Buncombe County pivots on Enka Heritage Greenway after land talks stall

Buncombe County’s long-promised Enka Heritage Trail has hit a wall at the county’s own land negotiations, forcing a narrower fallback that keeps work inside Buncombe County Sports Park while the larger corridor remains unresolved.

The setback matters because the trail was supposed to be one of the county’s clearest bets on connectivity, recreation and economic spillover in Enka. County materials describe the Enka Recreation Destination as a two-phase project anchored by the sports complex that draws about 1.4 million visitors each year, with the Enka Heritage Trail planned as an approximately 1.5-mile paved, multi-use path beginning at Sand Hill Road and Warren Haynes Drive and following Hominy Creek upstream.

That broader vision now depends on whether the county can close the gap with the primary landowner. The county says it is still negotiating for the trail, but the immediate obstacle is access: landowners would not provide easements without compensation, and the project’s preferred alignment stalled when those talks broke down. Before Tropical Storm Helene, the design team had reached the 25% plan set stage and was ready to submit the project to NCDOT for review. Helene then damaged the project area, forcing the trail designs to be revisited.

Rather than freeze the effort entirely, Buncombe County has shifted to improvements on land it already controls. In November 2025, commissioners approved a $3.86 million contract for Buncombe County Sports Park upgrades that included new turf, lighting and an accessible walking path. Those upgrades were expected to be completed by May 2026, and other features, including a universal playground, park ranger office and shelter, remain under separate contracts. The county is salvaging what it can now, even if the connected trail residents were promised takes longer to materialize or comes back in a different form.

The financial and planning stakes are larger than one greenway segment. Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority support for phase one totaled $6.75 million, and county records say phase two has received $12,780,335 from the TDA’s Tourism Product Development Fund. Earlier county materials from 2018 and 2019 described the Enka Recreation Destination as a roughly $12 million project funded by local, federal, TDA and private dollars. A 2020 commission agenda also shows an easement with Enka Water Corporation for the trail was approved on a 6-0 vote, underscoring how quickly a project can advance when land access is secured.

The Enka dispute lands in a county that has struggled to build out its greenway promises. Buncombe County adopted a 2012 master plan calling for 102 miles of greenways, but by 2023 only about a quarter-mile had been built since then. That slow pace, combined with the current push for a systemwide parks, recreation, greenways, trails and open space master plan, makes Enka a test case for whether Buncombe County can still deliver public infrastructure when private land negotiations get in the way.