http://www2.wataugademocrat.com/News/st ... -id-011463

Thanks to the rubes on the Town Council and their "adoption of discriminatory, anti-multi-family housing regulations," Boone just said goodbye to a cool $19 mil. Such missed financial opportunities for the area will continue to mount as the Town Council continues it's relentless campaign against the institution, students and culture of Appalachian State University.

Now as frustrated and angry as anti-ASU legislation makes me, this opens the door for the school to look into acquiring the property and, dare I speculate, move the T&F facility??? Now that's a consolation prize I can get on board with.


*Tangential Rant Warning. Stop reading here if you don't care to hear it.
The passing of the Affordable Housing Task Force's proposal in February is yet another bit of indisputable proof of the anti-App State agenda of a number of legislators in the area, most notably the Town Council. The ordinance works contrary to what it claims to support (incentivizing affordable housing for families) while it accomplishes its real goal of completely halting development of student off-campus housing in an effort to STOP THE GROWTH OF APPALACHIAN STATE.

The silent war between the town and the university continues

Oh, but they do love all of the extra business and economic impact App brings though

The town should just move - ha,ha.
Seriously, can't App State even buy a friggin little piece of property like that?
UNCC is spending ridiculous amounts of state money all over their campus.
NC has wanted App State to be at least 20,000 students for years and years.
Pretty much demanding it. Are our necessary administrators just got their heads
up somewhere they shouldn't.
BUY, BUY, BUY. No time like the present. No one is going to make additional land
around Boone. Hope they are not waiting for that.

mtnjax wrote:The silent war between the town and the university continues

Oh, but they do love all of the extra business and economic impact App brings though

The next round of the fight happens Tuesday May 21, at 7 p.m. as the TC decides whether or not Feastie Boys (a local food truck) and Appalachian Mountain Brewery can continue their mutually beneficial relationship as well as whether or not the Brewery can keep their back patio.

A few peripheral thinkers have asserted that the patio is an "eye sore." Well, not only is the patio aesthetically pleasing, seamlessly melding with the rest of the freestanding structure, it is completely obscured from view unless you're driving right up to it. It isn't visible from the Boone Mall parking lot, from 321 or from any other vantage point other than Boone Creek Drive as you pull into the parking area. It's absurd what some of these people will try and pull to try and detract from the ASU experience.

They received a 7-1 favorable recommendation from the Planning Commission to allow the Back Bar and Food Trucks or Service at the brewery recently, so a negative vote by the TC would be an outrage, albeit typical during this trend of anti-University legislation.

Now, I have a good feeling about this one since the TC approved the zoning ordinance to allow AMB to build in the first place. It will really come down to whether or not the TC members perceive AMB (as well as the combo with Feastie Boys) to be a caterer to towns people/tourists or a venue for students. If their perception is the later, they'll disregard the landslide recommendation and put a knife in yet another thing that makes Boone a great town for the ASU student body.

Here's a novel idea. If App is so interested in growth why not build some more dorms or on campus apartments. In all honesty I really do not blame the town of Boone for trying to protect some of it's small town charm. Who wants to see those cheap ass condos slapped on every hill in the area. App State should cap enrollment at 20K anyhow. One of our biggest advantages is our size why would you want to lose that? Oh yea because we are big time now I forgot.

I received a letter from the mayor of Boone about a month ago. They were ready to let the contractors plan go forward with a guarantee that the commercial portion of the project would be completed. The contractor responded by getting a watauga county government thug on his side to try to black mail the town with sales tax revenue with holding. I am glad the mayor and council doubled down and said Eff U.

App should buy the old high school and use it for not only athletic fields, but also put some student housing there. We should have required a land swap when we gave the land for the new high school off 421.

appbio91 wrote:Here's a novel idea. If App is so interested in growth why not build some more dorms or on campus apartments.

There isn't room for a Monopoly house on the ASU campus. They're having to build dorms heading up the the baseball complex for goodness sake. Those kids are going to have some massive calf muscles by the end of freshman year.

Anyway, restricting any type of housing in any area, particularly one that prohibits catering to the single most in-demand and lucrative demographic of all, is financially idiotic. I understand preserving the town's charm. I was ecstatic to learn that the Walgreen King St proposal was blocked. But you don't have to throw a wrench in the spokes of the school and adopt a terrible business model to preserve Boone.

There are plenty of college town with bustling and content local populations. Populations that embrace and respect the main bread winner of their town: the University.

queston for anyone who spends time in Boone, what would be the best use of the propety, App building a sports complex, some form of affortable housing, a combination of the two, or something totally different that has not been mentioned?

We need new people at App if we can't even buy a paltry little piece of land.

The county may not want ASU to have the old WHS property. If the university buys it, the county will get no property tax revenue from it. If ASU is the only bidder then that may be a moot point.

appst89 wrote:The county may not want ASU to have the old WHS property. If the university buys it, the county will get no property tax revenue from it. If ASU is the only bidder then that may be a moot point.

With this inane and discriminatory housing ordinance in place, they might be the only bidder.

Who the hell wants to build a family residential neighborhood one mile from a major college campus?

" Now wait...now listen...now listen to me. I beg of you not to do this thing. If Potter gets hold of this Building and Loan, there'll never be another decent house built in this town. ... And because he wants to keep you living in his slums and paying the kind of rent he decides. Joe, you had one of those Potter houses, didn't you? Well, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what he charged you for that broken-down shack?" - George Bailey

My guess it's not the small town charm they are trying to protect as much as the wallets of the current owners of housing. Let's face it, half of the old downtown apartments are crap (a long ways from charming) and over priced and I can't imagine how new apartments at the WHS would do anything but lower the prices. TC's and many of their voters want to stop anything they can't get a piece of.

It's by no means a small little piece of land, especially for Boone.

At this point, the only realistic buyer would be the university, which would draw all sorts of anger from the town. Also, if the school wanted to stick it to the town, they would build a property exactly like University Highlands with hundreds of spots for apartment-style housing, put the price at $425-450 a month all-inclusive for a spot in a four-bedroom, $475-500 for a spot in a two-bedroom and watch as the landlords who charge $600 a month utilities not included start to have empty spots. At that point, no self-serving Town Council member would survive.

I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the land, but I say keep the track that's still there and convert the field into a true field hockey field, use the site of the current tennis courts, adjacent softbal field and practice field and turn it into a true tennis complex with six main courts with stands and then six indoor courts so they can be used all year and prevents the teams from driving to Yonaloosee and Grandfather to play indoor matches and you can take out the current courts and have more top donor parking. Then put an indoor track and field facility where the school currently is. With ETSU possibly demolishing the Mini Dome, that takes away one of the top indoor T&F facilities in the region so App can step right in and make indoor track and field a revenue sport (entry fees for T&F events are around $400-$500 a team). Not sure what you can do with the baseball field as I think baseball is fine where it is (I say demolish Broyhill and make it either a dorm and/or extra parking). Add on weight-training facilities, locker rooms, etc and voila.

Here's a visual from above.

ASU is currently transforming Laney's old soccer field at State Farm to a Field Hockey facility.

Anyone have any updates or heard anything about this property and if the school is trying to buy it?

How many posts does it take before I can post without having them approved anyway? haha....I had asked if anyone had any more updates on this?