A procession of impassioned speakers pleaded with Jackson County commissioners to slow the rapid pace of development on mountainsides during a public hearing Monday (June 11).

About 150 people attended the public hearing to weigh in on proposed development regulations that would make the county more protective than any other in Western North Carolina, and possibly the state. The majority voiced support for the proposals.

It was a stark contrast to a public hearing held four months ago over a moratorium on new developments. Nearly 1,300 turned out for that, with the majority railing against the idea of a moratorium. Realtors and developers led the charge, backed by hundreds of construction workers who feared the five-month moratorium would cause a work slowdown.

The moratorium was passed anyway by a 4-to-1 vote of county commissioners. It was intended to stave off a flood of developers from launching new subdivisions while the county worked on its first-ever development regulations, ending the anything-goes climate of mountainside construction. The moratorium did not affect developments already under way or halt homes from being built on existing lots.

The county planning board spent the past four months drafting development regulations for subdivisions and steep slopes. The regulations are pending approval by county commissioners, setting a new stage for development in Jackson County by the time the moratorium is lifted on July 8.

Leaders of the opposition movement say the masses did not turn out for the public hearing on the proposed regulations because it seemed pointless. The county commissioners seem bent on an anti-development agenda regardless of public sentiment, they said.

“Everyone I’ve talked to said they aren’t even going to show up,” said Marty Jones, a Realtor in Cashier. “We voiced our opposition to the moratorium. The voters clearly opposed it and the commissioners did it anyway. It’s like, ‘we know what you’re going to do, so why show up?’”

Those on the other side have a different explanation for the relative lack of opposition at this week’s public hearing. The economic slowdown predicted over the moratorium never came to fruition, exposing the arguments of the Realtors and developers as merely looking out for their own pocketbooks, not the overall welfare of the county.

The public hearing revealed one thing both sides could agree on: mountainside development in Jackson County has led to strong philosophical divisions. While technical arguments over soil stability and the groundwater table were numerous, speakers returned time and again to the underlying issue of whether too many people are moving to the mountains too quickly.