The Southern Highland Reader

MURPHY–An elementary and middle school in the Murphy area could be the first in the region to implement an extensive solar power array if the Cherokee County school board gives the green light.

The 4,300 panel array would cut power costs at St. Martins Elementary and Middle School by 85% over 20 years, with a total cost avoidance of over $1 million, according to school superintendent Stephen Lane.

The system would be paid for by green energy tax credits issued by Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corp.

Read a story about the project from Lizz Harold at Murphy’s Cherokee Scout here.

NATIONAL–The New York Times published an extensive feature about drinking water this week, with a focus on outdated regulations and a great deal of extra information.

Here’s the lead from the Times’s Charles Duhigg:

The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.

Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.

But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.

The Times story package includes access to the Environmental Working Group’s national drinking water database, from which readers can easily find test results on water systems across our region. Examine whether contaminants in your water supply met two standards: the legal limits established by the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the typically stricter health guidelines.

Follow the links below to search up your system:

Jackson County

Graham County

Macon County

Clay County

Cherokee County

Swain County

Read the New York Times story here.

Note: This post was made in August of 2008, but has been read consistently since then. Here it is again, with comments, and this new link to a story from National Public Radio.

An excerpt from the NPR story:

“People fear roundabouts in America — they’ve been called ‘Circles of Death,’ Vanderbilt says. “And nothing could be further from the truth.”

The geometry of a roundabout eliminates one of the most dangerous moves you can make in driving: a left turn against fast-moving oncoming traffic. Also, since traffic circles involve a lot of other drivers and a driver is not relying on signs and symbols, drivers must make their own decisions and be aware of other traffic.

If that sounds stressful for drivers, Vanderbilt says a little stress might not be a bad thing. “I think they tend to act more cautiously, which is a positive result,” Vanderbilt says.

Here’s the original post:

RALEIGH/STATEWIDE-I lived in Waynesville for a while a little less than a decade ago, and during that time residents were pushing the North Carolina Department of Transportation to build more thoughtfully planned roads.

That was when the first roundabout intersection that I’d seen anywhere near my native state first came up. It’s long since been installed and works well, and another one or two have been added, but at the time, you’d have thought by the uproar that the DOT was asking us all to give up cars and ride kangaroos to work.

(Story continues below)

Learn more about Roundabout intersections

Examples:

A wikipedia overview
Distracting Miss Daisy: Why stop signs and speed limits endanger Americans; The Atlantic Monthly
Roundabouts USA

(Continued from above)

Meanwhile, the smart roads folks — myself included — would argue ad nauseam — mostly to people who already agreed with us — that skinny roads don’t cause traffic, bad intersections do, and so intersections that require full stops must by nature be bad intersections. When we were really on our high horses, we’d wonder how people who spent their weekends watching a sequence of hundreds of left turns on some racetrack or another couldn’t handle the prospect of a simple roundabout.

Lift quote from an article in the Raleigh News and Observer:

How a roundabout works:

In place of a red light or a stop sign to hold some drivers while others turn left or drive through the intersection, a roundabout pulls everybody into a circle.

When traffic is heavy, you pause at a yield sign until you can enter the counterclockwise flow. When the circle is clear, drivers on each street can move through the intersection without stopping.

It’s a little slower than moving through a green light — but a lot faster than stopping for a red one. That little slowdown is one reason roundabouts reduce crashes.

Here’s another lift quote from the same article:

North Carolina has built about 60 roundabouts in the past decade — not counting all the little ones in subdivisions and shopping centers, says Jim H. Dunlop, DOT state congestion management engineer. He said we could see 600 more in the next 10 years.

And here’s the article itself, written by staff writer Bruce Siceloff.

REGIONAL–Asheville Citizen-Times editorial page editor and columnist Jim Buchanan (a Sylva native) notes in a Sunday column that North Carolina was recently named number one in the nation in terms of its business climate by Site Selection, an economic development magazine.

It’s the eighth time in nine years that the tarheel state has been so named.

Buchanan points out that the warm-hearth economic climate is limited to certain parts of the state.

An excerpt:

North Carolina’s business climate, it seems, is a lot like its … well, climate. Different parts of the state have markedly different weather. And looking at the Site report, it seems the same applies to business weather.

