Conservation project stalls in Jackson

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Conservation project stalls in Jackson

A sweeping mountain view stretches along property owned by America’s Home Place. Donated photo

An effort to conserve 441.5 acres of land in the Plott Balsam Mountains adjacent to Sylva’s Pinnacle Park has met resistance from a majority of the Jackson County commissioners, with the commission’s three Republican members expressing hesitation during a May 15 work session on the topic.

“We’ve made promises, and naturally I’d be considering about the Qualla-Whittier area and other parts of the county,” said Commissioner Charles Elders, whose district includes Qualla and Whittier. “We need to make sure they’re taken care of before we take on a lot more.”

The property in question is currently owned by the homebuilding company America’s Home Place, which has been in conversation with The Conservation Fund for the past two years about selling the land for conservation. It’s split into two tracts — the 441.5-acre Blackrock section, which is currently the topic of discussion in county government, and the 471-acre Shut-In property, which is in earlier stages of conservation planning. Taken together, these two properties adjoin 1,088-acre Pinnacle Park and a 5,000-plus-acre block of land that will soon be transferred into National Park Service ownership as part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

When The Conservation Fund first began exploring conservation options, in 2016, America’s Home Place was looking to sell all 912 acres together for $4.25 million — a sum patently out of reach for smaller communities like Jackson County and Sylva. However, by spring of this year the plan had been revised to split the sale into two separate purchases, with Mainspring Conservation Trust taking the lead on the Shut-In portion and aiming for a 2020 closing.

Meanwhile, America’s Home Place had offered a price of $2.2 million for the Blackrock tract, with The Conservation Fund cobbling together a more feasible plan for footing the bill. The organization plans to seek a $1 million grant from the state’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund and to raise $400,000 in private donations, with Jackson County and Sylva each chipping in $250,000 and Sylva ultimately taking ownership of the property.

Sylva commissioners sounded favorable to the idea when they discussed it during an April 26 work session, with plans to take an official vote May 24. However, during Jackson County’s May 15 work session, Republican commissioners Mickey Luker, Ron Mau and Elders said they weren’t ready to approve the spending.

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Mau said he thought the asking price might be too high and pointed out that purchasing the land for transfer into Town of Sylva ownership would take it off county tax rolls.

“When a deal like this gets structured, does the county get any credit for the foregone tax revenues we’ll be giving up?” Mau asked.

“It would be owned by the Town of Sylva, which is a government entity that is not subject to our tax, so yes it would be coming off the tax rolls,” responded Chairman Brian McMahan. “But again the tradeoff is we’re protecting a ridge top that is extremely visible in the northern part of the county, and it helps maintain that huge ridge, the Plott Balsam Ridge, that runs through our county, and it also helps protect the watershed.”

To address Mau’s concerns about the cost, Adams said that an appraisal would have to be done before the purchase could go through, as state grant funds can’t be used to pay a price that’s above market value.

Luker and Elders both asked how the land purchase would fit in with the county’s ambitious recreation master plan. Funding would come from the county’s Conservation, Preservation and Recreation Fund, and they were concerned about the idea of bumping the land purchase ahead of goals the county has been working on for a while, such as building a park in the Qualla/Whittier area, finishing a park project in Savannah and extending the greenway.

“I think about the fact of our greenway,” Luker said. “We’ve been kind of piecemealing it together forever and we still don’t have an adjoining greenway. The last thing that bothers me honestly is the fact that this is a piece of property that we’re going to spend this money on and then just turn it over and have no control or say in it really.”

McMahan agreed that extending the greenway and building a park in Qualla are important projects but pointed out that there aren’t concrete opportunities right now to pursue those projects.

“I agree with what you’re saying, Mickey (Luker), but our staff has been working really hard with property owners behind the scenes trying to explain that, and if there’s any way it could have happened it would have happened by now,” McMahan said of the greenway effort. “On Whittier, we ought to work on it harder, try to identify some opportunities and build it out in the future. But if we pass up this opportunity to commit, to help preserve that tract, we will have missed a great opportunity.”

When asked about funding, Adams told commissioners that there is enough money in the Conservation, Preservation and Recreation Fund to commit the $250,000 and still be able to finish a project to build a park in Savannah and likely to do the same in Qualla, depending on what property and project scope is selected.

However, Luker, Mau and Elders said they’d rather hold off on the decision and opted not to place the vote on the May 21 agenda.

“If three of you don’t want to do it, there’s not much conversation,” said Commissioner Boyce Deitz. “But you don’t have the opportunity to do these things much when you talk about conservation and property protection, things of that nature. You’ve got to take advantage of it when it’s there.”

Commissioners won’t be able to put off the decision for much longer and still have the option of making the deal happen. Bill Holman, North Carolina director for The Conservation Fund, said that he’s looking to get commitments from Sylva and Jackson County by June 1 so he can submit the grant application. With the May 21 meeting now gone, the county’s next regular meeting when a vote could take place is June 4.

“He (Holman) might could squeak out another two weeks, but I think he’s going to run out early June sometime,” Adams told commissioners.

While the conservation project was absent from the agenda May 21, two people addressed the issue during the meeting’s public comment section.

“More than a simple acquisition, this would protect an important piece of property from development for future generations of Jackson County citizens,” said Cullowhee resident Craig Forrest. “This purchase would offer the protection of the ridgeline and viewshed as well as provide for the construction of additional hiking trails.”

Forrest urged commissioners to take action now and said that it should take precedence over other projects due to the time-sensitive nature of the opportunity.

The second speaker, former commissioner Tom Massie, was critical of the board’s decision not to act that evening and said he was “perplexed” as to why the board wasn’t jumping on an opportunity to receive a 5 to 1 return on its $250,000 investment by leveraging town and grant funding.

“Projects like this are important to our county,” Massie said. “Although there are always naysayers that don’t see the wisdom of the project, the wisdom will become much clearer in the future. This is the time. We have the opportunity now. We have the money, according to your own staff. The question is, does this commission have the vision and the motivation to do this project, to at least submit the application? I don’t think you can afford to sacrifice the long-term benefits to the citizens of Jackson County for petty politics.”

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