Building a resort in the Red River Gorge

Ma Ja wrote:

Thank you. Also sorry for the incredibly long post. Just happened to be yours lol.

Ryan Brown wrote:

Thank you. Also sorry for the incredibly long post. Just happened to be yours lol.

I always appreciate a thoughtful post. I wish I knew more about the situation. Regardless, if it happens, I think the people that will benefit most are the younger locals. If it hurts climbing some to benefit them, I'd accept that. If it ends up hurting everyone, and only benefiting the developers/investors, then that's a major problem.

I'd be interested in what happens if/when they privatize the land.

Men Boon wrote: I'd be interested in what happens if/when they privatize the land.

It will be turned over to the developers "for profit"

If you promise jobs, you will be allowed to get away with anything.

In Minnesota, a copper-nickel mine is being pushed through right on the doorstep of the BWCA wilderness to create "jobs".

Problem is, about 60% of the locals make money off of the tourism and a spill would poison the water.

And when the company goes bankrupt(which they will when they have extracted all the minerals), MN taxpayers will be on the hook for the environmental disaster that has been the story with CuNi mines.

Just keep in mind that the Gorge "proper" is already stress sensitive with overuse. Roads, parking, trail maintenance, facilities and improvements have not been done nor are they even being discussed.
Giving $1,000,000 in federal/state dollars to a developer which will be turned private doesn't really seem fair to a park area which is already in dire need of all of the above. A lot of the "climbing areas" are also on private land with climber access as a privilege. Some of these climbing areas have closed, been closed, reopened and some are under threat of closure for abuse and overuse. Are the climbers going to speak up for and back the tourists for their abusive behavior or are they going to point fingers and lose areas?  Climbers and the  access fund have been "trying" to work with landowners, state, and the national forest to keep and Maintain access. Climbers have a hard enough time educating other climbers to not shit everywhere (lack of facilities), park their vehicle and abuse the makeshift parking that we have now(limited designated parking), not maintain trails etc. I hope the next time we go down to the gorge and pull up to fortress or emerald city(just two areas but applies to most) to climb, there will not be a "no parking" sign since it got abused or over filled to the point that it was a hazard with the passing traffic, or worse yet someone gets killed.

As far as saying that it will bring much needed jobs to the region? I don't know. The gorge has already been going through a lot of more natural growth through locals anyway. Miguels, skybridge station, la cabana, Hops fork, red river smokehouse ect. There are more rental cabins every year, campgrounds, bunk houses, Natural Bridge state park, cliff view etc. Is it really fair to these business owners who pour all "their own" money, use local contractors and support the local economy? These developers are planning to design a place where their clients may not even have a reason to leave to support the local economy(their own restaurants, stores etc). Please don't think that when this goes out to bid for construction that local contractors will have any part of it. The big construction companies from Louisville, cincinatti or maybe Lexington will win the bid since they already have the equipment and manpower to build it. The resort may even build in their own living quarters as most resorts do to bring in migrant seasonal workers. A lot of times it has the reverse effect on the local economy who never get to work there but now has their taxes raised to make improvements to the schools, roads ect.

I do love the gorge the way it is and hope it never changes but I know that's not possible. There will always be growth but I don't think the gorge can handle it.

I wonder if the developer had to build in 1.5 parking spots(per every bedroom in their resort/housing etc) in designated maintained parking spread out throughout the gorge over at least a dozen areas to help accommodate their added load to the "gorge" if they would even be interested in building this resort?
The answer is "no" since their roi would be in the toilet.

If they spent money fixing up the roads to the crags and putting in parking lots It might be a worthy tradeoff. My guess is all that public money will be spent cutting down trees and doing horizontal development though. 

Doug Chism wrote: If they spent money fixing up the roads to the crags and putting in parking lots It might be a worthy tradeoff. My guess is all that public money will be spent cutting down trees and doing horizontal development though. 

There's no incentive for a resort like that to pave roads and parking lots in climbing areas. That'll never happen. The only hope is that the businesses that exist now and are huge supporters of climbing will do better and continue their support; Miguel's is the first one to come to mind. Thanks Dario!