As the editor
of Big Bald Highlands News & other websites and a real estate agent in the high
mountain Wolf Laurel community, I’ve spent over 20
years living here in western NC. before moving to Wolf Laurel, and
for the last ten years we owned a home on the beautiful 10th green
on a golf course south of Asheville.
Why I
Moved To Wolf Laurel - At the High Vista Country Club I had
everything I wanted including a beautiful long range view of the
neighboring farm and pasture covered hillsides and woods where I
often walked with my young daughter and dog in the afternoon.
Although I moved to the Wolf Laurel Resort for the many summer
activities, hiking trails, cool summer temperatures and winter
skiing, my prime reason is to escape the over crowded development
where I now live. Understand, I’m in real estate and I favor
planned, tasteful development and more homes and infrastructure when
done correctly can certainly enhance a community for all concerned.
I like living
in a golfing resort but my former pastoral view of the golf course,
farm woods, and pasture had been replaced with a new development of
small lots and architecturally cloned homes that all seemed to merge together
into a crowded environment more appropriate for suburbia in Charlotte or Atlanta
than here in our mountains.
A
Mountain Refuge From Over Crowded Suburbs - Wolf Laurel
has a mountain golf course with some of the best views and the
highest terrain east of the Rocky Mountains plus the other 4-season
high mountain activities that I enjoy. More importantly, most of
this resort area has been very tastefully developed with
conservation and preservation in mind. I desire to live in a resort community that is a real
refuge from our crowded suburbs and over developed golfing
communities like the one I moved from in western North
Carolina. I want to be able to engage in exciting outdoor activities
or sit back, reflect and relax in privacy without the intrusion of a
noisy neighbor or disruption from a house a few short feet away.
I have
visited and enjoyed many mountain resorts here in the South,
throughout New England, out West, and across the Alps while living
and working in Europe. Sadly, all too often, I’ve observed beautiful
natural surroundings that originally were the main attraction for
tourists and second home development to a region become over built,
blighted and destroyed by development sprawl, forest destruction and
poor quality construction. Although this attempt to maximize profits
in the short-run for investors and speculators sometimes works,
often the resort community and existing homeowners end up
paying a high price in slower long-term community growth, lower property
values and a compromised resort lifestyle where reasons for buying
have been lost.
Wolf
Laurel Resort Preserves Our Unique High Mountain Views &
Environment - Thankfully the pristine Wolf Laurel Resort that I want to see for my
family as well as future visitors and homeowners has largely escaped
this kind of real estate speculation I’ve seen in far too many
unfortunate resort localities like South Lake Tahoe, Mount Snow, VT,
and other blighted resort communities far too numerous to mention .
Here we are a
tastefully done development where forest, natural growth and nature
are mostly undisturbed by the resort sprawl and natural resource
destruction we see elsewhere. This is what makes Wolf Laurel Resort
unique and the leading attraction for tourists, homeowners and
quality long-term area developers. We are protected on two sides by
national forest wilderness and the Appalachian Trail and
the Mars Hill Watershed. In fact, unless you visit during the winter months, when the
leaves are off the trees, you would never even see 90% of the houses
hidden in the woods here at the resort.
I'm Confident About the Future of Wolf Laurel Resort - My vision
for our new home is one where future development will be carefully
planned to take maximum advantage of our mountain vistas, forests,
natural growth and cover while protecting the fragile mountain
environment for the community today and for future generations of
visitors and homeowners.
As I've
seen firsthand in other 1970's style developments,
once a view or landscape is lost or a location for a mountainside
development is poorly built that detracts from our unique mountain
environment, we all lose in enjoyment, property values and
lifestyle. Let’s all work together to grow the Wolf Laurel area we
love tastefully and carefully while preserving the natural
environment that brought us to this high mountain region in the
first place.
Your Future Is Protected At Wolf Laurel - I believe
we all can agree on how profits are important for developers, and
expanded development projects can be a positive addition to what we
already have here in the Wolf Laurel area. New condos and town
homes, forested large spacious home sites, the ski resort expansion, a mountain top airport
and quaint new mountain village can only increase our property
values and enhance the resort experience for visitor and homeowner
alike, when these are planned and coordinated with our beautiful
mountain environment.
There is no question, the Wolf Laurel area
will continue to develop and expand and these new residents,
businesses, resorts and services can all be a big plus for our
community if we plan to build what will enhance the resort
experience and preserve our natural views, mountain activities and
local environment. Let us never forget, that our pristine mountain
views and Wolf Laurel lifestyle is why all of us have made the
life-changing decision to live here in the shadow of Big Bald
and let's work together to make our great resort environment
even better in the future.
Thanks
for reading.
Ronald
Holland
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