RE: Re: Tourist Attraction
Stokes County has the potential of being one of the more popular tourist locations in the state. Hanging Rock was the most visited state park in NC and one of the top ten in the country back in 1999. We could easily rival Ashe and Wautauga for exactly the reasons Strother gave: proximity and access.
I spent most of the time I was on the BoC trying to get something moving in that direction and was thwarted at every turn by the King real estate crowd. Stokes isn't particularly well-suited for any large industrial or commercial projects. King is the only usable location for that in the county and the real estate crowd has overdeveloped it to the point that there are no suitable industrial or commercial sites available. Walnut Cove is also suited for industry, but suffers from lousy access. A northern bypass or expressway might help that, but not any time soon. That leaves tourism as one of the more viable options for Stokes to break it out of its current situation: over 80% of the population leaves the county to go to work every day. Of the remaining 20%, over 40% of those work for the government in some form and 20% are on government assistance. However, the real estate development types will fight tourism tooth and nail. In order to establish a thriving tourist industry, you have to do something to limit the growth of tract homes and doublewides. There are several ways to do that. Unfortunately, because developers see tourism as a direct threat, you end up being limited to the very unsatisfactory method of using zoning.
As long as there is a real estate agent/developer and/or a representative of the King real estate enclave on the BoC, tourism will remain a pipe dream.
I spent most of the time I was on the BoC trying to get something moving in that direction and was thwarted at every turn by the King real estate crowd. Stokes isn't particularly well-suited for any large industrial or commercial projects. King is the only usable location for that in the county and the real estate crowd has overdeveloped it to the point that there are no suitable industrial or commercial sites available. Walnut Cove is also suited for industry, but suffers from lousy access. A northern bypass or expressway might help that, but not any time soon. That leaves tourism as one of the more viable options for Stokes to break it out of its current situation: over 80% of the population leaves the county to go to work every day. Of the remaining 20%, over 40% of those work for the government in some form and 20% are on government assistance. However, the real estate development types will fight tourism tooth and nail. In order to establish a thriving tourist industry, you have to do something to limit the growth of tract homes and doublewides. There are several ways to do that. Unfortunately, because developers see tourism as a direct threat, you end up being limited to the very unsatisfactory method of using zoning.
As long as there is a real estate agent/developer and/or a representative of the King real estate enclave on the BoC, tourism will remain a pipe dream.
posted by Anonymous | 11:23 AM
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