River outfitters, rafters and kayakers are protesting a high-density development along the Nantahala River that they say will alter the character of the close-knit outdoor community and destroy the natural setting that defines the Nantahala Gorge.

“I think it is going to ruin our river,” said Kathie Wojdyle, owner of Brookside Campground in the Nantahala Gorge.

The development, called Mystic River, initially called for 66 lots on 35 acres — a long, narrow, flat tract spanning 1.7 miles of river frontage. The tract was a private campground for decades and is surrounded by national forest land. Lots range from one-quarter to one-third of an acre and cost an average of $250,000.

The developer, Ami Shinitzky, bought the land for $4.8 million in March.

“The river is beautiful. We wouldn’t do anything to ruin it otherwise we wouldn’t be true to what we are promoting,” Shinitzky said. “Everything we are going to do is going to hold the river in highest regard. Mystic River is going to be a pride to Swain County, not an embarrassment.”

But most outfitters don’t see it that way.

“A few very nice vacation homes that are probably not going to be occupied year round are reducing the enjoyment of many to increase the enjoyment of a few,” said Cathy Kennedy, who grew up on the river and is the daughter of Nantahala Outdoor Center founder Payson Kennedy.

About 175,000 people took trips down river in 2003 with an outfitter, according to numbers rafting companies are required to report to the forest service. Another 40,000 paddled the river independently in their own canoes, kayaks or rafts. Of the river’s 8.2-mile journey through the Gorge, 20 percent is now bordered by Mystic River.

Like most outfitters, Cathy Kennedy watched with curiosity when the campground changed hands in early March.

“They were typical of a new owner at first, taking everything out of the buildings and sorting through it and creating big burn piles that included sofas and furniture. I didn’t think very hard about what they might be putting in there. I figured it was going to be another campground,” Kennedy said. “Then, a billboard that sits right out in front of it said ‘real estate office opening soon,’ and then I began to become increasingly concerned about what was going on there.”

The shock was more acute for Lee and Carolyn Allison, who were away on their annual three-week marketing trip to Florida to promote rafting on the Nantahala when the campground was sold. Their usual sense of joy upon returning to the Gorge was supplanted with a mild panic attack. The popular Rocky Waters Campground had changed nearly overnight. The camp store was converted into a real estate office with a large sign advertising Mystic River development.

Rumors about the development circulated rapidly through the community of outfitters. The developer was invited to present his plans at a May meeting of the Nantahala Gorge Association, an affiliation of 14 rafting companies and other tourism operators in the Gorge who collaborate on issues affecting the river. At the meeting, outfitters lobbed numerous concerns at Shinitzky.

“We want him to realize what he is doing there is not in harmony with what the river is,” said Carolyn Allison with Wildwater.

The density of homes and resulting aesthetic and environmental impacts topped the list of concerns of most outfitters.

“After hearing the concerns and looking back at our maps, we said, ‘Let’s go back to the drawing board and see if we can do it with lower density,’” Shinitzky said. “Because of the economic necessity of the cost of the land, it had to be a higher density development than a mountain top development where you can buy acreage for a fraction of what we paid for the river property.”

Shinitzky said the number of lots has been scaled back by about 20 percent, but the final number is still being adjusted. Only half of the 1.7 miles of river shoreline will be developed, Shinitzky said.

Us versus them

Many outfitters are concerned about the loss of community spirit they say will result from the development. The Gorge has long held the allure of a magical outdoor play land where cars without bikes and kayaks crammed on top look out place. Outfitters employee hundreds of seasonal workers who return to the Gorge year after year to get paid to play on the river by day and party by night with other like-minded outdoor aficionados.

Lee Allison with Wildwater rafting company said the elite subdivision smack in the middle of this happy-go-lucky environment will create a class system of “haves and have-nots.” It’s a socioeconomic separation the Gorge community is not used to.

“You’re going to have one set of people living behind the gate and those on the outside. What a slippery slope. It’s the loss of community that worries me,” Allison said.

Finding someone who lives and works in the Gorge and likes the development is a tough task. A trip through the Gorge last week revealed nearly everyone is against it.

Mike and Robin Ernst run a hotdog stand at the opposite end of the Gorge from the development but have heard plenty about it from their customers. For the past few days, a new gripe has been added to the mix: a tall sound wall is being erected along the roadside in front of the development to deflect noise from the highway.

“That blocks the view for everybody else driving by, and this is a designated scenic highway,” said Robin Ernst.

