‘Ball is rolling’ to lift deed restriction for amphitheater
Fayette County Commissioner Ronald M. Nehls said Monday that the “ball is rolling” on state legislation needed to lift deed restrictions on 121 acres surrounding the Great Meadows Amphitheater. Fayette Films LLC wants the deed restrictions lifted so it can begin developing the acreage. The firm signed a lease on 6.1 acres of land in the center of the amphitheater site back in November, said Nehls.
“We need to get things moving in terms of legislation for lifting those limitations” on the bigger tract, said Nehls, who attended a Friday meeting at the local office of state Sen. Richard A. Kasunic (D-Dunbar).
Nehls said that in addition to himself and Kasunic, state Reps. Larry Roberts (D-South Union) and James Shaner (D-Dunbar) attended the meeting.
“We basically laid out what we needed to do,” said Nehls. “The biggest question that came out was, ‘We need to know what the concerns of Fort Necessity are.’ Sen. Kasunic was going to set up a meeting with (park superintendent) Joanne Hanley.”
Nehls said that Larry Williamson, executive director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, was supposed to be on conference call at the meeting, but given the preliminary stages of the discussion that arrangement wasn’t carried out.
“I was disappointed that we were not further along with the legislators, but they said, ‘Hey, we need to have all the information,'” said Nehls. “But I was pleased that we were at least able to get the ball rolling.”
Fayette Films LLC plans to turn the long-dormant amphitheater and its vast surrounding acreage into a tourist facility and movie production site, complete with a Hollywood-style back lot.
However, a major hurdle remains in the form of Act 70 deed restrictions that essentially prohibit development of the larger tract of land.
Hanley, who directs the Fort Necessity National Battlefield, has said that while the park isn’t necessarily against the development, it wants assurances that nothing that occurs on the adjacent site will disturb the historical integrity of the battlefield park.
Nehls said that he was pleased to get the legislators involved, if only in a very preliminary way.
“That was my concern. That’s the reason that I called for the meeting, to see where we were. But there was a need for the meeting, because we’re (now) seeing some progress on that,” said Nehls.