The planned Hollow Rock Access Area is a multi-jurisdictional project to conserve significant natural and cultural resource lands along New Hope Creek and to make portions of the site available for low-impact recreational uses.
The New Hope Corridor Open Space Master Plan was adopted in 1991 by the City of Durham, Durham County, Orange County, and the Town of Chapel Hill. The plan called for the protection of an open space corridor along New Hope Creek and its tributary streams for recreational trails and conserving wildlife habitat. The plan identified 10 components—one of which was the “Hollow Rock Access Area.”
The Hollow Rock Access Area is intended as a community low-impact recreational area, with facilities and amenities that blend with the natural setting. The site is envisioned as a gathering place for picnics and forest walks, and for people of all ages to learn about the rich natural heritage and remarkable history of land use in the Hollow Rock community.
The site is also envisioned as an important gateway to the regional New Hope Creek trail system. Land protection along the New Hope Creek corridor extends well beyond the boundaries of the Hollow Rock Access, with 1,900 acres of the Duke Forest (Korstian Division) north of Erwin Road, and Orange and Durham counties owning over 260 acres of additional conservation land downstream of the Hollow Rock area, forming a nearly continuous corridor of open space south to Jordan Lake.
In 2006 the four local governments signed an interlocal agreement for the planning and operation of the Hollow Rock Access Area portion of the New Hope Creek master plan. The agreement also established the advisory Committee to develop a master plan for the property. A Hollow Rock master plan committee was appointed in late 2006 and charged with developing recommendations for the types and location of facilities for the site.
Attached document published September 2009