughout this process: protecting this option by preventing the loss of key land across US 70 to other interests without fair compensation, helping facilitate tract selections, and participating in planning and public meetings.

These new tracts will enable a new Park entrance via the light at Triangle Drive and provide safer right-in/left-out access options, even after US 70 is eventually widened. The acquisition was made possible through a land swap and financing arrangement with Anderson Toyota, a local dealership, through its real estate arm.

In exchange, the Park transferred 23 acres on the opposite side of US 70 from the Park entrance. Protections for that land include a three-story height limit on development and a native vegetation buffer along US 70. We have encouraged that access to this land be from Triangle Drive (not US 70), in order to preserve the full vegetative buffer across from the Park.

The three new tracts of land:

• Thirteen (13) acres on the Park side of US70 and to the west of the current entrance. Anderson Toyota will build a new entrance road and demolish the commercial building currently on the tract
  
• Six (6) acres on the Park side of US70 and to the east of the current entrance and extends to Brownleigh Road.
  
• Seven (7) acres adjacent to Richland Lake (part of the Walton Tract and adjacent to the Walton's land now in Triangle Land Conservancy Conservation Easement program.
  

There were many formal steps that had to be accomplished to make this all happen, including:

• Approval by the National Park Service. The incentive here was to add land adjacent to the main portion of the Park, which then allowed for the loss of land discontinuous from the Park severed by US70.
  
• Approval by the NC Council of State (May 1, 2018) due to State Land involvement
  
• City of Raleigh 2030 Comprehensive Plan Change to modify the Future Land Use Map and Street Plan Map (CP-2-18) for both the State and private lands involved.
  
• City of Raleigh Zoning change to allow Industrial Mixed Use - 3 stories - Conditional Use to limit uses and provide a 20-foot to 100-foot Tree Conservation area (50-foot average) along Glenwood Ave, limit lighting into Park. (Z-5-19)
  
• Securing the acquisition funds needed above the $2million provide by Anderson Toyota
  
• Agreements and contracts from the various land owners

We are grateful to NC State Parks, Anderson Toyota, and the Walton Family for making this set of transactions possible, and to every citizen who submitted comments or attended public meetings along the way.

Image above: The tract in yellow is now privately owned and the land in red is now in Umstead State Park

Image below: The Brownleigh tract highlighted in red is now in Umstead State Park