State wants Jocassee Gorges land Duke holds

View from Jumping-Off Rock in the Jocassee Gorges. The fate of the peninsula in the center of the frame is in question. This lookout is one of the last that doesn't show signs of development. TANYA ACKERMAN/Staff e-mail this story

"There are so few places anywhere up and down the Appalachian chain where you can see this grandiose vista with no sign of the heavy hand of man," said the Pickens County naturalist.

Notably missing are the grandiose mountain homes that hang off every ridge across the border in North Carolina. Conservationists want to make sure they never sprout up here, so seven years after the state Department of Natural Resources acquired the 32,000-acre Jocassee Gorges property, it is trying to get three final parcels of land from Crescent Resources and Duke Energy that weren't included in the original sale.

One of those parcels is a small thumb of land surrounded on three sides by the lake and on the fourth by the Jocassee Gorges land. It's a relatively flat 60 acres, flatter than the steep slopes that mark the rest of the Gorges, that would be perfect for more high-end lakefront development, critics say, just like the development overtaking Lake Keowee.

Crescent spokeswoman Tonja Jones said Crescent doesn't have any definitive plans for the property.

For Chastain and others like Grant Cunningham, an assistant professor of planning at Clemson University, that's the problem — Crescent won't say what it wants to do.

"If Crescent owns it, you can bet (development) is what they're looking at," Cunningham said. "They're in the business of making money. There's an exclusive market out there for it and they want to tap into it."

Crescent would not comment on why the land was left out of the original deal, or if development was the original intent.

The 60 acres could be worth as much as $60 million, which puts it out of the range of what the Department of Natural Resources could afford.

"We don't have the money," said Mark Hall, a biologist who is managing the Jocassee Gorges property. "We'd like to have it all."

Another parcel Hall wants is the two acres on the South Carolina side of Sassafras Mountain, the state's highest point. The property has been a source of controversy since 1997. Just across the border is land owned by U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C. Chastain and others who frequent Sassafras have feared for years that Taylor would buy the two acres from Crescent, allowing him to develop the 3,560-foot peak.

Hall said there have been "productive discussions" with Duke on the Sassafras land, though no deal has been struck.

Chastain said, "It's going to be a shame if the highest point in South Carolina becomes somebody's back yard."

The third section is a much larger tract: 2,300 acres just south of Highway 11 near Keowee-Toxaway State Park. Hall said that tract could be worth as much as $5 million. The land also contains many rare plants and animals, like the rest of the Jocassee Gorges. However, with the continued pressure to develop land along the scenic highway, Chastain doesn't hold out much hope that that land won't be developed.

But as the Department of Natural Resources struggles to get funding from the state — some departments within the organization receive no appropriated funds from the Legislature — the chances of acquiring the lands without a wealthy benefactor are slim.

When the Jocassee Gorges deal was signed in 1997, $10 million came from an anonymous donor.

That leaves Chastain, Hall and others like the Sierra Club's George Polk hoping Duke and Crescent could go for some good public relations by donating the land.

"If this area is developed, it would not be compatible with the character of the Jocassee Gorges area," Polk said. "Duke would be better off if they would donate (the land)."

Jason Zacher covers the environment and can be reached at 298-4272.