The current debate over property taxes and other budget issues has led some county officials and residents to focus more attention on what's happening out in the county.

A handful of landowners have been developing properties in outlying areas such as Wataugha Lake, Elk Mills and Roan Mountain, hoping to attract people to Carter County from other parts of the country.

While some local residents may complain that construction of pricier homes is one of the main reasons their taxes are going up, others welcome the new residents and the resulting rise in property values as a sign that things are gradually improving in the region.

Ron Konrady, owner of Heartwood Mountaintop Properties on Heaton Branch Road near Elk Mills, is in the process of developing a 330 acre spread that will be a private, gated community. There are 69 lots, and he has sold 50 so far. Ten homes have been completed and two more are currently under construction.

"I've been building custom homes for 30 years in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, N.C., and did a lot of work in Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill," said Konrady. "I had some friends who fished and hunted around the lake, and I wanted to come up here and purchase some land with a pasture, a babbling brook and a view. We purchased 246 acres in 1999 and added to it for a total of 330 acres. We starting selling in 2001.

"Minimum square footage is 1,200 square feet, but currently the smallest house in the development is about 2,400 and the largest is about 5,500. The ridge maintains about 3,200 feet elevation with a maximum of 3,400 feet. We have predominantly northeast views of the southern fork of Watauga Lake and the mouth of Roan Creek. The Cherokee National Forest borders us for a mile. You can see the Iron Mountain range.

"The roads have been built to county specifications - 18 feet wide," he continued. "The majority of homeowners want to maintain the private status, with the entry gates, so we would like to pave the roads within the next year. They would be approximately 12 feet wide and funded through a lot assessment."

Konrady, who operates his business in Boone, NC, had a personal residence built at Heartwood. All the lumber used to build his house originated on the property.

"What's so nice about this place is that there's a common denominator that brings us all together," he said. "We all wanted to get away from the mainstream and be a little adventuresome and create a vision. This is something that I love to do and a legacy to pass on to my children.

"We probably have 10 or 12 families here with young children. We've got two policemen, two lawyers, two architect/designers, just a range of people. Several people have bought multiple lots in here because they see the potential of what this development will be in five years."

Konrady said that buyers are primarily from Florida, but people are coming Wilmington, Winston-Salem and Charlotte, N.C. and as far away as New Jersey, Louisiana and Texas.

Unlike Konrady, John Julian, owner of WindCrest on Shell Creek Road, is a local man with a family history in the Roan Mountain area.

"There is an old wagon road that went from here all the way into North Carolina," said Julian. "This is part of the old A.D. Reynolds property. He was a civil war major and a brother to R.J. Reynolds who was the tobacco mogul down in Winston-Salem. A.D. lived on the North Carolina side of the mountain and he died in 1905. Our deed goes back to him. His heirs acquired it and then we acquired it from his in about 1952.

"My grandfather was a mail carrier. He carried the mail on horseback, till the last two years when he was able to drive a car.

"I retired from the service in '96 and we moved down here from Kentucky in 2000," he said. "It's taken a while to get this off the ground. We have 42 sites now, and if we're successful with Phase One, maybe we'll look at going up a little farther."

Elizabethton - Carter County is prominently displayed on maps in two recently published national magazines.

In an article on "Measuring Beauty" in the May issue of Scientific American, there is a small map of the United States with different colors depicting counties with a lot of natural amenities and those with a low number of such amenities.

The United States Department of Agriculture did the measuring of six categories: January Temperature, January sunshine, temperature gain between January and July (the less the better), July humidity, water area and topographical variation.

Very few areas in the Eastern United States except southern Florida scored well. One exception the article noted was "southern Appalachia, which has a hospitable climate, many lakes and rivers, and considerable topographic diversity."

Only one section of Appalachia was highlighted on the small map. Carter County was one of the only eight counties in the country pointed out on the map. The county was not mentioned in the article.

Mayor Dale Fair discussed the article during Monday's meeting of the Carter County Commission. For Fair, it was quantifiable verification of a guest editorial he had written a few years ago in the Johnson City Press, in which he described Carter County as being a nearly perfect location.

"You couldn't do a better job if you had sat down and planned it all out," Fair said of the varied terrain that goes from about 1,600 feet along the Watauga River valley to over 6,200 feet on top of Roan Mountain.

He said Watauga Lake is not only beautiful, it is guaranteed to stay beautiful because the vast majority of its shoreline is in the Cherokee National Forest.

Added to those amenities are a good road network, clos e proximity to a metropolitan area and a rich history, Fair said.

Fair told the commissioners that Carter County also is prominently featured in the current National Geographic map of the Appalachian region. Of 16 sites depicted on the map in Tennessee, three of them are in Carter County.

The county seat of Elizabethton has also been included in an article the Winter 2004/2005 edition of Southern Business and Development on "10 Really Cool Small Southern Markets."