Our five concerns

What happened

DMRA has been awarded federal grant money to build 20 RV sites and a bathhouse on the land next to our campground. Our property line is about 50 feet away.

Why it matters here at home

Our campground was built with our own money and our own labor. We pay property taxes. We compete for the same customers. A campground built with grant money does not have to make a profit the way ours does.

What the records show

The rules for both federal programs DMRA is using speak to this. The ARC’s own code, section 8.4(c), addresses projects that compete unfairly with existing private business in the same area. The Land and Water Conservation Fund program also weighs competition with private business.

What we are asking officials to do

We are asking state and federal officials to deny the funding for this project and to tell DMRA not to compete with local businesses.

What happened

We sold DMRA 80 acres in 2024. Everything we were told and everything in the plan pointed to a lodge, a training center, and an event space. Not a campground.

What the records show

December 12, 2023 — Eight weeks before DMRA’s board even voted to look into buying the land, we contacted DMRA’s executive director about the 80-acre parcel next to our campground. He replied the same day, in the same email thread:

“I’m talking with the folks who are doing our master plan on how to message this to the board since there will be a recommendation to purchase property for a training facility.” DMRA executive director, email, December 12, 2023

April 2, 2024 — DMRA’s board adopted its master plan and voted to buy our 80 acres the same day. On the plan, our parcel is labeled “PROPOSED LODGE AND TRAINING CENTER.”

April 2, 2024 — That same afternoon we emailed DMRA:

“I spoke with Brent today and he mentioned you received approval from the board to move forward with the master plan and the purchase of the property. Congrats, exciting times are ahead for your group.” Our email to DMRA, April 2, 2024

No one corrected us, then or during the months of contract work that followed.

April 1, 2025 — Camping on that land shows up in a DMRA board record for the first time, a full year after the sale.

Why it matters here at home

We sold in good faith. If we had known an RV park was coming, we would have made a different decision about our own family’s future.

What we are asking officials to do

We are asking state and federal officials to deny the funding for this project and to tell DMRA not to compete with local businesses. The land was sold for a lodge and training center. It should be used for what DMRA told us in writing, not for a competing RV park.

What happened

In June 2025, DMRA’s board approved buying Roan Creek Campground, an existing private campground, for up to $350,000, with federal LWCF money expected to cover about half. This proposed project next to us would be its second campground.

Why it matters here at home

Each time a public agency buys or builds a campground, one less campground is owned by a local family.

What we are asking officials to do

We are asking state and federal officials to deny the funding for this second campground and to tell DMRA not to compete with local businesses. One grant-funded campground is already open. A second one is not needed.

What happened

When DMRA was writing its master plan, it held a public focus group on November 9, 2023 about lodging. Local business owners spoke up.

What the records show

DMRA’s own 2024 master plan says the business members in attendance

“did not want to see campgrounds [built on] park property because of the competition that it would introduce,” DMRA Recreation Master Plan, 2024

while being “open to complimentary lodging.”

Also in the record: on April 16, 2025, when we offered DMRA a simple cross-promotion, DMRA’s executive director wrote back:

“So, we don’t piss off the other campgrounds, we’ll do a social media post and email campaign about local lodging options.” DMRA executive director, email, April 16, 2025

We include that email because it shows the competition concern was understood a year before the vote. We are not questioning anyone’s character. We are showing the record.

What we are asking officials to do

We are asking state and federal officials to deny the funding for this project and to tell DMRA not to compete with local businesses. DMRA’s own planning process already heard this concern and moved forward anyway.

What happened

The federal agency being asked for the money, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), publishes a checklist that construction grant applications like this one must meet. Three of ARC’s own requirements do not appear to have been met here. We have written to ARC and asked its office to verify these items before any federal money is committed.

What the records show

• Letters of demand from local businesses. ARC’s checklist requires the applicant to submit letters from businesses and community stakeholders showing there is real demand for the project. We are the one private business sitting right next door, and no one asked us. We do not know who was asked, what they were told about the project, or whether any competing campground was ever contacted. Three other private campgrounds serve DMRA’s trail users right now: R&D Campground on the far side of the mountain, whose owner tells us bookings are down this year; a brand-new family campground on Harbin Hill Road next to DMRA’s Adventure Center that just opened after nearly a million dollars of private investment; and Roan Creek Campground, which DMRA itself recently bought. Each of these has room for more visitors today.
• Proof of demand, and proof this is the best option. ARC’s checklist requires the applicant to describe regional demand and explain why this project is the most practical and beneficial choice compared to alternatives. DMRA’s own master plan contains no occupancy data, no demand study, and no comparison of options. The only market feedback in the plan is the November 2023 focus group, which warned against this exact use. And DMRA already has five RV sites at its Adventure Center on Harbin Hill Road that have sat empty since 2022. Building 20 more RV sites at a different location, while five existing ones sit unused, does not add up.
• Filling a real gap, not duplicating capacity. ARC funding is meant to add capacity a community actually lacks. DMRA already owns and operates Roan Creek Campground and its 14 RV sites just a few miles away. Adding 20 more RV sites on Pedro Shoun Lane duplicates capacity DMRA already has, next to a private campground that already has capacity, rather than filling a gap.
• The vote on April 7, 2026 was taken at a meeting where no agenda was published, no members of the public attended, five of the nine voting members took part by Zoom, and the board chairman was absent.

What we are asking officials to do

We are asking state and federal officials to deny the funding for this project and to tell DMRA not to compete with local businesses. Specifically, we ask ARC to require DMRA to produce the letters of demand it submitted, disclose who was contacted and how the project was described to them, and show occupancy data for the five RV sites DMRA already owns at its Adventure Center before any federal dollars are approved.