Preserve Rural Orange (PRO) is a nonprofit
501(c)3 citizen
organization established in 2009 to protect watershed land and farms in
Orange
County, North Carolina.Providing
timely public education on potential impacts of development, PRO has
been
influential in promoting constructive community dialogue on issues
affecting
rural residents, farmers, the environment and public health.
Through grassroots organizing, the
organization has
led three successful public campaigns within three years to stop
detrimental development of rural land: a UNC airport, county waste
transfer
station and expanded UNC animal research campus.PRO
has been effective at both questioning the need for locating
these projects on watershed land and at increasing accountability and
transparency, by identifying pertinent information about the planning
process,
economics and likely impacts of developing land in the rural county.Volunteers have demonstrated compelling
evidence of the costs of developing inan area without municipal services, where the price of
infrastructure
includes not only high costs to taxpayers but also to the environment
and
public health.
Preserve Rural Orange has rapidly become a valued resource for citizens, businesses, nonprofits and government leaders, providing well-researched information on projects affecting rural property, timely news updates, and consultation to community activists seeking strategies for organizing.
The organization is committed to facilitating informed, proactive citizen involvement in issues affecting rural land. In public meetings with high turnout, and in ongoing communications with local residents, media, government and university officals, and local and regional organizations, PRO has become a vital presence in Orange County. Led by a volunteer board, community members research and post public records and updates to subscribers and on the PRO website. Through timely news updates, website postings and a newsletter, PRO reaches thousands of community members.
To date the group has been run entirely by volunteers supported by individual, volunteer and in-kind donations. Board members are currently engaged in strategic planning and capacity building for the future of the organization.
Organizational History
In August 2008 residents of southwest Orange County learned of NC Senate Bill 1925, which established an Airport Authority for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to relocate its Horace Williams Airport operations. The new authority would be composed of fifteen members, with eight appointed by UNC, two by the state, two by the municipalities and three by the county. The authority would have the power to take land by eminent domain, and was limited in its site selection to Orange County. According to a comprehensive $200,000 Talbert & Bright study commissioned by UNC in 2005, the number one location for a new airport which met the most criteria was Raleigh-Durham Airport, but the first location in Orange County would be in southwest Orange at Site H.
Neighbors circulated a petition opposing UNC’s airport plans and collected over 1800 signatures in a matter of weeks. At the first Preserve Rural Orange community meeting in September 2008, close to 300 people turned out to share concerns and information about the proposed airport. Signed petitions were presented to the Orange County Commissioners in October 2008. In January 2009 when UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp announced that university flight operations would relocate to RDU, volunteers had collected over two thousand petition signatures. Local residents founded Preserve Rural Orange to address current and future development plans that would adversely affect the rural, historically agricultural community in Orange County.
Historically, the residents of Orange County have come together over concerns that would have impacted the environmental integrity of watershed land, farms and homes. In the recent past, community members have been instrumental in stopping a landfill and a previous airport proposal. For a decade, neighbors worked on the campaign to Save Cane Creek. Some of the same families who lost significant farmland by eminent domain to Cane Creek Reservoir would have lost much of their remaining land if an airport were built on Site H.
Mission Statement
The mission of Preserve Rural Orange is to preserve, strengthen and defend the
viability of the rural community of watershed land, farms and woodlands
in Orange County, North Carolina.
