RALEIGH -- As the credit crunch has stalled many development projects in Raleigh, one business that isn't complaining about the slowdown is MacNair's Country Acres.
Just six miles from the state Capitol, MacNair's is a riding camp and public stable with 270 acres south of Tryon Road. Owner Caroline MacNair Carl said inquiries from developers that came like clockwork in recent years have stopped as the economy has soured.
The cooling of the real estate market also created opportunities for MacNair's. Last year Carl added 69 acres to her property by purchasing an adjoining tobacco farm for $3.3 million. The land had been under contract to a developer, but when that deal fell through, Carl swooped in.
"It was the perfect combination to add to my farm and give me more acreage to allow me to continue my activities," she said.
The long-term survival of MacNair's Country Acres has lately become a major concern for Carl, 54, who feels responsible for making sure that her mother's vision for the farm remains intact.
It's also a concern for horse lovers who live in the city -- they usually have to drive 30 miles or more to find a place to board their horses or go trail riding. And with the long reach of suburban sprawl, a close-in place to board a horse or ride is a rarity.
MacNair's was founded in 1965 by Joan MacNair after her husband and Caroline's father, Colin MacNair, died unexpectedly. Faced with the possibility of having to sell the family's eight horses, the MacNairs instead opened a day camp to teach children how to ride and let the public rent horses for $3 an hour.
The stables moved to their current location in 1972 when Joan MacNair bought a 40-acre farm on the east side of Dover Farm Road. Over the next 35 years, the family snapped up surrounding property as it became available.
Today, the farm is home to about 100 horses and ponies and gives riding lessons to 350 adults and children a week.
"There's nothing like this place," said Mary Black, 76, who has been riding at MacNair's since 1977. "It's just gotten bigger and better."
In recent weeks, Carl and other horse lovers became alarmed at the possibility that a road extension might someday endanger MacNair's ability to operate.
For more than a decade the region's long-term transportation plans have called for Cary Parkway to be extended east. The plans originally called for the road to extend all the way to Garner. But in 2002 the plans were amended to show a future connection of Cary Parkway with Gorman Street.
This month, MacNair supporters submitted a petition to the Raleigh City Council with 1,417 signatures on it. The petition asked the council to oppose any Cary Parkway-Gorman extension that would cut through the farm's property.
As it turned out, concerns over the road being built appear premature. Eric Lamb, manager of Raleigh's Transportation Services Division, said no money has been allocated to study the feasibility of the road and where it might go.
Lamb said it's also not clear that the road extension would go through the MacNair property.
"It's not fair to suggest it would bisect their property," he said. "Until a degree of study is done for the roadway, there's no telling where the roadway would go."
Carl's view is that you can never be proactive enough in trying to protect your farm, particularly when your farm is near the heart of a growing city.
Lately she has been talking to the Triangle Land Conservancy about putting a conservation easement on the property that would guarantee it remained a horse farm in perpetuity.
"We're trying to keep this farm as something special," Carl said. "It's for people to have an escape from the city."