The highway is a main artery to Murphy and used by heavy trucks. The acoustic wall will buffer homes from the noise, Shinitzky said. The wall will be painted green and landscaped with large trees and vines so it will blend in. It will not be constructed for the full 1.7-mile length of the property, but just in the sections with homes, Shinitzky said.

“Wherever the river is close to the road there will be no walls so as not to obscure the view of the river,” Shinitzky said.

Just down the road, Kim Baxter at Atomic Teahouse had also heard about the wall, although she’d not been down to see it yet. She said the development is out of character for the Gorge.

“Sixty homes in that space is too high density,” said Baxter. “Personally, I would like to see it be public land. At the least, we need a little more conscious development, maybe half as many lots.”

Talk of the development dominated a recent party in the Gorge, Baxter said.

“I think everybody is against it for obvious reasons. It is a really big impact on the river front,” Baxter said.

Zoning in the past has not been a popular idea in Swain County, and as a result outside developers are now exploiting the county’s lack of regulations, said Ken Kastorff, owner of Endless River Adventures.

“Something has to be done at this stage of the game. The people who have lived here up until now had a certain level of integrity. This development, that’s not being a good neighbor,” Kastorff said.

Shinitzky said locals viewed the outfitters in a similar light when they began arriving 30 years ago.

“When the rafters first came here, the fishermen were up in arms. There were convoys coming down the river and buses of people going up and down the road,” said Shinitzky, who said a deep-seeded division between locals and the outfitters is still lurking.

But Carolyn Allison with Wildwater outfitter said that rift has healed.

“Over time, people have realized the outfitters don’t want to come in here and change the community,” she said. “Most of us become part of the community. How many folks buying land in Mystic River are going to have kids going to Swain High playing on the football team?”

While a lurking division may still exist between outfitters and locals, the Mystic River development has galvanized the two sides. The former campground, while private, was viewed by locals as pseudo public lands and was a popular place to access the river for fishermen.

“I have been overwhelmed at the variety of people who I can’t imagine ever having agreed on anything else who seem to think this is not a good idea and not a good thing to happen to the Gorge,” said Cathy Kennedy with NOC.

The board of directors of Nantahala Outdoor Center, the largest outfitter on the river, adopted a formal stance on the development last weekend at a board meeting.

“We believe the current development plans are environmentally and aesthetically unsound. We have deep concerns about the negative effect of this development on the Gorge eco-system, public access to the river, and quality of the outdoor experience for the many thousands of annual visitors to this area,” according to the official statement.

Missing the boat

Shinitzky said the outdoor community should have realized the property was destined for development.

“Given the cost of the land, it is inevitable somebody is going to buy it and develop it. It is as plain as the day is long,” Shinitzky said.

Opponents to the project said they were remiss in not getting their act together sooner to try to preserve the land.

“This guy who just spent $4.8 million didn’t do it to put in picnic tables,” said Kim Baxter, owner of Atomic Tea House.

While the campground owners were not actively advertising the property, it was common knowledge for several years that the property was for sale with a high asking price.

“I’ll take responsibility for being a little too ostrich-in-the-sand about it. We should have been doing something about setting up a trust to try to save it,” said Cathy Kennedy.

Payson Kennedy, founder of the Nantahala Outdoor Center, said everyone in the Gorge shares some responsibility. But with the vast majority of the Gorge belonging to the National Forest Service, it always felt fairly protected.

“I guess we didn’t realize the risk from just this small amount that doesn’t belong to the forest service,” said Kennedy. “I am very sad and disappointed that it is happening. I hope there is still some time to protect it.”

Optimists cited the preservation of the Needmore Tract, a 4,000-acre swath of land along the Little Tennessee in Swain and Macon counties that was saved from pending development for $19 million and given to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

“I’m praying and hoping we can stop this sale and get political backing to get that land preserved so it can be maintained for everybody instead of just the haves,” Kastorff said.

The sale of the property to Mystic River was owner-financed. Shinitzky, who put down half a million dollars at closing, has until October of this year to pay off the remaining $4.3 million. If Shinitzky can’t sell enough lots by then to make the payment, opponents hoped he would lose the property and give them a chance to raise the money to protect it.

But that hope likely evaporated following a big sale last Saturday (May 21). Shinitzky ran a marketing blitz across the East Coast to bring potential buyers to the Gorge for the weekend. Potential buyers signed up for a slot to tour the property and hear the pitch: buy now to get one of only 20 lots being sold along the Nantahala River in a protected community with strict eco-covenants.

