What the Ecusta Trail Settlement Actually Means for Land Near Brevard

Six miles west of downtown Hendersonville, the Ecusta Trail is finished pavement. Cyclists coast past the Ecusta Market & Cafe on the flat grade between Hendersonville and Horse Shoe. Toward Brevard, none of that exists yet. The pavement stops at Horse Shoe, Transylvania County's own commissioners have never voted to support the project inside county lines, and the tax office runs a different formula for parcels along that stretch than it does for land eighty feet over the Henderson County line.

A federal settlement finalized this summer paid landowners along the corridor in both counties for a taking that happened years ago, regardless of whether the pavement has reached their property yet. That part isn't a Henderson-only story. What is different by county, and what actually matters if you're buying or selling near the corridor around Brevard, is everything that happens after the check: how the land gets taxed, whether local government has signed on, and how far along construction actually is.

The Settlement Is Real, But It Isn't Automatic

In June 2026, the St. Louis law firm Lewis Rice announced it had won $5,039,224 for 164 property owners along the Ecusta corridor in Henderson and Transylvania counties combined. The case, Austin v. United States, argued that converting the old rail line into a public trail amounted to a Fifth Amendment taking of private property, since the corridor had been "railbanked" rather than formally abandoned. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims agreed and awarded compensation on May 31, 2024. It then took roughly two more years for the U.S. Treasury to actually pay out, a timeline worth remembering if anyone tells you a claim will resolve quickly. Because the taking is tied to the 2021 railbanking action rather than to when a shovel hits the ground, a landowner near Brevard, where no trail exists yet, can qualify for the same kind of payment as a landowner in the finished Henderson County stretch.

The individual amounts ranged from $222.68 to $191,061.30, depending on how much of a given parcel the corridor crossed and how the land was valued. That range is the first thing a buyer needs to understand: there is no standard payout for "trail adjacent" land. Every figure was parcel specific.

The second thing to understand is narrower and more important. This settlement covered only landowners who affirmatively filed a claim. Attorney Lindsay Brinton, who tried the case, put it plainly: "the only way to be able to be paid is if you affirmatively bring a claim for compensation." Lewis Rice has said the lawsuit does not cover every property owner touched by the corridor, and the firm has continued taking on new clients. If you're buying land near the trail, the fact that a neighbor got paid tells you nothing about your own title until you ask whether a claim was ever filed for that specific parcel, and whether it was resolved or is still pending.

Two Counties, Two Different Rule Sets

The corridor runs through two counties, and they don't treat it the same way once the trail is on the ground.

In 2023, Henderson County's tax administrator at the time, Darlene Burgess, told a reporter that property owners along the trail do not pay tax on the portion of their land located within the right of way. Transylvania County's tax administrator, Jessica McCall, gave a different answer in that same reporting: the owner of record is still required to pay taxes on that strip, though the amount is calculated using the county's Schedule of Values, which allows adjustments for factors like access, shape, and easements. Christopher McLaughlin, a professor of public law and government at the University of North Carolina's School of Government, has explained that state law requires land to be assessed at true market value, meaning an easement that reduces usability should show up as a lower assessment even where the tax bill itself doesn't disappear.

That's not a hypothetical difference. Transylvania County completed a countywide property reappraisal in 2025, bringing all parcels to 100 percent of market value as of January 1, 2025, using sales data from 2021 through 2024. Any adjustment tied to the trail easement on a Transylvania parcel would run through that same Schedule of Values, not through a blanket exemption like Henderson's.

Here's how the two ends of the corridor compare right now:

Notice what isn't on that list. The federal settlement doesn't split along the county line the way the tax bill and the government support do. A parcel can qualify for compensation whether the trail past it is finished pavement or still a line on an engineering drawing, because the legal taking happened in 2021 when the corridor was railbanked, not when construction crews show up.

