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NC coOPER ATIVE <br />® EXTENSION <br />� Cabarru5 County Cfitster <br />LOCALLY 6ROWN <br />`�1W nsa <br />UNC CHARD= f E <br />College orArts +Architecture <br />s <br />selwoul ufArc4f Irrlure <br />Lomax Agricultural Learning Center <br />Program Development Plan <br />2 0 1 4 - 201 7 <br />Next Steps: <br />The brief history above explains the expansion efforts at the Elma C. Lomax Incubator <br />Farm, which has become much more than just a facility that trains new farmers. This <br />expansion however has pushed the limits of the resources of the Lomax program. <br />County Staff and the staff of Cooperative Extension find themselves unable to meet all <br />the needs of a public increasingly interested in learning more about their food system <br />and how the average citizen can participate in the local food economy. <br />In 2013 Rowan Cabarrus Community College (RCCC) approached Cabarrus County <br />about the opportunity to relocate agricultural equipment to the Lomax farm. RCCC <br />ended a long running horticultural program when the Cabarrus Correction Center was <br />closed. The community college seeks to relocate 3 greenhouses, several much needed <br />storage buildings a tractor and other miscellaneous equipment to Lomax in order to <br />keep those resources in Cabarrus County. RCCC will use these resources and others at <br />Lomax to offer much needed assistance associated with the desired increase in <br />educational programming. <br />The UNCC Infrastructure Design Environment and Sustainability Center (IDEAS) also <br />approached Cabarrus County about further developing agriculturally -based research at <br />Lomax. IDEAS seeks to, <br />...create dynamic and strategic project - specific research collaborations among <br />university faculty. We recognize that sustainability principles require that we <br />understand (i) the intricacies of natural systems; (ii) the new design criteria that <br />sustainability principles bring to planning, design, construction, and integration <br />of human systems; and (iii) the economic realities, human values and behavioral <br />factors that underlie those systems. Our team of Faculty Fellows includes <br />representatives from civil, mechanical, electrical and systems engineering; <br />architecture, biology, business, chemistry, geography and earth science, <br />psychology, public health, and sociology. <br />The chance to add two new partnerships in RCCC and UNCC IDEAS to the existing <br />partnership between Cabarrus County and Cooperative Extension gives the Lomax <br />Attachment number 3 <br />G -2 Page 172 <br />