(Charleston) — A bill initiated in the state Senate would pave the way for additional development along the banks of Stonewall Jackson Lake in Lewis County.
Senate Bill 652 would amend the state code to allow for more private development extending from the Stonewall Resort. Initially developed as a lodge, golf course, and resort area the recreational feature was aimed at generating dollars to produce revenue to pay bondholders on the State Park.
"The project has struggled to some degree. We made a partial payment this past October, but we still need to grow the revenues,” said private developer Rudy Henley who oversees the project.
Henley says unlike a regular resort development, all decisions have to go through a complicated system involving the Corps of Engineers that owns the property and the state of West Virginia who has a 99-year lease on the park lands.
The bill would clear the way for development and construction of additional lakefront cottages that would be owned by investors, but would not be permanent live-in residences.
"When you’re not there you rent it out,” said Henley.
He compares the cabins to those at Snowshoe Resort or time-shares in Florida and other resort destinations. The recommendations for the project were spelled out in a report to the West Virginia DNR.
DNR Director Frank Jezioro says it’s not a bill that has direct bearing on his agency or on hunters and fishermen, but admits he has concerns that he hopes are addressed.
"Whatever is built would have to fit, blend in and look like something that should be there," said Jezioro. "Second it would have to be in that area that is being used and not on the Wildlife Management Area. You can’t build something on the land that has been bought with hunter and fishermen’s dollars."
Henley says those concerns are being addressed in the legislation, but largely may have boil down to a set of rules created by the DNR Director and state parks system.
The wild card in the mix is the Army Corps of Engineers. Henley says there are systems in place to address public private development. The proposed plan for the resort cites lakeside development of private enterprise on Corps lands in Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio. Henley says the rules that govern such partnerships are addressed a 1999 report produced by the National Recreation Lakes Study Commission.
"There’s a place called Green Turtle Bay Marina on Lake Barkley in Kentucky that has developed similar type product,” said Henley. "You have to feel out the marketplace from a planning and marketing perspective."
The legislature seems receptive to the proposal, but as time grows short and more questions are raised by various interests, the clock is ticking on the first hurdle this idea must clear to become reality.