“You sell more (lots) quickly but you have to make a more risky investment up front,” Shinitzky said of the blitz strategy. “You could spend several hundred thousand in advertising and then no one shows up.”

But that didn’t happen. The sale was very successful, with a total of 28 lots sold during the weekend blitz.

“We had better response than we initially anticipated. We made a few more lots available at the last moment,” Shinitzky said.

Doing it right

Some outfitters wonder whether the development could hurt tourism.

“People come to the mountains to get away from subdivisions like this,” said Kastorff. “They come here to see the river and see the mountains.”

The Nantahala River is a $20 million a year industry, according to outfitters.

Mark Britz, a tourist from New Orleans who was in the area for the second year in a row to raft the Nantahala, said he would come back regardless.

“How long is it going to take me to go past it?” Britz asked of the development. “We’re out there on the river. We’re having fun. What’s going along beside us doesn’t really affect whether we’re having fun or not. It doesn’t detract from the adventure at all.”

Shinitzky said some privately held sections of the river look like slums, with trailers and sheds with collapsing tin roofs along the bank. Mystic River will have strict architectural covenants that require an Adirondack style home, very cabin-like and Appalachian looking, Shinitzky said. Density is a red herring, he said.

“When a rafter goes down the river he is not going to say, ‘OK let me count the homes.’ It is how they feel, how they are going to look, how they are landscaped and what the impression is,” Shinitzky said.

Shinitzky said the burgeoning rafting industry has imposed far more impacts on the river than his development.

“Imagine this gorge 30 years ago,” Shinitzky said. “The paradox is that in all the years before people did what they did and the impact was gradual.”

But Shinitzky said he is cognizant of the potential impact of his development and therefore is taking precautions. Shinitzky estimated that he has spent $120,000 on impact studies and due diligence, such as soil surveys, endangered species surveys and floodplain mapping.

Many opponents cited how quickly Shinitzky has moved since closing on the property March 2. But the property was under contract since September, during which time the studies were performed, Shinitzky said.

“Our detractors suggest we jumped in there willy nilly with no due diligence,” Shinitzky said.

Shinitzky added that the former campground had as many as 400 campers on busy weekends. The development will mean far fewer people treading on that stretch of riverbank, Shinitzky said.

Shinitzky said he does not think of himself as a developer, but just a guy who is doing a development. He lived on a farm in Maryland for 25 years. He ran a successful company called Fleetstreet Publishing that owned numerous horse magazines, including Equus, Dressage Today, Polo, Horse Play and Horse Digest.

He recently sold the company, was looking for land to build a home in the mountains and found the perfect spot above the Nantahala Gorge. He decided to buy a couple of extra lots as an investment. One thing led to the other and he ended up launching a development called Mystic Forest. Along the way, he learned the riverfront property was for sale.

“As an entrepreneur, the potential certainly attracted me. As you and me know and anyone with any common sense knows, this place was going to be developed,” Shinitzky said. “Yes, there is a profit motive, but there are also values. I am going to be living here and I want to make sure it is done right. I think we can do something very nice, very special.”

Shinitzky reminds people he is building his own home here, not aiming to make money quick and get out like his detractors would like to portray him.

“I am going to stay accountable for all the decisions made here,” Shinitzky said.

After selling 28 lots at an average of $250,000, it seems Shinitzky has made back his $4.8 million purchase plus some. But there are numerous additional expenses that still have to be covered and require the sale of more lots, Shinitzky said.

There was the costly due diligence, national advertising, a team of marketing experts, commission for sales people, attorney fees, and development managers. Yet to come are the cost of a septic system, the roads, the landscaping, the clubhouse, bridges and the sound wall.

The sale of the land sets a major precedent in the Gorge, where there is little private property among the sea of forest service land. What little private property there is rarely changes hands, making this a real estate milestone.

The Wojdyles, owners of Brookside Campground, were shocked at the price tag. They moved to the Gorge 23 years ago from New Jersey for a new lifestyle. Their campground consists of nine flat acres and nine steeper acres at the edge of the Gorge. While they aren’t right on the Nantahala River and they aren’t surrounded by National Forest Serivce property like Mystic River, they could still likely become millionaires overnight if they sold their campground. Kathie Wojdyle abhorred the suggestion.

“I would not do it. I would never do it,” Kathie said. “I came here because I loved it and I loved it the way it was. But it’s changing obviously.”