Danny Allen, 51, currently not employed

Allen is serving his sixth year on the town board. Initially, he was not going to run for re-election due to a battle with cancer. But he is optimistic about his outcome and decided to stay in.

“As long as I am healthy, I am going to be there for the town and for the people,” Allen said.

Allen said the current board has good dynamics.

“I think the board has worked fairly well together. There have not been many split votes. That’s not to say we don’t have different opinions and voice those opinions, but then try to come to a consensus on what’s best for the town.”

Maurice Moody, 67, retired industrial engineering/management

Moody, who has served on the board for 10 years, described his vision as progressive.

“I think you have to be progressive. If you aren’t growing, you are regressing. There’s no such thing as the status quo,” Moody said.

Ray Lewis, 64, retired Sylva police officer

Lewis has served on the board for four years.

“They really didn’t have anyone to run four years ago and they got in touch with me,” Lewis said of how he came to be on the board. It turned out that there were several other candidates after all, but Lewis won his seat by 15 votes. Lewis said he’s enjoyed being involved with the town.

Sarah Graham, 34, director of Downtown Sylva Association

Graham is not a Sylva local, but is emotionally and financially vested in the future of the town between her husband’s business, her own work as Downtown Sylva director and raising her children here.

“Walking up and down the street every day I have thought a lot about Sylva and what makes it work and areas where it doesn’t work. I have really grown to care about it a lot,” Graham said.

Graham got a taste for community leadership spearheading a fundraising effort to build a new park downtown.

“When I dove into that I decided to really put all my energy into improving what was my children’s hometown,” Graham said.

Mike Beck, 48, manages water and sewer systems in private developments

Beck said he was encouraged to run by Alderman Danny Allen, who initially wasn’t seeking re-election but then changed his mind. Beck was on the town planning board for several years until 2005.

Downtown support

The most controversial issue to cross the town board’s plate in the past couple of years involved the Downtown Sylva Association. The town historically gave the group $20,000 a year toward its mission of promoting and nurturing a vibrant downtown. But in a split vote of 3 to 2 last year, the town board cut the group’s funding to only $2,000.

Danny Allen

Allen voted to reduce funding for the Downtown Sylva Association. He said he believes in downtown and the DSA, but could not support allocating tax dollars collected town-wide to benefit one particular area over another.

“We look out for all the citizens of Sylva, not just the downtown. We cannot specialize in one area,” Allen said.

Allen said the town leaders suggested DSA expand to represent merchants all over town.

“We asked them to branch out and include a Sylva Business Association. They did not want to do that,” Allen said. “I like what DSA is doing but they need to branch out more.

Allen said he would support continued streetscape work along Mill Street, also known as Back Street, which runs parallel to Main.

“I would love to see it finished,” Allen said of the streetscaping. “My own personal opinion is I would love to see downtown prosper. I want to see more shops and more restaurants and a walkable community.”

Maurice Moody

Moody was opposed to cutting DSA funding.

“Out of a $2.3 million budget that’s not a lot of money,” Moody said of the town’s $20,000 contribution. “I thought that was a worthwhile expenditure. I think that donation to DSA was an economic investment to improve downtown.”

Moody is on the board of the Downtown Sylva Association and believes in a prosperous downtown. Moody cited the streetscape projects downtown — brick sidewalks, lamp posts, benches, trees — as one of the town’s biggest accomplishments during his 10-year tenure.

“If you compare the empty storefronts before the renovations to the empty store fronts now, there is a huge difference. It truly revitalized the downtown area,” Moody said. “If we can afford to, I would like to see us finish Mill Street.”

Ray Lewis

Lewis voted to cut DSA’s budget. Lewis thought the group’s mission was too narrow by focusing only on downtown.

“They claim that that is the hub of the city limits, but you still have to have the spokes to make it roll. If they would cover a bigger area, it would be a lot better I think instead of just one little section,” Lewis said.

As a privately funded organization, they can do as they please, but it needed to be broader to receive town tax dollars, Lewis said.

