Piedmont Greenway Master Plan - Town of Kernersville

Estimate of Probable Land Acquisition Costs
Land Ownership Inventory
Greenways, Inc. has completed a comprehensive land ownership inventory of the entire Forsyth
County Piedmont Greenway corridor. The Guilford County parcel information is missing from this report
because the County and the City of Greensboro will not release the information. Information that
was obtained came from the Forsyth County Geo-Data web-site, and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
GIS and Planning Department data sets. The goal of identifying every parcel of land along both sides of
the greenway corridor and spur trails was not met due to the lack of information available from Guilford
County. The research should be updated to reflect recent real estate transactions involving portions of the
greenway corridor not yet included in tax records. It should be noted that city and county tax records are far
from complete and, in some cases, may be out of date. In several instances, identification of owners of land
in the greenway corridor was not possible.
The ownership of the Piedmont Greenway corridor is highly fragmented. The corridor includes public,
private and private nonprofit landowners. Information about the public-private land ownership pattern was
used in developing the proposed greenway trail alignment in order to maximize to the greatest extent possible
utilization of publicly owned land for the greenway, thereby minimizing the cost of the public acquisition
of land or easements for the greenway.
A large portion of the land base required for the Piedmont Greenway is currently in public or private
ownership. As discussed elsewhere in the Master Plan report, there are three large segments of the greenway
owned by various city and county municipal governments. Public landowners in the corridor include
the city of Winston Salem, city of Greensboro, the counties of Forsyth and Guilford and Duke Power Company.
Public acquisition of land in public or private nonprofit ownership is not included in the land acquisition
cost estimate. However, although properties owned by these entities will not require public purchase
for the greenway, land protection or management agreements must also be secured from public or private
nonprofit landowners.
In all, there are 148 individual parcels of privately/publicly owned land in the greenway corridor (by
an undetermined number of owners). A list of landowners is not included in the Master Plan, but can be
obtained from the planning departments of Forsyth and Guilford Counties. Some information may also be
available from Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Kernersville
Land Acquisition Cost Estimate
Based on the parcel depictions contained in tax maps, an approximate acreage for the greenway trail
was calculated. As the entire parcel owned by each individual private landowner will not be required for the
greenway, these acreage figures were reduced based on acquisition of a minimum 15-foot-wide easement
(for an eight foot wide trail), in the urban Forsyth County section, and a 20-wide easement (for a ten foot
wide trail) in the Guilford County section. Two alternatives trail segments were considered for the Forsyth
Forsyth County Primary Trail
Alignment 8 foot-wide trail
15 foot easement needed
Guilford County Trail Alignment
10 foot-wide trail
20 foot easement needed
Figure 45. Total Easement Acres
County portion of the trail due to the pending high speed
rail corridor that PART is studying. The first segment
would follow the railway ROW, and an alternative trail
would follow the southern side of West Mountain Street
(see segments 1- 8, pages 29 - 43). Segment costs may
be more or less depending on the final alignments and
agreements with the landowners. Acreage for each
parcel of private land over which the greenway will cross
was then calculated using figures for linear front footage
along the Piedmont Greenway. The total amount of land
within the proposed primary greenway corridor is 3,423
acres, of this approximately 1,268 acres are in the Forsyth County section and 2,155 acres are in the
Guilford County section. As an alternative, the total amount of land within the alternative trail alignment
is 3, 619 acres, of this approximately 1,464 acres are in Forsyth County and 2,155 acres are in
Guilford County.
Land acquisition costs are based on estimates only and are qualified by several factors. First,
land acquisition costs are based on estimates from other recent sales of similar properties in the area.
Until a qualified appraisal is performed by an NC State certified appraiser, the “fair market value”
of these properties
Forsyth
County
Guilford
County
Primary
Parcel Acres
Figure 46. Total Parcel Acres
34
58
Total Easement Acres 92
Number
of Parcels
Alternative
Parcel Acres
Number
of Parcels
1,268 74 1,464 250
2,155 72 2,155 72
Total 3,423 146 3,619 322
will not be known.
Secondly, these
acquisition cost
estimates are based
on estimated acreage
figures. Although
general acreage can
be obtained from
public records, until
an official boundary
survey of the corridor
is made, exact acreage
is unknown.
These land acquisition cost estimates are also based on one further very important assumption:
that the privately owned parcels to be acquired for the greenway are located within the 100-year
floodplain of the creeks (where needed). Typically, property within the 100-year floodplain has a
significantly reduced value due to the fact that the development potential of such property is highly
limited. In many cases, properties within the 100-year floodplain of the various creeks may also
contain jurisdictional wetlands, which greatly reduces the property’s development potential, and thus
PIEDMONT GREENWAY
Final Master Plan Report 69