The Standard reported on the June 26 E-911 Committee meeting recently.At the meeting, Sunni Stoner, Director of the Stewart County Emergency Communications District (ECD) gave the addressing report and said in the last few months she’s added six new roads with most at the, “Retreat at Paris Landing.” The Retreat at Paris Landing is mostly old Westvaco Property, West of Dover. They have been advertising the lots on Facebook, as being at Paris Landing and on Ky. Lake, with pictures of the Paris Landing Golf Course and the lake. Prices they listed include, 5 acres – Cozy Cottage at the Lake – $119,900, 15 acres – Super Private –$139,900, 18 acres – Quiet Riding Trails – $159,900, 28 acres – Towering Woods – $199,900, 6 acres – Prime Hilltop Setting – $99,900. They claim properties have private dedicated lake access. They must have other properties because none of the properties on the old Westvaco land have a lake view, let alone access.
We reached out for months trying to talk with the owners and developers, who bought the Westvaco property, but to no avail. One of the main reasons we were trying to reach them, was for them to contact the City of Dover about water. We spoke to Charles Parks, Dover City Administrator, who is also over the water department. He said there would be a possibility of running water out there if someone would contact him but no one had. When we noticed several the old Westvaco gate torn down and many dump trucks hauling gravel in, we spoke to a man spreading the gravel on the old Westvaco roads. He said it was all crushed limestone and they could only get it in Kentucky. He gave us the number to contact in March and we tried many times, finally speaking with one of the salespeople who said someone would call but no one did. However, one of the owners of TN Land and Lakes finally called the paper office last month, upset after we sent an email to the salesperson stating, “I guess they didn’t care about how it goes for the buyers after they sell these lots.” People are having to dig wells. Of course they would have to put in septic systems but if the developers of the land had tried they may could have had city water ran out to the Onion Hill Road area since it’s only a short distance to where the next closest house has city water. The owner told the Publisher they did reach out to the city and his engineers said it wouldn’t be feasible. Parks said he was never contacted. We reported last year on Atlantic Land and Lakes, who bought several hundred acres of property off Carlisle Rd. They were calling it the Ranches at Hickory Ridge Subdivision. They claimed the property had easy access to both Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley and each homesite comes fully equipped with roads, utilities, and high-speed internet. The roughly 10 acre lots were selling for an average of about $70,000. In a brochure they mailed to people, there’s a page with the header, Shopping, which has logos for Dunkin’, Office Depot, Starbucks, Kroger, and CVS. On the Property Highlights page, it stated, “Minutes to 6 boat launches, within minutes to restaurants, shopping and much more. Top-rate travel destination & relocation hot spot! College town!” The TN Land and Lakes owner said he has no affiliation with them.
The Standard spoke with Stoner July 9 about the growth in the county, specifically new roads and addresses and more about new subdivisions. Stoner does the 911 addressing for the ECD. She said the first one that came through, in late 2023 and early 2024, was a subdivision called “Freedom Ridge,” in Indian Mound. Since then, “Freedom Ridge of Dover”, off Albert Glasgow, “Freedom Ridge at Iron Mountain North off Cox Hollow, “Freedom Ridge at Iron Mountain South and “Freedom Ridge,” off Eagle Loop in the Carlisle area. Most recently, Stoner said there has been a lot of addressing for the, “Retreat at Paris Landing,” between the Dover City limits and Kentucky Lake.
Stoner said when developers come in, they cannot choose road names already in use or similar to current road names. “Like Deer. We already have five or six with the name of Deer in it. Like the one in Carlisle, it already had a road name when it belonged to Westvaco, that included Deer, like Deer Lick or something. I asked the dispatchers and they said no more with Deer, it’s too many of them.” When asked what part of the county does she notice the most new addresses, Stoner said it is, “Definitely, where the Westvaco land was. Down on Old Highway 18, 90% of those addresses were not there two or three years ago. That was Westvaco.” Stoner said a lot of people are coming in with RV’s initially and some are using the property as a weekend getaway…