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Parkway resort causes controversy |
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Tuesday, 12 September 2006 |
Six-thousand-acre resort excites, dismays
by DYLAN CLAYTON
News Reporter
An upscale resort off the Blue Ridge Parkway brings ritzy living and controversy to the Boone "I
don’t care how pretty the GINN Company makes Laurelmor, you can’t find
justification for second, third, or fourth Homes being million dollar
homes."
Jasmine C. Shoshanna,
Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains |
area.
The resort, named Laurelmor, will sit on a 6,000-acre piece of land with 1,500 residential lots, two golf courses and luxury amenities.
With lots in Laurelmor starting at $500,000, the resort promises to be a millionaire’s dream.
Locals, however, are less than excited about the idea of a resort in their backyard.
Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains is in direct opposition with the
GINN Company, the corporation bringing Laurelmor to the area.
“I don’t care how pretty the GINN Company makes Laurelmor, you can’t
find justification for second, third, or fourth homes being million
dollar homes,” Jasmine C. Shoshanna, a member of Friends of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, said.
Laurelmor promises to create many jobs for the area, especially for students, and hopes to add a boost to the local economy.
“We will need wait staff in the restaurants, help desk staff in the
resort and help on the golf courses among other jobs,” Laurelmor
representative Eva S.M. Goode said.
Shoshanna feels jobs are not enough.
“These are minimum wage, minimum skill jobs that are not going to give back to the community,” she said.
One of the major points of opposition the Friends of the Blue Ridge
Mountains finds with Laurelmor lies in what the price of land and homes
in the resort will do to the price of land and homes in the area.
“The land around us is going to become so wealthy that locals are not
going to be able to afford it anymore,” Shoshanna said. “It is already
happening in some instances. People are having to move to Tennessee and
Wilkesboro because they can’t afford to live and work here anymore.”
Despite the controversy, Goode said Laurelmor is getting national attention from interested buyers.
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