The trails at Lake Crabtree closed to the public at the end of the day on June 1st 2025.
Triangle Off-Road Cyclists is proud of our 20 year partnership with Wake County, supporting some of the states most visited trails at Lake Crabtree County Park.
What Happened?
RDUAA cited “changes in FAA regulations now require us to get FMV” even for “community use” leases like LCCP. To help explain the legal and regulatory side of the issue, TORC retained Cranfill Sumner LLP. We did this for two reasons:
- Expert Knowledge: Many in the community are asking about FAA rules. We had only seen a general “changes in FAA regulations” rationale. We wanted an informed understanding, instead of just our lay person opinion.
- Options: Knowing a high level of public opposition to development of LCCP was likely, we asked the question: if RDUAA wanted to continue leasing the whole park to Wake County for less than FMV, could they do so?
The conclusion from Cranfill Sumner is yes, the County could continue leasing all of LCCP, perhaps even designate it for “permanent preservation.” We shared this with RDUAA and the County Commissioners in late January.
But it would take the cooperation and willingness of RDUAA to do so. This brings up the issue of funding for RDUAA. The central questions we should be asking are:
- Will leasing 136 acres of LCCP for development solve the Vision 2040 funding needs?
- Does it even make an appreciable difference in those funding needs?
The RTA RDU AID task force released recommendations for RDU funding challenges in 2020. There are options that don’t involve developing LCCP. A few quotes from that report:
- “Create RDU Real Estate Master Plan with specific timelines, financial requirements; Hire master developer to review entire airport for strategic development opportunities”
- “The situation surrounding RDU’s lands and adjacent Umstead Park has been a costly distraction RDU should revisit entire 2040 master plan given the reality of an adjacent, beloved state park”
- “Have Durham and Wake counties identify external lands that could be monetized to fund RDU”
RDUAA manages a lot of land – there are other areas they could develop and monetize, leveraging the value of the nearby Lake Crabtree Park instead of destroying it.
Suggestions for Wake County Commissioners:
- Enforce the Wake County R40 zoning the County commissioners enacted 1982 and Highway Overlay District they enacted in 1984
- Purchase the land as Commissioner Vickie Adamson has recommended
- Fight for the exemption for Fair Market Value (FMV) that is allowed for Community Use as Robert El-Jaouhari with Cranfill Sumner has provided in his legal advice to the RDUAA
- Permanently restrict the land to be a public park, as is allowed under the FAA community use exception, so we don’t lose it in the future.
- Extend current lease between RDUAA and Wake County at least temporarily (no developer has yet signed a new lease with the RDUAA)
Procedure to sign-up to speak at County Commissioners board meetings (after 9am on meeting date) at: https://boccomment.wake.gov/
At anytime you can write your Wake County Commissioners.
More talking points
The trails at Lake Crabtree are (or were):
- the most heavily used in the triangle, the 5th most visited in NC in 2021 according to Trailforks data.
- the most centrally located and greenway connected single track trails in the triangle.
- the best suited for events and races with parking and facilities
- used by local youth sports teams (NICA) for practice, and local businesses for training and fitness
- the most diverse – fun for beginners and fun for experts, enjoyed and supported by adaptive cyclists
- challenging, with skills areas that include the biggest jumps in the triangle.
- significant urban forest acreage that future generations will wish we had preserved.
10,000+ volunteer hours have gone into creating and maintaining these trails, for over 20 years. If we were to hire professionals to rebuild all trails, bridges, berms, 3 jump lines, rock features, skills areas, etc – you would need to budget $1M