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The push to build Ecusta Trail gathers momentum despite resistance in Transylvania County

The former freight line and possible future path of the Ecusta Trail in Pisgah Forest.

By Dan DeWitt

NewsBeat Writer

Greg Cochran is a one-stop source for the pros and cons of the Ecusta Trail -- planned for the old train tracks that cut across his 11-acre property off Old Hendersonville Highway.

  He’s caught trespassers from the tracks climbing into the loft of his barn and even gathering for an unauthorized wedding-photo session. A chain saw and a weedwacker have gone missing from his garage. He’s sure he’ll see an increase in such incidents if crowds of cyclists and walkers flock to the trail, and he’s dead set against paying higher taxes to fund it.

But he can also imagine the joy of walking with his granddaughter on a path right behind the house his grandfather built in 1943. And as hopes dim for the return of heavy industry to Transylvania County, the trail “might be the highest and best use” of the former freight line, said Cochran, 59, a retired law enforcement officer who once served as chief deputy of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office.

“To potentially take advantage of it, I’ve registered a URL under the name ‘ecustatrailcabins.com.’ I now have that reserved, trying to play both sides of it,” he said.

Such has been the story of the trail since it was first imagined more than a decade ago.

Advocates of the trail tout its power to promote health and community connections, and see it as an obvious economic boost for a county banking on a future as an outdoor recreation hub.

“We need to make sure that we are doing things that create or add to the infrastructure we have here so we can continue to be a truly special, world-class place for cycling,” said Clark Lovelace, executive director of Transylvania County Tourism, which last year awarded the project its largest-ever grant -- $100,000.

Residents who live near its path, meanwhile, talk about crime, taxes and property rights -- concerns echoed by skeptical Transylvania County Commissioners.

The difference now is momentum.

“Things start happening and money comes available,” said Chris Burns, of the nonprofit Friends of the Ecusta Trail, “and what has been kind of a very, very slow-moving flywheel starts spinning really, really fast.”

Backed by a $6.4 million grant awarded by the state Department of Transportation, Conserving Carolina entered a contract in October to acquire the rail right-of-way from current owner, Blue Ridge Southern Railroad LLC -- a sale expected to close later this year.

Henderson County has secured $5.6 million in funding from the French Broad Metropolitan Planning Organization to build three sections of the trail covering 5.9 miles of its 19-mile path, which parallels Hendersonville Highway. The work is expected to start early next year.

“If you had asked me this time last year what time construction would start in Henderson County, I would have told you you were bat crazy if you’d said January of 2022,” Burns said.

Lovelace, who also serves as executive director of the Transylvania County Chamber of Commerce, called the trail “foundational to growing the right way” at a Jan. 11 commission meeting. Afterwards, he explained it could connect and provide tourist development opportunities to all the communities it passes through -- Hendersonville, Etowah, Horseshoe, Pisgah Forest, and, by tying into an existing trail network, Brevard.

The two commissioners who responded to interview requests from NewsBeat said they are at least open to considering the trail.

Commissioner Larry Chapman, a former Eucusta executive, said his long-held hopes that a refurbished rail line could help draw industry to the site of the old Ecusta Corp. paper mill are understandable given its history. The plant, which closed in 2002, once provided 3,000 well-paid jobs, “and citizens were constantly asking when we will get another major industry to replace” it,” he wrote in an email.

He likewise needs to listen to residents who live next to the path, he wrote, and make sure their land is protected and that they are compensated for any legal claims they have on the rail property.

But “now that the decision appears to have been made to sell the rail line,” he wrote, “I can support the project as long as some satisfactory agreements can be reached with the adjacent property owners to address their concerns.”

Commission Chairman Jason Chappell, like Champan, said he won’t agree to tax county residents to pay for the trail, but “if questions are answered then of course we’ll keep an open mind.”

Chirs Burns, of the Friends group, calls the concerns of residents and commissioners “legitimate,” but is confident they can be addressed.

A 1983 federal rail-banking law allows such trails to return to use as rail lines if demand arises and was envisioned as a strategy to preserve these rights-of-way.

“The primary purpose is to ensure that corridors stay intact in perpetuity,” he said. “The side benefit is that it can be used in the interim as a greenway or trail.”

Transylvania, as a rural county, is not as well positioned as Henderson to receive construction grants for the trail, Burns said. But his group has offered to seek funding to build the eight-mile stretch in Transylvania, a job that should be easier now that public money has been devoted to the trail and federal lawmakers seem poised to approve more funding for such projects.

“The belief is that as we come out of (the Covid-19) pandemic,” he said, “there will be quite a bit of money appropriated for transportation infrastructure.”

If commissioners and residents still aren’t convinced, they should come see the 20-mile Swamp Rabbit Trail in Greenville County, SC., said Ty Houck, the county official who oversees its operation.

The economic boom that a Friends of Ecusta study predicts for the trail here is a well-established reality along the path of the 11-year-old Swamp Rabbit, Houck said.

“It completely turned around a dying town,” he said of Travelers Rest, near the trail’s northern terminus. Existing businesses thrived and new ones arrived. Several residential developments have incorporated references to the trail or cycling into their names, a recognition of its appeal to homeowners.

More to the point for owners of property along the Ecusta is the sharp jump in property values near the Swamp Rabbit, Houck said.

“If you own land, and you eventually want to sell it, it’s going to be more valuable. I can say that flat out. No data has ever shown that greenways don’t bring an increased return on investment,” he said.

Barry Coleman, who owns 28 acres on the path of the trail, mentioned another sweetener for residents such as Cochran, who say they have a historic claim to the trail if the rail line is abandoned. A law firm has reached out to them, according to the Friends of Ecusta website, offering to seek compensation for this claim from the federal government. The targets will not be state or local entities and it is not intended to stop the trail.

A similar claim in Greenville county provided significant payouts for landowners along the Swamp Rabbit, said Coleman, who once shared the reservations of Transylvania residents.

“You just worry about people accessing your property,” he said. “All kinds of things run through your mind.”

But reports of crime on the trail have been negligible, he said, and “as time goes by people seem to respect people’s stuff more, if that makes sense. Most everybody is very respectful.”
He became such a convert that he bought a bike soon after the trail opened and has since logged more that 10,000 miles on it, benefitting both from the exercise and the connection with other trail users.

“I’m a stop-and-talker,” he said, shortly after completing a recent evening ride. “I got out about 5:30 and met maybe nine people just out walking on the trail. It’s a nice thing for the community. . . I really have nothing but good things to say about the trail.”