8,000 Acres
I don't have a link to it. A man named Charles Taylor, one of the biggest land owners in Transylvania County, owns 8,000 acres of land on the head of the East Fork of the French Broad. He's wanting to give it up. Wants to hand it over to the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy. It is the largest tract of Private Forest Land in the county.
The East Fork flows west and enters the French Broad just below Rosman. For the most part a road follows it along. It's pretty and would be prettier it it wasn't for all of the No Trespassing signs. A good part of those signs belong to that land.
Charles Taylor was the 11th Congressional District Representative for quite some years. He's a Republican and got voted out of Office in 2006. The green crowd hated him. They called him "Chainsaw Charlie". Ask them why and they will give you a blathering of how he is a despicable person. He has a reputation of a slum lord. He has had plenty of accusations of being hateful. Some would say he is evil.
Despite all of that, he owned 8,000 acres of some beautiful land. He did not hire loggers to cut every twig and never had it developed, despite the gated community of Connastee being near by. At one time, he could have made a mint off of it, and he did not.
I offer no defenses as to what people say about him. While he is asking a price, it's valued at 33 Million according to the story on WLOS, he's not selling it in parcels at twice that.
As to what comes of the land, will it be a suburbanite bicycle mecca like DuPont or a highly restricted park like Gorges State Park (Auger Holes to us locals)? Or, will it be a place where you can go see the wilds, a Hunter can hunt, and the land can be land, and not a pawn in the Culture War of Appalachia?
The Appalachianist
The East Fork flows west and enters the French Broad just below Rosman. For the most part a road follows it along. It's pretty and would be prettier it it wasn't for all of the No Trespassing signs. A good part of those signs belong to that land.
Charles Taylor was the 11th Congressional District Representative for quite some years. He's a Republican and got voted out of Office in 2006. The green crowd hated him. They called him "Chainsaw Charlie". Ask them why and they will give you a blathering of how he is a despicable person. He has a reputation of a slum lord. He has had plenty of accusations of being hateful. Some would say he is evil.
Despite all of that, he owned 8,000 acres of some beautiful land. He did not hire loggers to cut every twig and never had it developed, despite the gated community of Connastee being near by. At one time, he could have made a mint off of it, and he did not.
I offer no defenses as to what people say about him. While he is asking a price, it's valued at 33 Million according to the story on WLOS, he's not selling it in parcels at twice that.
As to what comes of the land, will it be a suburbanite bicycle mecca like DuPont or a highly restricted park like Gorges State Park (Auger Holes to us locals)? Or, will it be a place where you can go see the wilds, a Hunter can hunt, and the land can be land, and not a pawn in the Culture War of Appalachia?
The Appalachianist
posted by Hill Billy Rave | Saturday, June 05, 2010
7 Comments:
Is his asking price $33m or that just the value?
I find the constant carping about someone's character or motives horrible . . . recent Paul McCartney's gratuitous comments about finally having a President (Obama) who knows what a library is for (versus who . . . Bush who, bviously according to McCartney's way of thinking, didn't know what a library was for). Usually the meanesss of these comments says more about the person making the comments than it does about the one being commented on and the pain of such words have meaning that is tearing the social fabric of the country apart and making civil discussion impossible. Taylor is to be commended . . . . The cliques who participate in this coded name calling usually consider themselves our "betters" in money and education. I just wish I were more impressed by their all knowing and gated communities. Hopefully the land will be put to good use and conserved and to me that cpnservation means hunting and fishing . . . and it ain't too far away, App! Bill
Sage, I found something more than the WLOS video.
http://m.citizentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100604/LIVING/306040043/-1/pda
I will link it in the post later on.
Yes, accordingly it will be sold for $33 Million. That's 40-50% of it's value.
Bill, we tend to put someone we disagree with down. Your right, it discourages real discussion and consensus.
Reading the end of the linked article, the real estate agent makes it all sound as if everyone wants to develop. Not so! It has gotten way to city like here, and allot of us know it. Charles Taylor and everyone else doesn't want to see everything got dozed away. We're weening ourselves off of house construction here. It's having to be done, people aren't building. And, it's painful.
(Good to see you BTW)
From their website: "As part of giving a conservation easement, the landowner, working with CMLC, identifies specific permitted uses of the propert0. These normally include agriculture, forestry, recreation, and other open space uses. The easement limits or prohibits certain activities, including industrial, commercial, and residential development."
So it sounds like the property owner can specify how the property is to be used.
Funny, though, I've gotten to the point in my life that I wonder what would you do with 33 million dollars? We get by pretty darned good with waaaay less money than that.
Gunner, I confirmed it with a friend, that land is the Hunting Club land. I know a few members. When the owner was a Representative he had a pretty good track record on firearms and hunting regulations. Sportsmen lost allot of hunting land around here with the Auger Hole becoming State Park (part of it is Game Lands, but hard to reach). There is a chance we could gain some public land with this. Especially if Sportsmen Organizations help raise funds. However, there are plenty of people around that will try to deride that.
Legislation, I meant.
For you, I'm hoping for the latter but I just might be bitter after a recent road trip and being confronted with homes blocking the view of the water and when there wasn't a home, it was 'residents only' parks, and when there was a boardwalk access to it, you had a Seafarers Union building with large signs about no parking, no swimming, no walking on private property at the end of the boardwalk. Once people get access to water, they seem to no longer like to share it.
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