“If we were going to help those on Main Street we should help those out on Highway 107 or whatever,” Lewis said.

Sarah Graham

As the director of the DSA, Graham said she would have to abstain from a vote on DSA funding if she were on the board

“I have never intended to lobby for public funding for the DSA if I sit on the town board, and my motivation for entering this race has nothing to do with DSA funding,” Graham said.

Graham said the DSA is actually prospering under a new model where merchants pay dues to be members, similar to a chamber of commerce but just for the downtown area. Philosophically, Graham believes that downtown holds a unique status within a community and is worthy of support.

“It is the only place where you can shop, eat, visit, go to the park. That is a crucial part of a community,” Graham said. “A community needs a strong center.”

Mike Beck

Beck didn’t know what he would do if he’d been on the board.

“I don’t know that I would cut it that much,” Beck said of the budget.

At the same time, he doesn’t want to discriminate against the rest of town by supporting DSA.

“The town of Sylva ain’t just right there. It goes all the way out yonder to Burger King and out to Mills Branch,” he said.

Beck said downtown needed some help, but that they’ve gotten help with the streetscape revitalization. Beck supports finishing the streetscape work along Mill Street.

“If you start something you need to finish,” Beck said.

Growth

The Sylva planning board is currently overhauling the town’s outdated ordinances to incorporate smart growth principles, encourage more friendly development and reduce sprawl. One of the biggest gripes is N.C. 107, a congested, auto-centric, five-lane commercial drag sporting fast-food restaurants, a Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, car dealerships and the like.

Danny Allen

Allen said he is not sure exactly what the planning board is working on. But he said he would support new ordinances that put more of an emphasis on aesthetic standards, such as requiring trees and landscaping when new businesses come in.

“I kind of like that,” Allen said. Allen would like to see a new look developed for N.C. 107 in the future.

“I think that 107 could stand some improvements,” Allen said. Allen said he likes the idea of turning N.C. 107 into a boulevard look that replaces the middle-turn lane with a landscaped median of trees. Traffic would make turns at stop lights instead of careening across lanes of on-coming traffic to make left turns in and out of businesses.

Maurice Moody

Moody has been following the planning board’s work to revise the town’s ordinances.

“Your ordinances have to be continually updated,” Moody said. Moody supports standards that require nicer buildings and ordinances that would give N.C. 107 a new direction.

Ray Lewis

Lewis said he had not given a lot of thought to the planning board’s project. He said that the town ordinances could use an overhaul though. Lewis said he would like to see the appearance of N.C. 107 be improved. He is not opposed to requiring aesthetic standards for new businesses or requiring trees.

Sarah Graham

Graham said the current ordinances are ineffective in meeting the needs of the changing community.

“It is indisputable that our county and town are experiencing a lot of growth, and we need to plan for that growth so that we are comfortable with the results,” Graham said. “When done correctly, smart planning benefits the business owners and residents of a town.”

Graham supports aesthetic standards for new businesses, from the architecture to requiring landscaping in parking lots and along the street.

Graham would like to see a land-use plan that would eventually reshape N.C. 107 into a landscaped, attractive boulevard that can accommodate pedestrians and allow cars to move between businesses on side access roads.

Mike Beck

Beck, who was on the town planning board for several years up until 2005, said town ordinances could use re-examining. But Beck is not necessarily in favor of aesthetic standards for new businesses. For example, Beck does not think a business should have to plant trees in its parking lot or landscape the property.

“I wouldn’t say that a man needs to put bushes in front of his business. You don’t want it to look grown up if you are trying to run a business,” Beck said.

When on the planning board, Beck did not support making a car lot plant bushes along its property line because it would hinder the view of their cars. At the same time, he likes an Ingles grocery store he saw in Georgia that had a landscaped entrance with grass and trees and a shorter than normal sign.

Nonetheless, he does not think the town needs to lower the limit on sign heights. Beck does want to see some of the existing signs that don’t meet the current ordinance come down.

“I think there should be some way of aging that out, if you are going to make everybody else do it,” Beck said of existing signs.

