Uncle Jackson wants you

The use of citizen task forces and the board’s desire to get cracking on several issues simultaneously has the county looking for ways to recruit volunteers. The board would like to have two five-member task forces to wrap up work begun on the county’s noise ordinance and sediment and erosion ordinance.

The board is also looking for a seven-member task force to work with the new county planner — when that person is hired — to create a comprehensive land-use plan. This task force would be composed of one member from each of the four county commission districts selected by the commissioner from that district, one member at-large selected by the chairman, plus two more at-large members selected by the entire board. Citizens will also be sought for a standing planning board.

Commissioners discussed many avenues for publicizing the need for volunteers including radio, public access TV, newspapers, organizational announcements, networking and others. The county has created a Jackson County Planning Taskforce Volunteer Data Sheet for citizens to fill out in hopes of creating a database of volunteers willing to serve. For information concerning the data sheet call Tamera Crisp, planning coordinator, at 586.7576.

The planning board is dead, long live the planning board

On Dec. 17, 2002, the newly elected commissioners unanimously voted to disband Jackson County’s 16-member planning board. At last Thursday’s work session commissioners agreed to re-authorize a standing planning board. The new board will be a nine-member board with six citizen representatives and one representative each from Department of Transportation, Tuckasegee Water and Sewer and the Economic Development Commission.

The three organizational members will be selected by the entire board. The citizen appointees will follow the same pattern as the land use task force; one appointment from each district by the commissioner of that district, one at-large appointment from the chairman and one at-large from the board.

To be or not to be

One issue that received considerable discussion at the work session was the future of Cashiers. Even though there is a petition before the Joint Legislative Commission on Municipal Incorporation asking the General Assembly to enact the required legislation to bring about a referendum on the incorporation of Cashiers, District 4 commissioner Eddie Madden introduced a Commercial District Plan for the community.

Madden said the plan would not impact the referendum.

“I’m on record. I support a referendum. The people of Cashiers should make that decision. This plan could go into place before a referendum and still give Cashiers the right to vote.”

But Madden did call the plan a “viable option to incorporation” and noted, “there are local folks in my community on a fixed income, any additional taxes might put some of those folks in the position, where they couldn’t afford to live there any longer.”

Madden, who worked on the initial Cashiers Community Council looking at Smart Growth issues, said he felt land use was the biggest issue in Cashiers.

“This model deals with commercial development and potential commercial development. Everybody I talked with realizes something has to be done. I believe even the people supporting incorporation are doing so to slow commercial growth.”

Attorney Bill Coward of Coward Siler and Hicks, who helped draft the charter and petition for incorporation now before the joint legislative commission, called the county’s proposed model a good “fall back plan.”

“We all have the same goal,” Coward said.

But he feels incorporation is a more equitable way to proceed.

“Is zoning what people want? If Cashiers is incorporated, the people can vote,” he said.

In reference to the issues of taxation and services, Coward noted that no statute actually requires any town in North Carolina to provide services or levy taxes. Paradoxically, any petition to the commission on incorporation must list at least four services and demonstrate how the town will afford them and must include a minimum millage of 5 cents per $100 of valuation. The Cashiers petition lists police protection, fire protection, solid waste disposal and zoning as the four services, and suggests a tax rate of 9 cents per $100.

David Lawrence, an attorney on faculty at the Institute of Government, said Coward’s assertions were correct regarding taxation and services. However, he said any municipality that didn’t provide at least four services and collect ad valorem taxes at a minimum rate of 5 cents would not receive any shared revenues from the state. Those revenues include sales tax, Powell Bill monies and redistribution of utility franchise taxes.

In a later interview, Coward said he personally had no vote because he didn’t live in the area that would be incorporated.

“We did the stubby pencil work of putting together the petition. When we started our practice in Cashiers we received many requests from different groups asking for advice about ways to accomplish certain goals. Many of these issues could be addressed through incorporation,” he said.

Coward reiterated that the commercial district would be a good fall back plan and agreed that both options shared the same interest: “That downtown Cashiers be developed in an orderly an aesthetic way.”

But Coward still felt incorporation should have a chance and feared if commissioners backed the commercial district model that it might send a message to the General Assembly that a referendum was not needed.

Road trip

Commissioners agreed to create a — you guessed it — task force to study the Cashiers District Model. The task force would be composed of five members from the Cashiers district. This task force would gather public input, then commissioners would go to Cashiers and hold a meeting to try and gauge what plan the majority of residents supported.