In the Charlotte/Raleigh corridor and the Research Triangle area, the business climate is blindingly beautiful. Business partnerships with universities and colleges are humming along, and the area has transitioned well from the tobacco/textiles/furniture economy to finance, medical and energy concerns.

<snip>

No silver bullet solution to the economic downturn or economic unevenness came out of our board conversation. Instead, many familiar issues and questions resurfaced, like the geographical and transportation challenges that are unique to the mountains. And frankly, blue-skying about economic development is fine, but that’s down the road. The task at hand for our leaders in a time of rolling credit crisis, high unemployment and an era of want most of us have never witnessed in our lifetimes is to simply make sure the social fabric doesn’t rip clean apart.

Read the whole piece here.

Sylva’s McDonald’s restaurant — the oldest franchise in town — will close for three months in early 2010 to replace its current structure. The local owners will completely remove the current building and replace it with another.

An upshot of the closure is that McDonald’s will be required to come into compliance with Sylva’s sign ordinance. The owners will have to remove the current, large, 80’s-era arches and replace them with a much smaller “monument” style sign.

Franchise owners approached the Sylva town board recently asking to keep their current sign. They expressed concern that their considerable setback from business 23, combined with the impact of a smaller sign, would hurt business. The circumstances disqualified McDonald’s from consideration for a variance, however, and the town asked the restaurant to come into compliance.

While the McDonald’s sign change requirement is tied to the length of the store closure, Sylva residents could see other sign changes soon. The ordinance prevents updates to current oversized signs; owners may not spruce them up without coming into compliance. As a result, current big signs such as those at Wendy’s restaurant and Ingle’s grocery store are likely to become gradually more dilapidated before they are ultimately replaced.

SYLVA–An imposing hotel construction project, dormant since early 2009, will remain unfinished for the foreseeable future according to the Smoky Mountain News.

Construction of the Clarion Inn on NC 107 N, near Walmart, ceased in January of 2009. In February, developers told the Sylva Herald that construction would resume in May. Construction did not resume and the bank that financed the project recently foreclosed.

Read the Smoky Mountain News story here.

SYLVA–Balsam Mountain Preserve, a 4,400 acre gated community between Balsam and Sylva, faces a foreclosure hearing at month’s end, according to a reports in today’s Asheville Citizen-Times and Smoky Mountain News.

Boarding House, Balsam Mountain Preserve

The Preserve differs from other communities in the area that are facing troubles in a couple of ways: the project is nearly a decade old, which means it pre-dates by a few years many similar projects that came on during the last decade’s wave of construction. It is also one-half to two-thirds “built-out”, with more than 230 homesites sold of 354 total, and most amenities in place. In addition, Balsam Mountain Preserve was the first such community to build in the north-central section of Jackson County — away from the ritzy Cashiers plateau — and has been an economic driver for the county.

The Preserve’s considerable efforts at executing “green” development have been overshadowed by a dam break at a golf course irrigation pond two years ago that caused a flash flood. The wave of mud and water caused considerable environmental damage in Jackson County’s Scotts Creek watershed.

The Hendersonville community “Seven Falls” is also undergoing foreclosure, and an enormous, but much newer project in Jackson County is also facing such difficulties.

At Balsam, 40 of 80 full-time employees have been laid off, and many amenities, including an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course, are closed.

An excerpt from the Citizen-Times:

“We had sufficient sales to stay current on our interest payments and to pay down the principal and payables,” [Balsam Mountain Preserve President Chris] Chaffin said. “Unfortunately, our loan is due. It’s apparent the lender doesn’t have the flexibility to free up capital right now.”

Chaffin acknowledged that Balsam Mountain “actually defaulted on our loan the end of last year” and has been working with the lender since then.

The lenders listed in court documents are two corporations under the umbrella of TriLyn LLC, of Greenwich, Conn. Balsam Mountain secured two loans in 2005 for $9.8 million and $10 million.

Read the Citizen-Times piece here.
Read coverage from the Smoky Mountain News here.

REGIONAL–Asheville Citizen-Times op-ed contributor Kim MacQueen makes a pitch for the importance of town centers, using Asheville as an example.

