January 15, 2020: Memorandum sent to: State Historic Preservation Officer and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Cultural Resources for the Office of Archives and History, NC State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and Administrator and Deputy Historic Preservation Officer, NC State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)

From: Dr. Jean Spooner, Chair, The Umstead Coalition

Re: Request to PROTECT William B. Umstead State Park from proposed fence and logging detrimental to a protected property listed under the National Register of Historic Places and an effective “taking” of Park lands.

William B. Umstead State Park, including its forests, is listed under the National Register of Historic Places. The Site ID is: WA0721. Year of Registration: 1995. Listed under: ‘Crabtree Creek Recreational Demonstration Area” and “Umstead State Park, Raleigh, NC.” William B. Umstead State Park was established in 1934, well before the current RDU Airport.

Under a RDUAA’s proposal, visitors to the park will be greeted with 8' tall chain link fence topped by 3-rows of barbed wire on both sides of the East Coast Greenway as they approach William B. Umstead State Park from Lake Crabtree County Park. We believe this is NOT an appropriate entrance feel to a listed and protected property. And if the fence alone wasn't bad enough, RDU plans to clear cut a 30' wide path through the forest (15' to either side of the fence) for 8.3 miles, much of this along the border of William B. Umstead State Park (See attached Google Earth Graphic showing the proposed locations of this unnecessary boundary fence. Note, the extensive length of the proposed fence that would border within 10 feet of William B. Umstead State Park.)

Please find attached our letter of concern to NC State Parks. The proposed fence project (RDU Project No. 211140) has profound detrimental impacts on one of our most visited Parks in NC. To border our NC State Park with a security fence spec’ed for power stations or prisons is an insult to our Park visitors and certainly not in character with our Historic public property. Below is a graphic of the fence spec including the RFP for the fence.

Download a PDF of the email here.