There’s a real concerted effort being organized to oppose Jethro’s Beverly Hillbillies Casino, which was recently announced for north Douglas County. The effort isn’t being put together by grassroots citizens or residents, though, it’s being spearheaded by Big George Ventures, a developer that has plans to build houses right next to where Jethro wants his casino to go. You can imagine them being upset about the plans, because I’m sure a project like this, with a 150-foot hotel tower blocking the views of the mountains, will make their subdivision considerably less desirable.
And so, to drive the opposition to Jethro’s, they’ve launched a website, brilliantly named NoHillbillies.com. That’s just about the best domain name they could have gotten, I think. And the site itself is actually pretty professional looking, especially compared to the Jethro’s Casino website, which is a hot mess and a half. And even compared to Big George’s official website, which is the very definition of minimalist.
One of the stumbling block’s still in Jethro’s way is the Douglas County Planning Commission, who need to approve the zoning changes and variances that are required to build the casino. So of course a lot of the force of the No Hillbillies movement is being directed at the county. The planning commission met Tuesday night to discuss and vote on the changes, and they came back with a tied vote. So the issue will be continued until the next meeting in July, and voted on again.
The Big George development was approved unanimously.
Again the comments section at the Nevada Appeal is mostly positive towards the casino idea, as are the letters to the editor in the Record Courier here and here. I think probably the reason there is so much support for the project here in the Carson Valley is the same reason there was support for Wal-Mart, and Best Buy, and now Riverwood. All that development exists in a nice little dead zone, on the north slope of Indian Hills, where we get all the tax money but we don’t have to see the actual development. Even Jethro’s 200-foot oil derrick that some people seem to be against. It won’t loom over the Carson Valley, like No Hillbillies says it will. It will loom over Carson City; from the Valley it will nice and invisible. Out of sight, out of mind.
Except for the people who end up living in Georgetown Village. This is what they’ll see.
No wonder Big George is upset.
Further reading: Ray Sidney, president of Big George, has his own blog, although he doesn’t keep it up very much. And except for one post about Jethro, it’s all about bike riding.