She writes:

Despite their size, locally-owned businesses offer benefits to our communities that big-box stores simply cannot:

• Local flavor.
• Contributions to the local economy.
• Money spent in locally-owned businesses stays in the community.
• Donations to charities at more than twice the rate of national chains.

She also writes what the community needs to continue to improve:

• Continued support from the city government and Chamber of Commerce.
• To understand the problems with downtown are problems for all of us.
• To make a commitment to shop downtown and support local merchants …
• Those of us who live and work downtown have a responsibility to sustain our neighborhood, keeping it vital and attractive.

Read the specifics of her arguments here.

REGIONAL–A draft list of road-building priorities for the southern mountains, released last week, placed a Cashiers crossroads roundabout at the very top, but also included several projects designed to relieve congestion around Sylva.

The 25-project list, compiled by the Southwestern Rural Planning Organization’s Technical Coordinating Committee, plays a significant role in helping prioritize state road building efforts. It has been released for comment, and can be viewed at this address: http://www.regiona.org/rpo.htm

Planning officials hope to replace the heavily-traveled stoplight intersection of NC 107 and US 64 in southern Jackson County with a sizeable roundabout. The roundabout solution was much discussed during the 2008 Mountain Landscapes Initiative as part of a larger, cohesive plan for development around the center of the popular, unincorporated village of Cashiers.

Sylva-area projects on the list are additional improvements to Cope Creek Rd., which connects NC 107 with US 23/74; improvement of NC 107 south from its southern intersection with “old 107″ to its intersection with NC 281 at Tuckasegee, and further consideration of the much-discussed “southern loop” — half of which would connect NC 107 south to US 23/74, effectively allowing Western Carolina University traffic to bypass Sylva.

Missing the list, but also being considered, are these Jackson County projects (among others):

• Improvements to NC 107 from its intersection with Business 23 (Kel-Save) to near Lovedale Rd. (Ingles Area). “Improve the current 5-lane divided facility to divided boulevard facility with median from US 23 Business to south of Lovedale Road. Intersections would also be improved during this upgrade.”

• Improvements to Business 23 from Harris Regional Hospital to its intersection with NC 107 (Kel-Save). “Widen Asheville Highway from a 2-lane facility to a 4-lane divided boulevard facility with a median from NC 107 to US 23.”

Read more from the Cashiers Crossroads Chronicle, here.

REGIONAL–My family’s recent visit with friends in a Cincinnati neighborhood brought to mind all the clothesline conversations that took place down in Raleigh this summer.

NC state legislator Pricey Harrison, of Greensboro, introduced legislation that would have forbidden municipalities from outlawing clotheslines (although homeowners associations would’ve been able to continue doing so).

Her attempt died in the senate, but it got plenty of press. What goes around comes around, you see, and air-drying laundry has sort of become a thing.

From a Raleigh News and Observer editorial:

We’re not sure how the notion arose that outdoor clotheslines are something akin to a public nuisance, appropriately banned in any self-respecting neighborhood. What we are sure of is that a natural process for drying clothes that avoids use of an electricity-hogging machine dryer is one that helps conserve energy and also saves money. (Not wanting to get bogged down in aesthetics, no judgment will be passed here on the relative touchy-feely-sniffy merits of clothes dried in the great outdoors by God’s own sun and wind versus clothes dried and shriveled in a hot, spinning tin can.)

State senators had a chance to stand tall for the venerable clothesline. But members of the Commerce Committee — were certain senators’ machine-dried knickers too tight? — decided that the state shouldn’t presume to override local anti-clothesline rules.

More recently, the Asheville Citizen-Times has picked up the ball and run with it, publishing this piece in today’s paper.

Here’s an excerpt:

Switching to low-tech drying saves energy but can get residents in hot water with associations, landlords or towns that see clotheslines as eyesores. Now states from Maine to Hawaii are stepping in to override local laws and rules.

“What we’re talking about here is a cultural shift,” said Alexander Lee, founder of pro-clothesline group Project Laundry List. “It would be nice to go from community association to community association to have this discussion and change the rules, but there are 300,000 of them, and we need to hurry along now if we’re going to cope with climate change.”

