We wanted to share some recent communications that we have addressed to the Umstead Park superintendant, Scott Letchworth and the Umstead Park Advisory Committee (PAC) via e-mail. Please see the communication italicized below. The PAC is comprised of volunteers with various interests-- to include law enforcement, an adjacent business, mountain biking, equestrian, conservation, Raleigh city parks and recreation, and a neighbor.

We have been attending the PAC meetings regularly and recently presented a powerpoint with different options to restore parking access to Graylyn. Options included: a well-marked, paved parking area alongside Graylyn Road (same area as was used before); moving the current gate on Graylyn further into to park to allow parking alongside the road (to keep it on park property but increases the number of spaces); create a parking area on park property in between the two ranger homes on Graylyn (again, keeping it on parking property but increasing the number of spaces).

We are continuing to meet and communicate with other elected officials to get the various agencies to work together to allow us safe, convenient and increased access.


Dear PAC Members,
Following the last PAC meeting, we sent the following e-mail to Scott and asked him to forward it to each of you. We later found out that he had a family emergency so we were unsure whether he had been able to follow up on our request. We wanted to make sure you received it. Please let us know if you were not at the last meeting and would like to receive a hard copy of our presentation.
We hope you understand that we are not representing solely our personal views but the views of more than 1400 runners, cyclists, families and dog-walkers that are unfortunately unable to access the park as frequently as they once did due to the declining or less convenient access points.
Access Umstead


Scott,

We would like to thank you and the members of the Park Advisory Committee for the opportunity to share our ideas for potential solutions to restoring parking at Graylyn Drive . We would be happy to meet with anyone individually or as a group to further discuss this issue.

The declining number of access points to Umstead State Park certainly created a public outcry and was the sole impetus for the formation of our group. For more information on the strong local community opinion and our efforts, please see the petition at www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/609803273 and our blog at accessumstead.blogspot.com.

Please note, we limited our discussion to Graylyn Drive based on information obtained from prior meetings with DOT, Parks and Recreation and PAC meetings that the Old Reedy Creek Road access would be resolved with the Town of Cary’s efforts to provide parking and that there was potential parking for the Reedy Creek Road access with property currently owned by Beazer Homes. However, we are still committed to all three goals.

Please share this e-mail with the members of the PAC, particularly to those who were unable to attend last night. Thank you.

Access Umstead
Margaret Cooper
Carlton Cooper
Paul Fisher
Ed Hallberg
Dwayne Allen