Members of the Blue Ridge Sierra Club and Students Actively Volunteering for the Environment (SAVE) held a press conference to voice their opposition to the proposed development of Howard’s Knob by the local development group, Three Guys Properties, on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

Three Guys Properties presented to the Boone Town Council a need for annexation of water and sewer lines to a proposed 28-unit apartment complex in the Junaluska neighborhood. 

Blue Ridge Sierra Club and SAVE stated that the reason for the press conference was to make known the potentially devastating environmental effects the development would have on Howard’s Knob.

The representative groups fear that once Three Guys Properties obtain water and sewer services from the town, a domino effect will occur and other property owners on Howard’s Knob will request the same.

Mary Gray, a member of the Blue Ridge Sierra Club, believes that the “extension of water and sewer facilities is precisely the key that opens the door to further development.”

“Once water and sewer is granted to one advocate, what justification can anyone then provide for refusing other advocates,” Gray said.

Harvard Ayers, member of the local Sierra Club and ASU professor of anthropology, agrees with Gray in the opposition of the extension of water and sewer to Howard’s Knob.

“I’m very concerned about placing water and sewer up on Howard’s Knob, because it will be a disaster,” Ayers said.

“If you want to see how water and sewer lines can develop a mountain, then all you need to do is look at Hound Ears,” Ayers said.

With furthering development on Howard’s Knob, the “steep slopes will only increase existing problems of excessive run-off from the mountain,” said Gray.

The development affects more than just environmental issues.

“We have a classic case here, and environmental justice is at stake. A predominantly minority community is being threatened by environmental degradation by a big money project,” Ayers said.

The environmental groups are also strongly against the new development because the proposed apartments will exploit the Junaluska neighborhood and create massive traffic problems for the residents of the historic and ethnically diverse community.

“Our chapter feels that this development raises issues of racial, social and environmental justice, and that the unanimity of strong feeling expressed at the public hearing against the extension of water and sewer indicates that the community of the residents of Boone understand it very well,” Gray said.

Lee Echols, a member of SAVE, feels that it is “totally unfair for the Junaluska residencies to have their hard-earned tax dollars be spent on public services that will foul their own community.”

“Why should any resident of Watauga County be required to contribute tax dollars to services that will propagate the rapid development of Howard’s Knob,” Echols said.

While Boone Town Council  has heard the views of the communities, SAVE and the Blue Ridge Sierra Club claim the council is playing “pro-development politics.”

“Certain members of the town council have been saying that the best way to control this development is to annex Three Guys and provide water and sewer to their proposed project. However, it is widely-accepted by city planners and developers alike that water and sewer is used to promote development, not prevent it,” Gray said. 

Brian Revel, member of SAVE, expressed sentiments similar to Gray’s.

“I don’t know how council members Tim Wilson and Dempsey Wilcox could say with a straight face that water and sewer lines will protect the environment and the neighborhood. They should speak for Howard’s Knob, not Three Guys Properties,” Revel said.

The groups urge Three Guys Properties to reconsider building homes on Howard’s Knob and apartments in the Junaluska neighborhood in order to preserve the community.

“We want to see as little development on this mountain as possible. If the town council refuses to extend water and sewer to this project, we believe that most of it will not be built,” Echols said.

Revel made it clear at the press conference that Howard’s Knob is a community mountain.

“It is a source of pride and recreation for all of us. Every one of us has a connection to the mountain,” he said.

Boone Town Council will vote on the outcome of this project in their meeting on Dec. 17.