Vermont, Maine and Hawaii this year joined Florida, Utah and Colorado in passing laws with varying levels of protections for clotheslines.

As for our Cincinnati friends, theirs is a pretty bungalow in a century-old neighborhood. All the lots on the street are about the same size, with small front yards and long, narrow back yards. And while most of the homeowners keep their back yards neat, they do so in a practical way.

The neighbors on one side, for instance, are into archery. The folks on the other side have let the woods grow back in.

Our friends’ yard, meanwhile, is home to a nice garden, a tree house, a hammock tree, and — you bet — a nice clothesline rig. It runs on its own made-for-the-purpose pulley right off the back porch, and its use has become part of daily household rituals that Tara and Dave enjoy — and profit from.

“There aren’t many appliances more expensive to run than a clothes dryer,” Dave says.

REGIONAL–Drive to Atlanta much? Me either, anymore.

But the one constant in that two-and-a-half jaunt is change, and that change isn’t going away anytime soon.

The Georgia Department of Transportation recently told an open house crowd of some 250 people at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School about its plans to widen US 441 to four lanes from Clayton to the North Carolina line, south of Franklin. It’s a 7.5 mile stretch, and the road work will cost about $110 million.

The route is a major connector between the Atlanta area and the Smokies.

Here’s an excerpt from a story in the Highlands Highlander:

The plans include creating a four-lane highway to the North Carolina state line with a 20-foot raised median. Pope said the original plans included a 20-foot raised median through Dillard, but that has been changed to a 6-foot median. She added that the goal was to “minimize the impact on businesses.”

Here’s the whole piece.

SYLVA–Expansion of operations at a century-old plant in downtown Sylva continues, but so does a lawsuit concerning that expansion.

And given that Jackson Paper’s newly re-issued air quality permit shows that the plant feeds a good bit more than wood chips into its boilers, the Canary Coalition, a western North Carolina-based clean air advocacy group, is unlikely to let the issue go quietly into the night.

“Even without burning coal or [tire-derived fuel], the list of toxic chemicals, including those listed by the Division of Air Quality as carcinogens, coming from the smokestack right now is considerable,” says Coalition Executive Director Avram Friedman. “I was very surprised to see the hydrogen chloride content.  This forms hydrochloric acid in the atmosphere.  The [Division of Air Quality] informed me that the expansion may cause Jackson Paper to pass the threshold (10 tons annually of any single hazardous pollutant or a total of 25 tons combined hazardous pollutants) that defines the plant as a “major” source of emissions of hazardous air pollutants.”

The Coalition, along with four Sylva residents, filed suit against the town of Sylva in early summer, alleging that the town gave inadequate public notice of hearings before passing a zoning ordinance amendment that directly impacts Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co.

The town’s attorney petitioned for dismissal on August 31, arguing that the town gave proper notice and that the plaintiffs have no standing to sue. Superior court judge Dennis Winner has yet to rule.

The backstory is this: Jackson Paper is an unlikely target for environmental activism. The company produces 100% recycled corrugated medium for the manufacture of cardboard containers, and is the state’s largest recycler. The company’s boilers are fired primarily by wood chips – a fact the company has trumpeted – and its closed-loop system eliminates the liquid effluent that is a problem with so many paper plants.

But the company’s past air quality permits have allowed it to burn any number of things, including coal, to power its boilers. Company officials privately defend these broad permits, saying that while wood is their main fuel source and is unlikely to change, it would be unwise business to limit their responses to future contingencies.

This is the crux of the issue. What the paper company sees as wise business planning, the Canary Coaliton sees as irresponsible stewardship. The Coalition believes that the company should voluntarily limit fuel sources, and that the town owes it to its citizens to force it to do so if possible.

This is the crux of the issue. What the paper company sees as wise business planning, the Canary Coaliton sees as irresponsible stewardship. The Coalition believes that the company should voluntarily limit fuel sources, and that the town owes it to its citizens to force it to do so if possible.

Earlier this year, when Jackson Paper and several government agencies announced an expansion that would bring over 60 jobs to Sylva, one incidental necessity was a town zoning ordinance change to allow a taller structure.
The Canary Coalition suggests that that need for a zoning change might have been the town’s only opportunity to tighten restrictions on what the company burns in its boilers.