Town borders

Another issue facing the town in the next four years is whether to expand the town limits. Sylva has embarked on annexation of new territory on and off over the past 10 years, but the board never voted to go through with it.

Sylva is also one of the few towns without a planning district beyond its town limits — known as extra territorial jurisdiction, or ETJ. An ETJ allows the town to impose land-use planning on areas immediately outside its town limits.

Danny Allen

Allen voted against a proposal to annex new neighborhoods into the town limits during his past term, but said he would support annexation in commercial corridors — namely N.C. 107 and U.S. 23 Business.

“Those are the two main corridors and that’s where the growth is. That’s the area where I would consider annexing in,” Allen said.

Allen does not support an ETJ. He said it is imposing restrictions on someone’s property.

“I don’t think we can tell someone what to do with their property without bringing them into the town,” Allen said.

Maurice Moody

“I think Sylva needs to grow some. You don’t want to annex for the sake of annexing, but I think there are some areas where it would benefit the town and the area that needs to be annexed,” Moody said.

Moody also supports an ETJ if used as a planning tool, protecting town residents from being subjected to insensitive or incompatible development just outside the town limits.

“I think it can be a good tool to protect your borders and your businesses and residents that are on the borders,” Moody said.

Sarah Graham

“I’m not against annexation,” Graham said.

Graham is not so sure about ETJ and said she would need to learn more about the pros and cons.

“It seems to me like an ETJ is a preliminary step toward annexation and it seems to me if you are going to take that step you may as well go all the way,” Graham said.

Mike Beck

Beck said the town will see explosive growth around its town limits in coming years, but is not a strong supporter of annexation unless the area already has water and sewer lines.

“I would be in favor of it if it is in the right place, but I want the infrastructure done. If they annexed me and I got nothing for my tax dollars, I wouldn’t be very happy with it,” Beck said.

Beck does not support an ETJ.

“You are telling them how to use their land but you are not giving them anything. What good is that to them? Annex it in if you want to control it.”

Big issue facing the town?

We asked candidates what issues they thought the town would be facing in the next four years.

Danny Allen

“There is growth ahead of us with the university ever-changing and growing. We need to be aware of what it is going to do to us in downtown Sylva. Where do you go shop if you live in Jackson County? That’s going to put pressure on us to accommodate all the people coming in.”

Allen said he would like to keep taxes where they are. Next year is a property revaluation, and he would like to see the tax rate lowered to offset the increase in property values.

Maurice Moody

One of Moody’s big initiatives has been cleaning up unsightly and hazardous sites, such as decrepit houses, junk car piles and abandoned trailers. Moody wants to ramp up the work even more, but said it is a lengthy process. The town has to condemn the site as a public nuisance and health and safety risk, then foreclose on it to clean it up.

“One of the problems is that we as a board have not appropriated an adequate amount of money to take care of it. If you only appropriate $10,000 to $12,000 a year and you spend that, then you’ve quit for the year.”

The initiative is part of Moody’s belief that the town should protect the quality of life in its residential neighborhoods.

Ray Lewis

Like Allen, Lewis said he would like to keep taxes where they are. Next year is a property revaluation, and he would like to see the tax rate lowered to off-set the increase in property values.

Sarah Graham

Smart growth is a big part of Graham’s campaign platform, such as walkable communities and requiring new businesses to build buildings that fit in with the community. Graham hopes these types of standards will reshape commercial sprawl along N.C. 107 and calm traffic.

“As they remodel, lets have some higher standards,” Graham said of new commercial development. “It makes it more pleasant, which in turn makes people want to be there more, which makes the businesses more prosperous, which in turn feeds the town coffers. I don’t see it as telling people what to do with their land. I see it as common-sense measures to a more prosperous town.”

Mike Beck

Beck wants to see water and sewer lines expanded by partnering with the Tuckasegee Water and Sewer Authority.

“I think what we ought to be planning for is our future growth,” Beck said.

Beck said he is also concerned with runoff from pavement and roofs.

“I think the town is growing obviously. I think we need to try to control growth in an environmentally friendly way,” Beck said.