CHEROKEE COUNTY FAMILY FARM LOOKS TO FUTURE

CULLOWHEE, NC, May 21, 2008 – Ed and Keith Wood, brothers who represent the third generation of farmers in their family, have one of the largest and most successful farms in Cherokee County. Growing row crops, they’ve won yield awards regularly.

With both brothers in their 50s, they’re looking for solutions to a familiar dilemma of farming families in Western North Carolina: How to preserve the farming tradition, yet use the asset value of at least some of the property to provide retirement security for the family.

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The Woods’ farm is one of four model projects the MLI charrette team focused on during the May 13-20 charrette. Each project was chosen to represent a particular challenge or opportunity; and each provided the chance to apply tools from the “Toolbox” being developed during the charrette.

Having such willing clients has allowed the team to look at the Wood farm on several levels – as a design project, as a financial planning strategy, as a real estate development proposal, and as an opportunity to preserve working agricultural land.

Cherokee County’s Community Forum was held April 22, attracting some 75 locals with wide-ranging views.

Volunteer fire fighter Carl Talbott worried about emergency access to homes on steep mountain roads: ”I feel badly taking somebody’s tax money knowing we can’t deliver emergency service.”

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Jim and Judy Pierce, who moved to Cherokee County from Georgia nine years ago, were concerned about the lack of meaningful regulations. Said Jim: “It’s out of control. If you can get a septic tank permit, you can put anything on the land.”

Judy said, “I hate government interfering in my life. I don’t want every breath I take to be regulated. But if you don’t (apply some regulations), people are so irresponsible.”

But developer Jerry Dickey thought that there were already too many rules. “We can’t possibly comply with what we have. If you take the government-owned land out of development, then take out the steep slopes, what have you got? If you pass all these restrictions, you’d better pass one more law – the Hillbilly Entitlement Act. How are we going to make a living?”

Murphy Mayor Bill Hughes complimented the Mountain Landscapes discussion. “This dialog needs to get started yesterday,” he said. “When people realize their property is more valuable when it’s protected, they’ll see this is not the two-headed monster they imagined.”

Bordering Georgia to the south and Tennessee to the west, Cherokee County is the westernmost county in North Carolina. It feels growth pressure from both directions, but particularly from the expanding Atlanta Metropolitan Area. Its 2006 population, according to the U.S. Census estimate: 26,309.

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