The town was low-key about the zoning change – indeed it probably thought the change was no big deal. It first asked its planning board to consider the matter, and then, when it decided to proceed with the change, gave timely notice of eventual public hearings. But it didn’t mention Jackson Paper in those notices.

By the time anyone who was interested caught on, the public hearings had gone by and the zoning change had passed.

The town maintained that because it wasn’t issuing a variance, but rather changing the ordinance altogether, that it wasn’t necessary to mention Jackson Paper by name.

The Canary Coalition said it was clear who the change was for – Jackson Paper is just about the only industrial game in town – and said it possessed internal town memos that pre-date the amendment and mention the paper company by name.

The Coalition asked the town board to rescind its zoning change and reopen public hearings.

In response, the town asked the paper company to take part in a voluntary public forum to answer questions, but declined to rescind its decision. The coalition sued.

Jackson Paper, for its part, avoided the forum and hired an Asheville PR firm to smooth its path with local newspapers, and to initiate an ad campaign through the same papers.

And when its renewed air quality permit arrived — good through 2014 — the document showed that the company will burn up to 40% non wood chip material in its boilers.

Jackson Paper’s defense will be that what comes out of its smokestacks, at the end of the day, meets state air quality standards.

Friedman acknowledges this, but adds: “… more than 30,000 people in the US die prematurely each year from coal that is burned completely legally and within the guidelines of federal and state regulations.”

“Jackson Paper is at a point where they have to decide whether they are going to be true stewards of the environment or simply attempt to maintain that image through an expensive public relations campaign.  60 jobs may sound good to alot of people right now. But, if our children, our elderly and well, all of us, are subjected to continued exposure to toxic air pollutants, the cost in health to the community will far out-weigh the short term economic benefit of those jobs.”

SYLVA–The town of Sylva has hired a new manager.

Sylva’s Town Board voted Friday morning to hire Adrienne Isenhower, currently a planner for the city of Lenoir, to replace Jay Denton, who was fired last fall.

The position has been held since Denton’s departure in an interim capacity by Chris Carter, retired manager of the town of Hendersonville. Carter assisted the board in its search for Denton’s replacement.

The board made the decision in a 3-2 vote.

Commissioners Stacy Knotts, Sarah Graham and Maurice Moody supported Isenhower.

Sylva’s planning director/code enforcement position has also been vacant since late last fall, when director Jim Aust resigned after the board failed to approve a planned community on Yellowbird Branch Rd. in Sylva. Aust’s position may not be re-hired. The board has since outsourced inspection responsibilities to Jackson County government, and Knotts, Graham and Moody sought a manager candidate with a background in planning.

Commissioners Harold Hensley and Ray Lewis told the Smoky Mountain News that they voted against Isenhower because of her lack of experience and because her base pay was more than that of the previous manager. However, Hensley had previously made clear his intention to vote against any candidate the majority members of the board chose, regardless of qualifications.

Isenhower, 28 26, earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Appalachian State University, and went on to earn a masters degree in public administration from the same school. She has worked for the city of Lenoir since 2006, and earlier served separate internships with the cities of Lenoir, Troy and Boone. She is the daughter of Elon town manager Mike Dula.

Disclosure: The author of this post is husband of Sarah Graham, Sylva commissioner

SYLVA–Construction of a large hotel south of Sylva – once planned as a Sleep Inn, and more recently as a slightly more upscale Clarion Inn – has stopped.

The project’s general contractor recently told county officials that the project had “run out of money,” and that progress halted at the start of the year. The contractor has pulled off the job, and there are no materials on site.

The hotel met with criticism when construction began last year. Many residents complained that the structure’s prominent location off highway 107, on a ridge silhouetted against the Plott Balsam mountain range, made it an eyesore.

Proponents argued that the service was much needed – especially on the side of town closest to Western Carolina University – and that it was hard to make too much of an argument for aesthetics when the building is flanked by similar commercial structures at a “Wal Mart intersection.”

