New development raises hopes, concerns

A luxury gated golf community brings Western North Carolina the first American golf course designed by Tiger Woods, along with environmental concerns and hopes for economic revival.

"We don't know what will happen when you put 800 houses up at 2000 feet," said Rebecca Williams, 47, chair of the Land Use Task Force of the Swannanoa Pride Community Coalition, a local organization formed in reaction to development. "The scale is so much larger than anything else coming in here."

The Cliffs Communities, a developer of luxury real estate, has big plans for a ridge between Swannanoa and Fairview. It will build more than 1,000 homes as part of the 3000-acre Cliffs at High Carolina, which will become the largest development in Buncombe County history.

High Carolina will offer residents access to more than $150 million in amenities including five restaurants, an inn, five golf courses, 50 miles of trails and 250 acres of private parkland within the gates.

Economically depressed Swannanoa, a small, unincorporated community that suffered economic hits as native industries like Beacon Manufacturing relocated or went under, could receive a welcome infusion of money and jobs.

"We're not Asheville," Williams said of the six-square-mile community she calls home. "We're working class."

But according to Williams, while the approximately 800 Swannanoans on her group's e-mail list serv welcome economic revival, some fear escalating property taxes, changes in Swannanoa's small-town character, environmental impact and compromised views of the surrounding mountains after the completion of more than 1000 homes.

"It's just not black and white," she said of community feeling surrounding the construction of a luxury development on the mountains surrounding two small Carolina towns.

One concerned woman on the Swannanoa list serv said she taught her grandchildren colors by looking at the changing leaves as the landscape moved through the seasons, according to Williams.

Though the Cliffs Communities now owns part of the ridge line, many people feel like the mountains are theirs, Williams said. "It's a sense of communal ownership," she said.

Those who live on the slopes below the High Carolina site have concerns closer to home.

Francois Manavit, a Paris-born, naturalized American who described himself as "almost 50," lives near High Carolina construction with his family.

"My well and spring will be affected by whatever is done on the plateau," he said. "It is essential for the safety of the communities living around that development for the Cliffs to detail the list of chemicals that will be used on the golf course."

Without a clear point of contact for questions, Manavit said he had not been able to find someone from the Cliff Communities to ask for a list he wants of chemicals that will be used on the golf courses.

Lucas Anthony, the Cliffs Communities Vice President of Development, said his organization might be cautious about providing chemical information to the public because it felt residents were not in danger.

"Those chemicals are not going to find their way into a water source, so it really does not matter," he said.

Anthony said it is cost-effective to give grass only what it needs to thrive. Cliffs Communities scientists tested turf grasses to find the way that best allowed grass to grow in a natural state, with the least use of fertilizers or pesticides, he said.

"It's not like we just go out there and spray the grass," he said.

In 2007, the Cliffs Communities partnered with Clemson University to create the Cliffs Center for Environmental Golf Research, a laboratory purporting to produce environment-enhancing, ecologically sound golf course and green space maintenance practices.

Manavit said he does not oppose the construction of High Carolina.

"We are concerned by some issues regarding the topography and the impact of what the Cliffs wants to do up there," he said. "Hundreds of houses are bringing massive changes to a watershed where many streams and springs are located."

"We're downstream of what they're doing," Williams said. People fish in the Swannanoa River, she said, adding that Warren Wilson College students in particular are frequent visitors to its swimming holes.

Anthony responded that the Division of Water Quality has requirements in place to make sure local water quality remains within state standards, no matter the changes High Carolina brings.

"The Division of Water Quality had a public hearing they didn't have to do, to allow more scrutiny," he said of the community hearing last month that gave residents a forum for water concerns.

While High Carolina construction will cover mountain streams with culverts for its golf courses, Anthony said all affected streams were tested for the presence of trout. Only streams with no trout will be covered, he said.

"Me and my dad hunt and fish," said Anthony, a native Southerner from Pickens County, SC. "We wouldn't do anything to hurt trout habitats."

Despite the concerns residents share, Williams called the Cliffs Communities a sophisticated, forward-looking company. She said she believes the Cliffs developers evolved a construction aesthetic that better blends with the mountains, she said.

Anthony agreed with her assessment, saying High Carolina residents will be required to use less reflective earth-tone paints on their homes to make them less visible. "There won't be a pink house sitting on top of a mountain," he said.

He said his organization is concerned with more than just the local community perceiving High Carolina homes as blending with the natural mountain background. "We're concerned about people on our own property seeing homes," he said.

He said the Cliffs will build fewer than 1,200 homes on around 3,000 acres.

"That's about one home per three acres. That's not that dense. A lot of developers would come in and do more than that. We feel like (low-density development) is how you use the land and not take advantage of it," he said.

Despite her concerns, Williams called the developer has been largely respectful.

"People in Swannanoa are very excited that this development is coming in. They're hoping for a positive impact," she said. "We just want them to be good neighbors. Positive impact and environmental responsibility are not mutually exclusive."

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