<< Back 5/22/02 New ordinance will regulate industries By Don Hendershot Jackson County commissioners unanimously passed an Industrial Development Ordinance at their May 16 regular meeting. After several work sessions, a public hearing and at least a half dozen drafts, commissioners finally found an ordinance they felt comfortable with. “This ordinance has come a long way from where we started,” Commissioner Roberta Crawford said. Commissioners Crawford and Stacy Buchanan provided the impetus for a series of rewrites when they objected to the 500-foot setback for asphalt plants versus a 2,640-foot setback for junkyards and heavy industry and a 1,320-foot setback for mining industries that were in the original draft presented to the board by the Economic Development Commission at an April 18 meeting. During that meeting a motion to amend the 500-foot setback was defeated 3-2. Chairman Jay Denton and commissioners Franz Whitmire and Conrad Burrell voted to retain the setbacks as they were stated in the draft ordinance. At the May 2 public hearing, Denton announced that commissioners would review the setbacks to try and create continuity throughout the ordinance. During the regular session that followed the public hearing, commissioners scheduled a special meeting for May 9. They requested that Dale Holland a planning consultant who helped EDC write the original draft make some revisions to the ordinance for the May 9 meeting. There was still some confusion and debate regarding the language of the ordinance May 9. Commissioner Crawford introduced eight amendments to the ordinance. After much discussion, commissioners tabled the ordinance and once again asked Holland to rewrite the ordinance for consideration at their May 18 regular session. Commissioners were presented with four draft ordinances for their consideration on May 18. Three drafts were produced by Holland and another was drafted by chairman Denton. After a brief discussion, commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the version drafted by Denton. That version requires the same setback for all industries covered under the ordinance. The setback is 1,320 linear feet (1/4 mile) from the property line on which the industry is located to the nearest point of a property line on which a commercial use, school, child care home, child care institution, day care center, church, hospital, nursing care home, or nursing care institution is located; or any property line of any publicly owned property excluding road rights-of-way; or from the closest exterior wall of a residential structure. Denton’s draft also includes language from Crawford’s amendments of May 9. Asphalt plants will be required to have, “bag houses for managing fines created from an asphalt batch facility and emissions control equipment that will regulate blue smoke particulate matter emissions during the process of filling silos and loading trucks to a minimum of RACT (Reasonably Available Control Technology.) “This ordinance is more restrictive than the original, but it doesn’t go to that half-mile mark [for setbacks.] That would be close to banning an industry which [county attorney] Mr. Large showed me today in the North Carolina constitution, we can’t do,” Denton said. Most Qualla residents present were pleased with the ordinance. “I want to thank all commissioners on behalf of the Qualla Community Development Council for honoring our concerns and efforts,” Robert Franz, chairman of QCDC wrote. (See page 11.) However there was some concern. Don Arrington, environmental project manager for Jackson Paper, worried that the intent of the ordinance was not clear. He said that as project manager he was always looking for opportunities to expand and/or modify production to make Jackson Paper more profitable and competitive. He said those plans could include satellite facilities and/or off-site warehouses that could contain paper pulp or rubber and asked if that meant Jackson Paper would come under the jurisdiction of the ordinance. Denton said the intent of the ordinance was to regulate any industry, including Jackson Paper, that might be considering building in a residential area.