High Density Development on Holloway Mtn Rd

On the same day we attend a meeting to learn more about Watauga County's comprehensive planning process, being launched now to produce a plan for growth in two years, we also learn of another massive, high-density housing development planned for the corner of Hwy 221 and Holloway Mountain Rd., west of Blowing Rock.

A preliminary plat plan, which we've seen, calls for almost a hundred building lots in addition to a bunch more "townhomes," "cottages," and "lake house cottages." Both the primary and a secondary entrance will intersect with Holloway Mountain Rd.

Oh, the "lake" of "lake house cottages" is a proposed empoundment of Boone Fork Creek.

The potential impact on both Holloway Mountain Rd. and on Hwy 221 -- just the additional traffic -- will be substantial. The new lake? Well, who knows?

This sort of massive development on fragile mountain land is currently little addressed by county ordinances, and there IS NO PLANNING for this or much of anything else. Here's hoping the planning document forecast to be unveiled by August 2009 will address this sort of development and what it's doing to us.