The town of Sylva’s planning board could do little to mitigate the structure’s appearance, as current zoning restrictions are loose. The board did recommend to town commissioners that a height variance be granted to allow for a gabled roof rather than a flat one. The board granted that variance.

Sylva’s town planner at the time, Jim Aust, worked with the developer to soften the structure’s appearance, negotiating tree plantings around the building, along with landscaping and sidewalk construction along the road front.

UPDATE, 02.04.09: Developer: “Nothing to see here, folks, keep moving along. Tis’ but a flesh wound. All is well! Everything is just fine.” Sylva Herald’s report is here.

SYLVA–Sylva Town Commissioner Harold Hensley plays the role, sometimes, of the town board’s affable curmudgeon. He likes to vent and grump. (Disclosure: My wife serves on this board)

Hensley takes his role on the board seriously, though, and he represents the old-school school of thought, which, among other things, sees land use planning as an affront to property rights.

When a property owner complained of rainwater runoff that funneled from poorly constructed street drainage onto his property early in 2008, Hensley waved it off. “Water runs downhill,” he said. As the town moved through the process of developing and implementing steep-slope development regulations at mid-year, he was a staunch opponent.

As the board made the hard slog toward a budget for fiscal year 2008-2009, member Stacy Knotts recommended a line item for planning.

“Planning for what?” Hensley asked.

“Oh, you know,” Knotts joked later, “tea parties, staff picnics.”

The tourist town Maggie Valley, located across the mountain in Haywood County, has had its struggles with planning, and has been criticized for its pell-mell steep-slope development. So every so often Maggie gives up a golden nugget for pro-planning wonks across the region.

Like, for example, when it bi-sected itself with a five-lane, straight-as-an-arrow highway, then wondered why traffic moved at sixty miles per hour right on through to Cherokee.

More to the point, though, have been Maggie’s troubles up on the mountainsides, including its most recent misadventure, captured earlier this week by the Asheville Citizen-Times. Fortunately, there were no deaths, as there have been in the past.

Mudslide destroys Maggie house/Steve Dixon, Asheville Citizen-Times

More on this particular example from the Citizen-Times and the Mountaineer.

SYLVA–Jim Aust, Director of Planning and Code Enforcement for the town of Sylva since 1999, resigned Wednesday.

Aust’s resignation comes one month after the departure of Town Manager Jay Denton, who was dismissed September 4.

Aust’s resignation was not tied to a town board action, but came after Aust was sharply and publicly critical of the board’s failure to approve a Residential Planned Unit Development zoning overlay for a large housing development near Yellowbird Branch Road in Sylva. The zoning overlay would’ve allowed higher density construction on the property, which is currently zoned R-1.

The town’s appointed planning board, which Aust managed, had unanimously voted to recommend approval of the overlay. Aust has long been an advocate of Smart Growth principles, including the development of affordable housing for young professionals. The Yellowbird Branch project — named “The Crossings” — is such a project.

Read more about The Crossings here.

Interim Town Manager Chris Carter will assume some of Aust’s duties until a replacement is hired, while other duties will be assumed by county officials.

Aust came to Sylva after a career in the Air Force.

SYLVA-During it’s Thursday (09.18.08) meeting, Sylva’s town board declined to grant a zoning ordinance amendment for proposed high-density housing near the intersection of Yellowbird Branch and Savannah Drive.

The Residential Planned Unit Development overlay (RPUD), would’ve allowed the construction of a series of townhomes on property previously zoned R-1.

Board members Ray Lewis, Harold Hensley and Maurice Moody voted against the zoning ordinance amendment, Commissioners Stacy Knotts and Sarah Graham voted to approve. Sylva’s appointed planning board voted unanimously earlier in the year to recommend that the board approve the amendment.

At their early August meeting commissioners held a public hearing at which the developer, Cashiers-based Taurus Development Group, also made a presentation. Citizens at that hearing expressed concern about the development as a whole and a potential legal matter between a neighbor and local property owner Herb Ross. These matters were not tied specifically to the RPUD, but seemed to concern the board and may have impacted the final vote.

The vote was tabled for two successive meetings after the public hearing.

Commissioner Hensley called for Thursday’s vote before any discussion took place. Hensley, Lewis and Moody declined to elaborate on their reasons for the “no” vote, which visibly agitated Town Planning Director Jim Aust.