The Brevard End Is Still an Open Question

The remaining stretch of trail, roughly 13.5 miles from Horse Shoe through Etowah and Penrose into downtown Brevard, is the piece still on paper. At a February 2026 meeting of Henderson County's Rail-Trail Advisory Committee, Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof reported a timeline for the Brevard end: design work was on pace to reach 65 percent completion by July 2026 and 90 percent by November 2026, with construction bids going out in May 2027 and an estimated completion date of May 2029. That July milestone has likely already come and gone by the time you're reading this, which puts the section somewhere between 65 and 90 percent designed as of late summer 2026, still years from finished pavement. The bridge crossing the French Broad River is expected to be the most expensive single piece of that work, and county officials have said it will likely need additional engineering after damage from Hurricane Helene.

Transylvania County's own Board of Commissioners does not appear on the trail organization's published list of governments and groups that have passed resolutions or statements of support, a list that includes Henderson County, the City of Hendersonville, the City of Brevard, and the Town of Laurel Park. That doesn't stop the project. The corridor was purchased outright by a Conserving Carolina subsidiary on August 12, 2021, for $7.8 million, and federal railbanking law means the land stays intact for trail use regardless of a county commission's position. But it does mean a parcel near Brevard sits in a different political and legal moment than one near the finished Henderson County stretch. Design work is still underway. Individual easement boundaries are still being surveyed. Even Henderson County's own rules for how property owners near the corridor can use the adjoining easement were still being finalized as recently as that same February 2026 meeting.

What to Ask Before You Close

If you're buying or selling land that borders or crosses the Ecusta corridor between Horse Shoe and Brevard, a few questions belong in your due diligence alongside the usual title work:

• Has a Fifth Amendment takings claim ever been filed for this specific parcel, and if so, was it resolved as part of Austin v. United States or is it still pending?
• Does the deed contain reverter language tied to the original railroad right of way, and has a title company traced that language against the current parcel lines?
• Is the corridor easement on this parcel fee simple or a right of way, since title searches by Conserving Carolina found the split runs roughly 90 percent fee simple to 10 percent easement across the full corridor?
• How is the trail-adjacent strip currently assessed for tax purposes, and has that adjustment been applied under Transylvania County's Schedule of Values?
• Where does this specific parcel sit relative to the 65 percent and 90 percent design milestones, since a lot near an already-surveyed segment carries less uncertainty than one near the unresolved river crossing?

None of these questions are exotic. They're the same kind of paperwork check any experienced local agent runs before closing on a rural or semi-rural parcel. The corridor just adds a few extra layers that a generic home inspection or standard disclosure form won't catch on its own.

A Few Questions We Hear Often

If my land touches the surveyed corridor near Brevard, am I eligible for the same kind of payout announced in June 2026? Only if a claim was filed for that parcel as part of the litigation, or if you file a new one and it's found to meet the same Fifth Amendment standard. The settlement paid people who took action, not everyone whose land happened to border the corridor.

Will my tax bill go up or down once the trail is finished past my property? It depends entirely on which county you're in. Henderson County has said it exempts the right-of-way strip from taxation. Transylvania County still taxes the owner of record on that strip, with the amount adjusted through the county's Schedule of Values rather than removed outright.

When will the trail actually reach Brevard? Based on the most recent committee update, design work is targeted to reach 90 percent by November 2026, with construction bids following in 2027 and completion estimated for 2029. That timeline could still shift, particularly around the French Broad River bridge, which needs a new design after Hurricane Helene.

Land near a future greenway carries real appeal, and buyers are right to be drawn to it. But "trail adjacent" near Brevard right now means a parcel is still moving through design work that finished pavement further east has already left behind, under a tax formula Henderson County parcels don't use, and without the county government support that every neighboring town along the corridor has already given. The federal settlement doesn't erase any of that. It only proves the taking already happened. Whether the trail itself has, is a separate question entirely.

If you're weighing a purchase or sale near the Ecusta corridor and want someone who tracks these details county by county, H. Scott & Associates can walk through what a specific parcel's history looks like before you make an offer. Get Your Home Value, or reach out directly to talk through what a trail-adjacent listing means for your particular property.