<< Back 5/15/02 Debate about growth and infrastructure continues By Scott McLeod The debate over water and sewer lines — and how they affect growth — keeps coming around in Haywood County. Waynesville Alderman Gavin Brown raised the issue at a recent town board meeting, but it also came to a head nearly two years ago in Bethel. Residents there successfully derailed a study that could have ended with sewer lines extended to their rural community. Residents feared rising land values, the loss of agricultural land, and densely packed subdivisions would irrevocably change their community. They convinced county leaders that, for now, the project was not worth pursuing. Brown was concerned about a $2.3 million water project — and possible sewer project — that will provide town water for residents of Barber Orchard, a subdivision about outside of town that became a federal EPA superfund site after pesticide-tainted water and soil were discovered. He said the original plan to run water lines along Old Balsam Road to serve the subdivision had been expanded, and now lines were being pushed into nearby rural areas. The town has also approved a plan to extend the water lines “Water is the drug for these people,” said Brown, referring to developers. “They are going to use this to build.” Brown said the town has heavily invested in a land-use plan that it will use to guide growth both in city limits and outside of town. The plan discourages urban sprawl and promotes planned development. But Brown and others fear that unplanned infrastructure improvements will lead to the kind of sprawl theland-use plan tries to control. “This is a complicated issue,” said Ron Moser, the director of the Haywood Waterways and the former district director of what is now the Rural Development Association, which helped rural communities finance infrastructure projects. “The guys in Bethel knew that if you put water and sewer out there, you would have wall-to-wall people. You need to think projects through, and I think Gavin has done that.” Moser said planners everywhere know that water and sewer lead to compact development. County planner Kris Boyd, though, said there may be good reasons to promote some kinds of compact development. “The alternative is that, if you have businesses on septic systems and wells, then they’re spread out. With water and sewer, you have businesses on smaller lots,” said Boyd. “It could lead to dense development you don’t like, or dense business development that may be good.” Rick Honeycutt, the assistant county manager, said the water project down Old Balsam Road did not extend beyond the original scope. He said homes just outside of the Barber Orchard subdivision — along Vaughn Cove and Applehill Drive — showed pesticide contamination after health department tests. They are within the scopte of the original project, said Honeycutt. Other property owners who did not have homes on their land asked for water but were denied, said Honeycutt. “These homes were all in the preliminary engineering report that was prepared in November 2001,” said Honeycutt, calling the water line extension a public health project. The overall project, however, has expanded. The state Department of Transportation said it would pay to extend water lines abeyond Barber Orchard to its rest area near Balsam Gap. Brown, who was the lone aldermen to vote against the extension, raised his concerns about the ramifications of unplanned infrastructure growth on the night the board gave the rest area plan the go-ahead. The state is also having environmental problems with its septic system at the rest area, and it has offered to pay up to half of the cost to get sewer lines to it. That’s a $650,000 contribution, but it is unclear whether that project will be approved. Honeycutt said he knows that there are “development consequences when you put in water and sewer lines.” Waynesville officials, he said, have expressed reservations about the sewer project. “If the town is uncomfortable, then that will be the end of it. They, ultimately, are the supplier,” said Honeycutt. As the supplier of water, the town is holding an ace in the hole. Its large, well-protected Allens Creek Reservoir is viewed as a long-term revenue source that will only become more lucrative as water becomes a more precious commodity. “Last year, this board said it wanted water customers,” said Town Manager Lee Galloway at a recent board meeting. “Eventually we could get as much revenue from water as we do from electricity.” The water project to Barber Orchard should start later this summer and be completed by August 2003. Moser said that when he worked in rural development, they found a way to get infrastructure where it was needed without allowing unplanned growth. Instead of large, water mains, they would run 2-inch water lines so that just the intended residents could tap on to the lines. “We would service the people we wanted but there wouldn’t be any capacity for a tremendous number of taps,” said Moser. Boyd said that even without water and sewer, growth is still occurring at a fairly rapid pace. Many subdivisions are going up in areas where there is no water and sewer, he said. He said as water and sewer lines are extended, county officials will be faced with some regulatory decisions. “You can adopt minimum lot sizes or some type of zoning,” he said. “It all depends on how far you want to go in using regulatory authority and what end result you want.”