Ross and Taurus may re-apply in one year, and in the meantime may proceed with the single-family home aspect of the development, which meets current zoning requirements.

Ross’s current plans are to develop the 48-acre tract with 68 town homes and 51 single-family homes, ranging in price from the mid $100,000’s to the mid $300,000’s. The prospective target market is young professionals, for which there is a lack of adequate housing in the Sylva area. There is a “green” angle to the project, including best land management practices that include minimizing building footprints by clustering buildings together, and the inclusion of systems that reuse storm water. Developers also intend to take advantage of existing or proposed infrastructure, from sidewalks to water and sewer.

Aust values these “green” practices, but seems to value the larger principles at play even more. He sees the positive aspects of traditional community structure meeting 21st century needs.

“Clustering housing reduces the carbon signature, minimizes degradation of water quality and provides attainability by people in the middle income brackets,” Aust said. He went on to say that higher-density development also keeps infrastructure costs lower.

This type of development sets an example for good development, Aust said.

The Crossings development comes on the heels of an announced smaller, but in some ways similar, development on Elm Street. Sapphire developer Art Pohl received a zoning ordinance amendment to build a series of more upscale townhomes just East of the Crossings project, on Elm Street. The vote also came one month after a proposed mixed subsidized/market condominium development in upscale Highlands was scuttled in a contentious 3-2 vote.

HIGHLANDS-Though disappointed by last week’s scuttling of the Shortoff Woods affordable housing complex in pricey Highlands, the Highlands affordable housing task force will meet again on August 22, and plans to move ahead, reports Brian O’Shea in the Highlands Highlander.

Task force chairwoman Mary Ann Sloan tells O’Shea:

“As the area continues to grow, so will the need. It will become increasingly difficult to find affordable housing, and it will be more expensive to produce.”

Read our previous stories on this topic: here, here and here.

HIGHLANDS-A few weeks ago we touched on the plan by the town of Highlands to put together a complex of apartments, half of them subsidized, within city limits, to help deal with the issue of affordable housing for workers in that town.

Highlands is a resort town, located on a ridge with relatively little buildable space, and what space there is would meet few definitions of “affordable”.

The complex would be located on Highlands-Cashiers Hospital property, and is being planned as a joint effort of the Town of Highlands affordable housing task force and the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Community Assistance.

This from the Highlands Highlander:

At the request of the Highlands affordable housing task force, the NCDC conducted a housing market analysis and recommended the affordable housing project. The study takes into account the market area, economy, community demographics, housing trends, comparable properties and project specific demand analysis.

The town and NCDC are working with a builder, Charlotte-based Crosland, which develops these types of projects across the United States.

Highlands town government is excited about the idea, but the jury of townspeople is still out. While it isn’t safe to say that the issue has risen to full-fledged “controversy” level, the possibility is there.

Here are some early opinions, culled from the pages of the Highlander:

The Pros

From a Highlander editorial (complete version here):

A 48-unit affordable housing complex in Highlands is a good start but no where close to meeting the demand. Our town’s teachers, police officers, nurses and shop workers deserve clean, affordable and safe places to live. If the community does not provide that, the community will not survive …

… Creating affordable housing is not akin to giving people handouts. Instead, it is creating a livable community that can support itself. Without the workers who make long daily commutes, Highlands would not be able to care for its sick, protect its streets and residents or educate its children. We must offer more to those who provide so much to our town and our quality of life.

From Highlands mayor Don Mullen’s regular column (complete version here):

The new workforce housing facility on Buck Creek Road is closer to becoming a reality. Shortoff Woods will be a quality, locally sponsored, privately owned and operated multi-family apartment property with 48 units about a tenth of a mile from the Cashiers Road.

As a blended community, 24 apartment units will be offered to the public at full market rental rates, and 24 units will be eligible for lower, affordable rental rates based upon the family’s income and the number of people in the household.

