Cabarrus County Park Master Plan

A park master plan helps a rapidly developing county protect, preserve, and enhance 615 acres of green space in rural North Carolina.

In 2020, the Cabarrus County government purchased a parcel of land from The Conservation Fund in a rural but rapidly developing region of the county. Spanning 615 acres, featured dry-oak hickory forest, upland depression swamp forest, and pine forest, as well as active farmland. Responding to public demand for passive nature recreation, the County intended to transform the site into a public nature park, and they sought to restore, enhance, and preserve its ecological systems and rural attributes.

As a key member of a master planning team led by Benesch, Biohabitats conducted an ecological assessment of the entire property before preparing landscape ecology and ecological conditions analysis maps. Using the collected data, Biohabitats provided recommendations for managing the property’s hardwood and pine forests, unique upland depression wetlands, streams, riparian buffers, and invasive species. These recommendations were integrated into the final master plan, which also includes a Nature Learning Center for K-12 students, and trails leading to nature education points of interest.