Summertime Mountain Sanctuaries: Western North Carolina

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Recently, www.relocate-america.com pinpointed Asheville as the No. 1 place to live in America on its yearly Top 100 List. Asheville hit the spotlight because it's small enough to be friendly and welcoming, yet large enough to offer vast diversity in terms of lifestyle, politics, culture and experience. Equally appealing to young families and retirees, Asheville is often referred to as "The Paris of the South," because of its abundance of galleries, sidewalk cafes and appreciation for the arts. It boasts four distinct seasons, offers the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and serves as an enjoyable year-round playground for those who love the outdoors.

Gated luxury developments are springing up throughout the region boasting world-class golf courses and all of the typical amenities: tennis, clubhouses, pools, stables, fly-fishing, hiking and biking trails, and nature centers. It's commonplace for multimillion-dollar houses to take shape up on lots that start in the six-figure range and grow to more than $1 million.

Of course, the draw of this area as an exceptional place to live is really not a secret. In fact, it's been revered for generations. In the late 1800s, George Vanderbilt became enthralled with the area during a trip with his mother. He quickly invested in thousands of acres and built a grand 250-room palace, called Biltmore House, about 10 minutes south of Asheville's downtown area. It took crews five years to complete the 175,000-square-foot house, which remains America's largest private residence.

During Vanderbilt's era, Asheville, along with resorts at Lake Toxaway (just outside of Brevard) and other mountain towns catered to the rich and famous: Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison, just to name a few. Of course, there are ebbs and flows to everything, and western North Carolina's popularity as a destination took a back seat to events such as the Great Depression in the 1930s and even the oil crisis in the 70s. By the 1980s, downtown Asheville resembled a ghost town. Many anchor stores had gone out of business or relocated to malls; an architecturally beautiful arcade in the center of town, designed as a market by E.W. Grove, had been taken over by the federal government for office-use, and restaurants were few and far between.

Bill Cecil, Jr., the great grandson of George Vanderbilt, has taken over the reins at Biltmore Estate, serving as president and CEO. As a native of Asheville, he has witnessed much change in the town during his lifetime, and he applauds the revitalization and urban renewal that has taken place.

"In the past, when we interviewed people from out of town, we made excuses for not having any restaurants. Now, we have 200 to 300 really good restaurants, and of that, 50 to 75 are extraordinary. And there's all the arts and crafts, plus the Grove Arcade is fully rented. I never expected that to be anything other than the National Weather Service," says Cecil, as he sits in his office in the center of downtown Asheville.

"It used to be that people would come here to visit Biltmore, and then what? They'd go to Chimney Rock or ride the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now, Asheville has become the destination and people visit Biltmore as part of that."

Surrounding towns have also benefited from Asheville's prominence. The Cashiers (pronounced CASH-ers) and Highlands areas have established themselves as towns that define luxury living amidst scenic splendor, and other western North Carolina towns are quickly following that lead as upscale developments rapidly take shape.

With change and a huge growth spurt comes concern about protecting the natural beauty. Some developers, like the Chaffin-Light Development Group, are designing communities as a collaboration between man and nature. At their Balsam Mountain Preserve development in Sylva (about 45 minutes west of Asheville), 3,000 of the property's 4,400 acres have been set aside under a conservation easement. That land will never see a bulldozer, and homeowners enjoy having houses that blend into the scenery instead of obstructing it.

Here, the terrain rises to 5,500 feet, but as Bill Minus, vice president of sales, explains, "we do not develop over 4,700 feet so that the tops of the mountains are left natural." He says purchased lots, which begin at $350,000 and go up to $1 million, go under a habitat review conducted by their naturalists, along with the Botany Department at nearby Western Carolina University. Rules include no invasive planting and restrictions on which trees can be cut.

Preserving the environment and natural beauty is key to making sure that Western North Carolina is as appealing to future generations as it is for the current one.


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