The target work force will consist of our teachers, childcare workers, police officers, town employees, healthcare professionals, retail business staff and other service providers who are essential to the quality of life in Highlands …

(Mayor Mullen went on to tout a comparable complex in Franklin as “97% Caucasian”, but we guess he’s dancin’ with the date what brung him)

From Scaly Mountain resident Richard C. Lawrence (full text here)

… Those of us who have worked on developing the Shortoff Woods development are well aware of the danger of constructing the “instant slums.” The fear of this on Shortoff Woods is baseless. The continued maintenance of the project to high standards is guaranteed, and the tenants that will occupy the project will be screened as to their ability to meet the requirements. One only has to look at the similar projects in Franklin that are several years old to see the relaxing and beautiful place to live that adds to the value of the surrounding community.

The Cons

From Highlands resident Jan Knight (full text here)

(Addressed to Mayor Mullen) Your “no brainer” for affordable housing will, in 8-10 years, evolve into another deteriorating apartment complex. The owners of these failing franchises will, rather than bear the expense of renovation and repair, sell out. The new owners will then exploit this situation to the detriment of our entire community.

The decent people who have bought into this scheme will eventually move out as their living conditions deteriorate. The surrounding community will then be at the mercy of yet another crime and drug infested area. This very scenario happens time and time again and can happen right here in Highlands.

From Highlands residents Judy and Louie Michaud, Highlands (full text here)

We would suspect that most low-income families who would live in this project do not have insurance. Will these families use our emergency room at the hospital as their first line of medical care? This “for profit” project will not contribute to the tax rolls in Highlands, yet the residents of the project will certainly put a strain on much of the town’s resources.

… where will these folks shop or dine in Highlands? As we all know, the cost of living is higher in Highlands than it is in Franklin or those other towns. And let’s not forget that we all pay a premium for the labor force that works here and commutes from other areas, because they have to drive up the mountain. We wonder … will our costs for lawn care, cleaning services and carpentry go down accordingly?

From Steve and Michelle Muraco, Highlands (full text here)

… we were absolutely astounded at the dictatorial and arrogant attitude expressed by Mayor Mullen regarding the sewer and water connection for the Shortoff Woods project. “This is going to happen.” Over confident, I’d say. It is our understanding that approval of any town issue must be approved by a majority of the Board of Commissioners.

In other words, the Mayor does not have a vote in this issue, just a very biased opinion. In our opinion, there is a direct conflict of interest with regard to the Mayor serving on the Hospital Board (from whom the property is being purchased for the project), and he is a member of the Task Force Committee, which is the committee proposing the low income affordable housing project, and he is the Mayor who is supposed to represent all the citizens of Highlands.

Mayor Mullen stated in his letter that three-fourths of Highlands’ residents support this project. We don’t know how he arrived at this figure. He didn’t ask anyone we’ve have spoken to.

Disclosure

SYLVA–Sylva and Jackson County residents angered over construction of a ridge top hotel in Sylva and extensive earth-moving projects at other sites will soon have a chance to voice their feelings.

That’s because the Sylva Town Planning Board and Town Planner Jim Aust have spent months poring over a steep-slope ordinance for the town that will help protect view sheds and prevent deep cuts in mountainsides.

Municipalities aren’t included in the broader county ordinances passed last year, and towns, with their higher densities, have different needs regardless. Sylva’s proposed ordinances are more restrictive than the county rules.

Aust met with Town Board members in a work session before the Board’s scheduled meeting on Thursday, May 1, and led the group through an overview of about half of the complicated proposal. When the board reaches initial consensus on the ordinances, public hearings will be held.

Recent controversies include the ongoing construction of a multi-story Sleep Inn near Wal-Mart on NC 107 South, a structure that is situated on a ridgeline that gives it high visibility. An imposing 150-foot cut to provide a small building pad behind Zaxby’s Restaurant, also on 107 South, has stirred ire as well.

The new ordinances would significantly impact building on any slope that exceeds 30% grade.

Board member Harold Hensley cautioned that recently released tax re-evaluations would make property owners more sensitive to restrictions.

Aust pointed out that any change in usage rights would give property owners the right to seek re-assessment.

Some argue that Sylva is encumbered by it’s aging zoning ordinances, which don’t allow for the necessary densities to promote lower-to-middle income housing development. The residential growth boom seen in the county during the past decade was not shared by the town of Sylva.