From Staff Reports

MAGGIE VALLEY — The reopening of Ghost Town in the Sky theme park here depends upon eased development rules, Frankie Wood, the project’s primary developer, told a gathering of 70 to 80 business-owners and others at an open meeting Dec. 13 at Elevated Mountain Distributing Co.

In essence, Wood presented his case — especially aimed at the business community — that town leaders are impeding his development plans.

Wood also outlined future plans for the mountain on which the Wild West theme park is located — and implored local business-owners to fight town hall if they want to see the mammoth project realized.

“Following the presentation of a bold vision for plans to redevelop the long-closed theme park, Wood urged the Maggie Valley business community to get behind his plans,” The (Waynesville) Mountaineer newspaper reported. “If support is lacking, he stressed, he would walk away, even though he said he has invested millions in the community, so far.”

To that end, “Maggie Valley Alderman Phillip Wight said at the meeting that the kind of RV parks Wood is bringing to the valley — ones that could include a time-share option  —‚ are an improvement over what is there now,” The Mountaineer noted.

Meanwhile, Dave Angel, spokesman for the Ghost Town  project, told the Daily Planet in a Jan. 29 interview that “some people (at the meeting) were very excited about the possibility of changes” sought by Wood  —  and some were less-than-enthusiastic.

Angel, who also is the owner-manager of Elevated Mountain Distilling Co. (where the meeting was held), told the Daily Planet that the 90-minute meeting’s purpose was “to communicate changes our town is making that tremendously impact property-pweners rights and our ability to grow as a tourist town.

“There were some (town) Board of Alderman members present,” he said, along with Wood, the primary developer; Jessica Neuharth, a member of local development team; and Matt Ferguson of Storyland Studios.

So is Wood trying to turn the theme park and Maggie Valley into another Myrtle Beach, S.C., or Gatlinburg, Tenn., as some of his critics have charged? the Daily Planet asked.

“We don’t have the space (land) to be a Gatlinburg or a Myrtle Beach,” Angel replied with a laugh.

He added, “The development of Ghost Town is more than just Ghost Town — it brings a workforce here and develops more of the town.

“The developers of Ghost Town have recognized the need for RV resorts here. RV sales are at an all-time high. They’re up 45 percent. That’s a huge change in the way people spend a vacation. If you drop a lot of money into an RV, that’s how you vacation for the rest of your life.

“Not just for Ghost Town, Maggie Valley borders the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains State Park. This  (RV camping) is the wave of the future for tourism, so the developers of Ghost Town have bought several properties throughout the town. “

Angel then asserted,  “An RV (resort) is different from a campground. A campground allows pull-behind campers and RVs of all types, while an RV-resort is more of a timeshare concept. You stay on an RV site with your RV vehicle — and campers aren’t allowed. So they should be —  for the most part — really nice RVs.”

More specifically, he said, “A really nice (‘Class A’ RV) sells for $400,000, $500,000 — or more. It’s literally a house on wheels — and a pretty nice house, at that. A resort that accommodates RVs typically has a clubhouse, swimming pools, laundry services — they’re not just campgrounds.

“They (RV resorts) tend to be ‘boundaried,’ with nice hedges and entry fences to make people feel they’re in an exclusive place.

“There are areas of Maggie Valley that look like they’re overflowing with campers — and that’s a concern, but they’re not an RV resort,” Angel said.

Yet, he lamented, “the town wanted a moratorium (that went into effect in January for six months) on all campgrounds, RV resorts and RV storage.

“For a lot of people, change is scary — and a lot of people are scared,” especially “when you have developers of this magnitude who come in and talk about how you have a next level of tourist town” into which — Angel said — Maggie Valley needs to transform.

Angel added that it was brought up at the Dec. 13 meeting that, “with Ghost Town at the level we’re talking about, you could have a million or million and a half cars per year.”

Responding to that assertion, Ferguson of Storyland (the project’s conceptualist) said that “a million — or million and a half — cars are what you would have at Chick-fil-A in a year.”

After a pause, Angel told the Daily Planet, “Maggie Valley is a ‘crossroads.‘ It’s always been a tourist town since it was incorporated in the 1970s. We are not a manufacturing town.

“Are we a tourist town — or a place for rich, white, retired folks?” he asked, rhetorically. 

