I’m running short on time this morning, so I’ll leave this passage from a Lexington Dispatch article on Davidson County’s greenway master plan up for individual interpretation (italics mine):
Persuading property owners to agree to a greenway easement may be one of the toughest challenges the committee will face, but Paul Kron, planning director of the PTCOG, said the same concerns were brought up concerning the Haw River Trail, a “recreational, natural and historical resource between the Triad and the Triangle.” He said when people learned that they could get paid to have a public trail on their land they were much more receptive to the idea.
Still, Rick Austin, who is with Abbotts Creek Engineering and who is Lexington’s former public works director, said property owners contacted in the future about a greenway easement are going to have plenty of questions about crime, trash and what the trail’s going to look like. The committee needs to have prepared answers, he said.
Debbie Auman, president of the Tourism Recreation Investment Partnership of Davidson County foundation, said sometimes it takes someone from outside the county with another perspective to get people to “see the value in their land.”
