Another New Cabin Resort in Wears Valley

In the aftermath of the horrendous Katrina hurricane that wiped out so many coastal cities, everyone has become more conscious of ways to prevent damage to the places they love. This is certainly true of those of us who love the Smoky Mountains and the surrounding foothills that are being scraped of foliage and trees and planted with one cabin after another.

Now we’ve learned that another developer from out of state has taken a ridge line and cleared it of trees for a cabin development called the Preserve Resort, and we are struck by the irony of that name when no regards are being given to the old stand timber along some of the ridges. We’ve posted other blogs about the over-building of cabins in the area and we’ve hated to see the damage that has been done to Wears Valley……….one of the most beautiful, scenic valleys in the Smokies and one of the least developed, until now.

Two years ago, our campground clients experienced the best year they’ve ever had here, and at the same time we were hearing from cabin businesses that their numbers were down. We worried then about the number of cabins being built and felt that maybe a saturation point was being met. But since then, around 400 more cabins have been built and the Preserve Resort is just the latest.

However, as much as we want to carp and complain about the scarred hillsides, we do have to send kudos to the developers of this resort for doing something that our Sevier County Commissioners should be demanding of all new developments. They are adding built in fire protection to each cabin.

Legacy Homes, a Montgomery, Alabama based business, will be adding 12,000 gallon water storage tanks underneath each of the cabins as they are built in the Preserve Resort. It is well known that the local fire department can only fight a fire with the water that is in their tanker truck, and that would not be sufficient in case of a serious blaze. The fire department is furnishing technical help to Legacy about the specific valves to be used in the water storage tanks.

So thank you, Dale Noland, CEO of Legacy Homes, for volunteering this safe guard for the community. Now we wonder when the county commission is going to get up to speed and implement new zoning laws that require all new mountainside developments to add the storage tanks to their cabins? Subdivisions are required to have fire hydrants, but cabin developments have no regulations in place to protect them or the mountains from which they derive their income.