Regarding the latter possibility, Angel asserted, “I would say that that’s not in keeping with where Maggie Valley is at. We’re at the tipping point, where we could” go either way.

“Our (town) aldermen have decided to turn their back — at least temporarily — to one of the fastest-growing sectors of the tourism industry, the RV campers.

“The developers of Ghost Town think anyone should be welcomed here — and that’s very counter to what you’d find in a retirement community.”

For instance, Angel said, for visitors to Maggie Valley — despite many activities for adults — “the biggest question is: ‘What can I do with my kids?’ We (the Ghost Town developers) are trying to enhance the opportunities to be more ‘family-friendly.’

“By enacting this (moratorium), our  (Maggie Valley) Board of Aldermen is saying there are elements of tourism that may not be welcome here.” which Angel said, translates to ... “the RV and camper community” is not welcome in Maggie Valley.

What’s more, Angel said that “one of our town aldermen (attending the meeting) clearly said he was ‘voted in’ (during the most-recent election) by a constituency that wants to see these changes” — a moratorium on all campgrounds, RV resorts and RV storage.

“My concern, as a business-owner, is… Where does that end? How far does that go? 

“Our town aldermen have demonstrated that they are willing to ban RVs and campers and, if you don’t like to see RV sites, then you probably don’t want to hear motorcycles ‘rambling’ down the road. 

“They (the aldermen) have already shown they are listening to the retirement community at the cost of the local business community. I don’t know where this goes....”

In a verbal jab at the aldermen, Angel then asserted, “Rather than running a balanced town, they are choosing a side.”

After another pause, he added, “At this point, everything’s moving forward (with the Ghost Town in the Sky redevelopment project) — but this is definitely creating some challenges for it. There are signals being sent that would make any developer wonder how welcome we are.”

Again, regarding the town’s recent passage of a moratorium on campgrounds, RV parks and RV storage, Angel said, “This doesn’t help” the developers to feel encouraged in their efforts by the town.”

However, in presenting his case that the town aldermen favor certain interests wanting to make it more of a rich retirement resort  than a tourist town, Angel also said, “There have been other projects, where the town has downgraded higher-density residential projects. The town (in other cases also) has favored low-density housing projects.”

Firing another jab at the town, Angel cited an end-of-the-year award — in the spirit of humor — given by the (Waynesville) Smoky Mountain News newspaper, citing a female town planner (Kaitland Finkle), who is “the highest educated planner the town ever has had — she has a double master’s degree in planning — and who has consistently made recommendations, and our Board of Aldermen has fairly consistently disregarded her recommendations.” 

Pausing, Angel asked, rhetorically, “Is it because she doesn’t know what she’s doing — or because she’s a ... woman?”

His voice rising, Angel reiterated, “It’s a further ‘stab (by the town aldermen) at Ghost Town… this moratorium. The signals that the town is showing —  that ‘We don’t want high-density housing of any kind. We don’t want RV resorts …’ Where is this going and where does this end? We’re losing our foothold in tourism .... 

“The values of this mountain community (of Maggie Valleuy) are that ‘everyone’s welcome’ and ‘everyone has an opportunity’ — and that is what this town is built on.”

Angel reiterated that Maggie Valley not only is a crossroads, but is at “a crossroads — is it a tourism community ... or evolving into an exclusive, rich, white, retirement community?”

Further, he said, “The project is still moving forward, but these obstacles on what Ghost Town will look like and when it will help” Maggie Valley’s economy are significantly slowing the theme park’s reopening plan.

With the Ghost Town developers’ plans for housing, “It’s a great opportunity for the workforce to live in the community in which they work — and it would attract the fast-growing sector of the tourism market, (the RV market).

Angel added, “A tremendous amount of money has been spent (by the developers) buying properties — these should be the low-hanging fruit easy to get,” but he lamented, that has not been the case because of the town aldermen’s resistance.

“The whole project’s a few years in the making,” he noted.”The Ghost Town in the Sky in the past was an amusement park. What we’ve learned from Dollywood, Disneyworld and Universal Studios is ... to be successful, you have to be more of an inclusive resort. 

“When Storyland presented the Ghost Town ‘in the future,’ conceptually, there’s a nod to the Wild West Ghost Town, historically, but it’s (going to be in the future) more of how we experience Western North Carolina — the history and heritage of the broader area. The Wild West theme, in itself, is not enough” for today’s generation of tourists, Angel said.