As an archaeologist working in Western North Carolina, I worry when I read about proposals for large developments near rivers. For the past 10 years, my research has focused on documenting ancestral Cherokee mound and village sites. Far too often, that research stalls when I learn that sites were destroyed by development projects.
The most recent development keeping me up at night is “The Bluffs at River Bend,” a proposed 82-acre, 1,545-unit luxury housing development that would be located in a large bend of the French Broad River in Woodfin. For the sake of transparency, readers should know that I will be personally affected by this project. Our neighborhood may become a de-facto construction entrance for the next five years. Water quality in the French Broad River will suffer. Woodfin will lose precious acres of urban tree canopy. Unrecorded archaeological sites could be damaged.