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Developer says Scenic LLC won’t carry KOA campground forward

Bills says project “hit headwinds” of interest rates, building costs

by Kate Shunney

The principal owner of Scenic LLC, the company that was poised to develop acreage below the Panorama Overlook into a KOA campground for RVs in Great Cacapon told Morgan County Commissioners this morning his company won’t carry the project forward.

Citing “shockingly bad timing for finances,” Aaron Bills told county officials that Scenic LLC is choosing to step away from the project.

“As a family, we’ve decided we can’t deliver on a KOA-branded campground,” Bills said on Wednesday, July 17 during the regularly-scheduled commission meeting.

Bills came before the commission to discuss a potential option for the county to purchase the property.

Commissioners opted to go into closed Executive Session to discuss a “potential land acquisition” with Mr. Bills. That closed session lasted 35 minutes, with no official action following it.

Before heading into closed session, Bills shared more details about his company’s options with the land.

He said there are numerous scenarios for the old Noland Farm along Cacapon Road at the base of the Cacapon Mountain. Those include development of the land as a campground by some other company. He said he has had discussions with other campground operators, who have said they would need to develop a “higher density” plan than the one Scenic LLC had approved by the county planners.

In their decision to step away from the property, Bills said his family has had discussions about other options for the historic property.

“This is the first time in 270 years that property could be available” for different uses, he said.

Bills said he has approached the West Virginia State Parks system and state officials, offering the property to the state as an add-on to Cacapon State Park. Scenic LLC owns land on both sides of Cacapon Road, one parcel of which touches Cacapon State Park at its northern tip.

“It would be an impressive add,” Bills said of the land’s potential for Cacapon State Park.

He said an early response from the state is that they are not interested in the property at this time. Bills said he wanted to talk with the county about any potential role with the land.

Bills said his company had been excited by the possible economic impact of a KOA campground on the local economy, and the “surge of revenue” it could have brought. He said he had a lot of support from the business community for that vision.

“We can’t make that happen,” Bills told commissioners. “It’s beyond our capacity to see that through.”

Other proposals have included subdividing the land for multiple uses. Bills said his family would prefer a local option for harnessing the potential of the property.

“Our first best choice would be people most local to the property,” he said.

After closed discussions, county officials came back into open session and moved on to other matters on the agenda.

 

 

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