Beaufort County Green Print Plan
Learn about the 2020 Green Print Plan, why it's so important to quality of life in Beaufort County, and why your input is needed.
What is the Green Print Plan?
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The Green Print Plan promotes ecological health and cultural landscape preservation in Beaufort County. It informs the Rural and Critical Land Preservation Program and its public and private conservation partners.
The Green Print Plan identifies six types of priority land...
...and it recommends how to protect those lands with tools including public land purchase, conservation easements, and planning and zoning strategies.
This map shows lands that are currently protected in Beaufort County, along with the target conservation areas from the latest Green Print Plan process (2014) .
The Green Print Plan also educates governments, developers and individual landowners about various conservation tools...
...and their financial, environmental and quality-of-life benefits.
The Green Print Plan is informed by the unique ecology of Beaufort County.
It aims to protect lands that are critical to the county's current and future ecological health...
...and to align its work with other planning efforts to secure a healthy and balanced built environment.
Why is the Green Print Plan important?
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Beaufort County has a unique natural environment that is essential to residents' way of life...
...and critical to the health of the Beaufort County economy.
It is a dynamic environment that will continue to change over time due to human forces...
...such as development...
...and natural forces, such as storm surge and king tides.
These changes could grow more intense as sea levels continue to rise...
...and as Beaufort County's population continues to grow.
Given these trends and the longstanding development constraints posed by Beaufort County's natural environment...
...the Green Print Plan's focus on smart land conservation can help strike a balance...
...between accommodating growth and sustaining this unique place.
How can Beaufort County residents contribute to the Green Print Plan?
The Green Print Plan is undergoing one of its regular updates, and we're asking Beaufort County residents to weigh in and guide our next steps.
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The people of Beaufort County decide the priorities and strategies of the Green Print Plan...
...which informs the land conservation recommendations of the Rural and Critical Land Preservation Board .
Through bond referenda, the public also pays for the Rural and Critical Land program ...
...which funds the protection of priority lands based on recommendations made to Beaufort County Council.
Because the Green Print Plan reflects community priorities, and because smart land conservation can complement other planning efforts...
...the Plan is also an important reference document for other local and regional plans.
Right now Beaufort County is updating the Green Print Plan, and we're asking residents to guide our next steps.
First we need feedback on which types of land are most important to protect.
Next we'll identify priority conservation parcels based on that feedback...
...in order to update the Green Print Plan map and focus the county's conservation efforts and dollars.
Where are the priority conservation lands?
We've mapped across Beaufort County the different types of priority land that are traditionally targeted for protection by public and private conservation efforts. Click here for the interactive web map.
Because conservation resources are limited, we're asking the public to review those maps and to give us feedback on which types of land are the most important to protect.
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What are the best tools to protect the priority lands?
There are pros and cons to different conservation strategies. We've shared a few of them below, and we're asking the public to give us feedback about the best mix of strategies to protect land in Beaufort County.
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There are pros and cons to the various acquisition, easement and regulatory tools that can be used to protect priority lands.
We'll walk through a few tools and their tradeoffs.
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When Beaufort County purchases priority land through the Rural and Critical Land program, the county owns and manages the land.
Often the land is made available for public access and recreation. Because future county leaders could choose to sell the land, it legally has no permanent protection.
Publicly owned land can also be protected by a conservation easement, which is specific to every property and describes how the land must be protected and managed. The easement can still allow public access, and it guarantees the land's permanent protection.
Private landowners can donate conservation easements to a land trust or similar organization, guaranteeing specific land protections in return for individual tax benefits.
The land continues to be owned and managed by the individual landowners, and the land is permanently protected. The easement can allow for limited development — for example, so that future generations can continue to live on the property.
Under Purchase of Development Rights and Transfer of Development Rights programs, the owner of land in a priority conservation area can sell or transfer their land's development rights to someone with land in a non-priority area.
A more traditional tool is the use of low-density zoning, whereby local governments define limits on the type and amount of development that can happen in certain areas.
Open space and buffer requirements can also be applied to certain areas through zoning. They ensure some level of open space and environmental protection in every development project.
In a conservation development, the standards for protection and connectivity can be even higher: A developer sets aside at least 30% of a site's buildable area for permanent open space protection, usually to protect a valuable ecosystem or preserve rural character. Development is clustered elsewhere on site.
Share your thoughts!
Now that you know a little more about the Green Print Plan and the importance of conservation in Beaufort County, please take 5 to 10 minutes to share your thoughts.
Which lands should we protect, and how?
We're also asking for public input on the places and views that are most loved and iconic in Beaufort County. Please use this map survey to mark the spots you think are important , and feel free to submit as many points as you like.
Thank you for your time! Your feedback is critical and appreciated. To learn more and to follow the progress of the Green Print Plan and Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan updates, visit the project website: www.envisionbeaufortcounty.com
