§ 143B-135.48.  Preparation of a System Plan.

(a) The Secretary shall prepare and adopt a State Parks System Plan by December 31, 1988. The Plan, at a minimum, shall do all of the following:

(1) Outline a method whereby the mission and purposes of the State Parks System as defined in G.S. 143B-135.42 can be achieved in a reasonable, timely, and cost-effective manner.

(2) Evaluate existing parks against these standards to determine their statewide significance.

(3) Identify duplications and deficiencies in the current State Parks System and make recommendations for correction.

(4) Describe the resources of the existing State Parks System and their current uses, identify conflicts created by those uses, and propose solutions to them.

(5) Describe anticipated trends in usage of the State Parks System, detail what impacts these trends may have on the State Parks System, and recommend means and methods to accommodate those trends successfully.

(6) Validate the number of visitors per car used in the calculation of visitor counts at units of the State Parks System.

(b) The Plan shall be developed with full public participation, including a series of public meetings held on adequate notice under rules which shall be adopted by the Secretary. The purpose of the public meetings and other public participation shall be to obtain from the public:

(1) Views and information on the needs of the public for recreational resources in the State Parks System;

(2) Views and information on the manner in which these needs should be addressed;

(3) Review of the draft plan prepared by the Secretary before he adopts the Plan.

(c) The Secretary shall revise the Plan at intervals not exceeding five years. Revisions to the Plan shall be made consistent with and under the rules providing public participation in adoption of the Plan.

(d) No later than October 1, 2018, and every five years thereafter, the Department shall submit electronically the State Parks System Plan to the Environmental Review Commission, the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources, and the Fiscal Research Division. Concurrently, the Department shall submit a summary of each change to the Plan that was made during the previous five fiscal years. (1987, c. 243, s. 1; 2010-31, s. 13.13; 2015-241, s. 14.30(e), (l); 2017-10, s. 4.20; 2023-70, s. 4(b).)