When the announcement was made that the New River Gorge area was going to be named our nation’s newest National Park, it was met with a round of enthusiasm by most people here—me included.
After decades of economic decline due to attacks on the coal industry, Fayette County’s budget and its economy were struggling. We were seeing so many of our friends and family moving out of county or out-of-state to find gainful employment in order to support their families.
It seemed after the announcement regarding the National Park that maybe hope was on the horizon and the potential for economic growth seemed at last like a very real possibility for all of us who have called Fayette County home for generations. It did not take very long, however, for the stark reality of this new designation to unfold and become apparent to many of us locals.
With changes in ownership of some of our local whitewater companies, loss of public lands that our people have been used to using for generations, strains on our housing market, and the potential destruction of local history in the Thurmond area, who benefits most?
After the recent announcement of the sale of Adventures on the Gorge to the Aramark Corporation, many within the local community expressed their displeasure on social media. It is worth noting that some time ago, AoTG was born from the merging of several whitewater/outdoor recreation companies that were all locally owned.
This merger led to a more robust company that was able to pool resources and expand services to a higher number of guests—and it was still mostly locally owned. That was win/win for everyone. With the news that AoTG will be selling their entire enterprise to a very large out-of-state corporation with unlimited pockets and resources, my concern becomes for the competition in our area. We still have several locally owned outdoor recreation/whitewater companies that give back to our communities and re-invest into our county.
What will happen to them with a corporation with virtually limitless funds in comparison enters the scene and begins to compete against them?
Who wins in this scenario? The shareholders and owners of Aramark Corporation and potentially the employees of AoTG who could benefit from higher wages and increased benefits. Who has the potential to lose?
Companies whose owners have chosen to build a life here and keep their companies local and are trying to compete in an industry that is quickly narrowing.
Maybe this large influx of nearly unlimited capital into our local whitewater industry will benefit our local area, but I have major concerns that it will not have that effect. I am concerned about the monopolization of our county’s outdoor industry by large out-of-state corporations.
When the National Park designation took place, it was an almost near immediate reaction when out-of-state investors began buying up real estate properties for business investment in the form of residential housing. Most of the residential housing that has been bought by out-of-state or absentee owners since the National Park designation have been bought with the sole intention of turning the properties into short-term rentals.
This phenomenon is not unique to our area, but the underlying and pervasive concern among local political leaders and residents is that we already had a pre-existing shortage of housing in Fayette County even before the National Park designation. That preexisting housing shortage has been exponentially exacerbated by the announcement that the NRG area would become a National Park. With fewer and fewer options for housing available to them, young people and families of the people that grew up here are being priced out of the housing market altogether. They are being priced out of living in their own hometowns.
Who is winning in this scenario? Out of state property investors and tourists wanting to spend less money on short-term accommodations visiting our area will. Who is losing? Our municipalities are missing out on hotel and motel tax, our motels and hotels are losing customers. Our county government is collecting less revenue. Our public school system is seeing decreasing enrollment because of less families moving to our area to live due to lack of housing. This decreased enrollment leads to layoffs and decreased funding for Fayette County schools.
The local neighborhoods where many of these short-term rentals are located are residential and local residents are having to deal with increased traffic, noise ordinance violations, and just the general fact of not knowing who is staying next door to their own house night by night. Our local banks are also losing out on potential mortgages that would otherwise have been taken out by local families.
The state government has gone out of its way to create tax free zones that will incentivize the construction of new middle-income homes in our area, but persistent high inflation making the cost of construction of materials so expensive, very few builders have taken advantage of our state’s tax incentives in Fayette County. With no large influx of new home constructions on the horizon, it is easy to see how this situation plays out for local families in both the short and long term: badly.
When people buy homes to live in our county permanently and raise a family, our community grows and becomes stronger. Our schools become stronger, and our economy becomes stronger too. Lack of adequate and affordable housing in Fayette County coupled with an inability of locals or families wanting to locate here to compete with out-of-state investors buying up properties has created a challenging economic situation for local families and young people seeking to build a permanent life here.
With the National Park Service poised to tear down half of the remaining historical structures in the Thurmond area and the loss of public lands that I have addressed in an earlier opinion piece, the selling of major outdoor recreation companies to out-of-state owners, and the sheer volume of properties being bought and turned into short-term rental investments, many local families are finding themselves being pinched and priced-out in ways we were not expecting. We may soon find ourselves looking around and not recognizing the place we have always known and called “home”, sooner rather than later.
I am thankful for the development, and I am thankful that people from around the world are looking at Fayette County as an investment opportunity. These new situations are better problems to have than the economic stagnation we had faced for decades, but they are still problems that need addressed.
My concern is and always will be foremost for the people I represent and the community in which I grew up and love. Fayette County, West Virginia is my home and has been the home of my family since the turn of the 20th century. I want to see our people treated fairly while this growth takes place. I want to see our culture and way of life preserved and respected.
Maybe these changes are a forgone conclusion and are simply unstoppable? Maybe these are just regular economic growing pains to which we are unaccustomed and are still learning to adapt and handle? Either way, I just want our people here to have a fair shake in the process.
