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Water shortage prevents economic development |
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
 Active Image | The Appalachian
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by MALLORI MORRIS
Intern News Reporter
As the university grows in numbers, the Town of Boone is also facing the possibility of large changes.
With more students enrolling every day the demand for big box corporations making their way to Boone is also growing.
John
Spear, director of planning for the Town of Boone, said Lowe’s Home
Improvement has been a strong presence in Boone for many years and the
town is open to the possibility of bringing other large chain stores to
the area.
Spear said, contrary to popular belief, Boone is not against corporate development, as long as it is done responsibly.
The question then becomes where these stores should put up shop.
Spear said the main reason larger stores are not prominent in the area is due to the limited land space and water situation.
“In most cases when big box corporations look to build, they stay
toward the outskirts of town where land is cheaper,” Spear said.
In order to build on the outskirts, water and sewage lines have to be routed to the areas at taxpayers expense, Spear said.
Rick Miller, public utilities director for the Town of Boone, said in
most cases the water and sewage lines are already in place for the
outer edges of town but become costly to extend a few hundred feet.
Miller said to extend the lines 2,500 feet past the city limit costs
the city $277,000 for each additional water and sewage line.
Recently Spear said developers approached the board of commissioners
about extending water and sewage lines on U.S. Highway 421 but were
turned down because of water restrictions.
It was rumored that Target and Home Depot were looking to develop on a U.S. Highway 421 land parcel.
However, Spear said nothing was confirmed, and the developers would not disclose what stores they wanted to bring.
Spear said Target does not start talking to developers about bringing a store until the land is graded and ready for building.
Another proposal was a Barnes and Noble bookstore and Starbucks to be built on King Street, Spear said.
“I think the town really supported that project,” Spear said.
Spear said he spoke to a developer about the Coleman property on King Street, but after gaining
approval from the Town of Boone for the project, the developer pulled the plans, most likely due to financial constraints.
Sheri Mortez, a public relations representative for Mast General Store
on King Street, said bringing a large bookstore to King Street could
only help business and interest in the downtown area.
“More and more people are seeking the downtown experience,” Mortez said.
Miller said bringing a store to Boone as large as Target or Home Depot
would increase water usage another 2,000-2,500 gallons a day per store.
Any structure estimated to use over 2,000 gallons a day is required to gain permission from town council, Miller said.
While Boone’s Wal-Mart uses an estimated 1,000-1,500 gallons of water
per day, a Super Wal-Mart would use an estimated 2,000-2,500 daily,
Miller said.
Wal-Mart is currently talking about building a larger store in the
Boone area but does not have any final plans in place, Tracy Stilwell,
a general store manager, said.
The Town of Boone currently uses 2 million gallons of water a day.
Miller said this number peaks at 2.3 million in October when tourism is
high for leaf season. Under government order Boone is planning other
ways to get water from neighboring towns.
After a study done in 2004, Boone has been researching other means of
bringing in water to increase supply by four million gallons daily,
Miller said.
The study concluded that no more customers were permitted to use water
resources after 2009 if this extra water source was not supplied,
Miller said.
Tommy P. Adams Jr., a senior finance and banking major at Appalachian
State University and native Boone resident, said he supports the
addition of bigger stores moving to Boone as long as they are tasteful.
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