<< Back 5/1/02 Land-use plan moves along By Scott McLeod Smart Growth Principles • Mix land uses • Take advantage of compact building design • Create a range of housing opportunities and choices • Create walkable neighborhoods • Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place • Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas • Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities • Provide a variety of transportation choices • Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective • Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions Responsible developers like certainty, so they will embrace the land-use plan adopted by Waynesville last week, says one of Haywood County’s more prominent real estate attorneys. “As a land attorney and developer’s attorney, you want control, want to know what you are dealing with. Contrary to what many believe, responsible developers like this kind of land-use planning,”Jack Kersten told Waynesville aldermen. “It’s nice to see we’ve stepped into the 21st century.” Waynesville aldermen adopted a land-use plan last week that culminates 29 months of data gathering, meetings and discussions. That plan outlines broad categories of land use that are expected to guide development in and around Waynesville for 20 years. A second phase of the plan that will establish nearly 30 planning districts is still being developed and is expected to come up for a vote later this summer. Alderman Gavin Brown reminded the board that it was Kersten who asked on Nov. 23, 1999, that the town look into creating a comprehensive land-use plan. “It took 29 months, but I’m sure we are doing the right thing,” said Brown. Alderwoman Libba Feichter said the land-use plan showed that Waynesville was a regional leader. “Waynesville is a model for the rest of Western North Carolina,” she said. The land-use plan sets broad outlines for how the town envisions certain areas developing, and it has an action plan for achieving those goals. The plan is considered a work in progress that must be updated every four years or so to remain relevant, said Julia Cogburn, a senior planner with Benchmark Associates, the company that advised the town as it developed the plan. “This is broadly definitive of the types of development that should take place in certain areas, but it is not a zoning map. It is important to remember what it is and what it is not,” said Cogburn. The plan recommends — and maps detail where — how certain areas develop. The use categories include rural, conservation-open space, residential, low to medium, residential, medium to high, mixed use, low to medium, mixed use, medium to high, industrial and community facilities. The proposed uses are extended beyond town limits and the extra-territorial jurisdiction to include what is known as the “planning area.” “This plan will be used by planners and aldermen to base decisions on, but it is not a zoning map,” said Cogburn. Cogburn also noted that the recognition by aldermen that growth pressures needed to be dealt with was the catalyst for the plan. Already, she said, the town is using the land-use plan. As the town runs water out to Barber Orchard to help residents whose groundwater has been tainted by pesticide pollution, Brown said the chance that the lines may encourage sprawl is something the town must face. The land-use plan uses smart growth principles, which discourage sprawl.