We, the undersigned residents of Upper Crabtree, and the Bald Creek Valley in Haywood County, are concerned about the environmental and safety impact of the private tourist destination, Mount Soma Temple and its supposed learning campus, on both private and public roads.

The destination brings in approximately 70,000 vehicles annually, over 200,000 individuals, which is multiple times more than anticipated when proposed to officials in Buncombe County, creating significant wear and tear on the asphalt roads. This traffic also contributes to CO2 damage in our rural farming community and negatively impacts our farmland through oil and gas leaks on the roads.

We have been contacted by residents of Sandy Mush who have complained about raw sewage and the odor of raw sewage seeping down to farms and spring fed well in their area, sourcing from this influx of tens of thousands of visitors to this destination. We feel certain that leech fields and piping of what Buncombe County officials noted was approximately 2,000-3,000 linear feet of PVC running between leeching ponds was not designed to handle this amount of daily, weekly and monthly foot traffic using lavatory facilities at the temple, or even worse, roadside as observed by many residents on the Haywood County side.

Emergency Service Personnel from Buncombe County relayed to us the rumor that this development was never supposed to move past Development Phase 1 until completion of paved roads in Buncombe County, accessing this tourist destination via highways from Leicester to Sandy Mush.

Furthermore, rental car and bus traffic from airports 3 and 4 hours away are not equipped to handle mountain roads and, with narrow private roads, have a propensity to get stuck, run off the roads, and not be able to power up the mountain, with no safe places to drive off the road or turn around, making these vehicles a safety hazard to other tourists and residents of the community and local area. Many times local residents are forced to turn around due to tourists having car issues related to weather or grade on Bald Creek Road.

Mount Soma tourists frequently stop on the road or in farm and resident driveways to trespass, doing anything from wading in streams, picking fruit and corn, playing on trampolines, and taking photos on house and farm driveways, porches, and more.

We also note that egress to this religious tourist destination was originally planned to be accessed from the community of Sandy Mush in Haywood County and not Clyde, so local residents were given no notice of the environmental and safety impact prior to obtaining egress from the local private community of Quail Cove, as well as the area of Upper Crabtree and the valley of Bald Creek in Haywood County. While we tried to be good neighbors, the management of Mount Soma have created a safety and environmental hazard, which bottlenecks miles before reaching their intended destination.

Therefore, we respectfully request that traffic on Bald Creek Road be limited to residents and a safe amount of personal guests of residents whose homes are accessed via both Bald Creek Road and Crabtree Road. Additionally, we request that Mount Soma pay for a public impact study and survey of local residents to determine if traffic and visitation to the Mount Soma temple should be limited or ceased as being both unsafe and environmentally unsound.