<< Back 8/21/02 Road-building proposal would help landowners SMN It’s imperfect, as all human endeavors are, but commissioners should pass it anyway. That’s a suggestion for Haywood County commissioners, who this week once again failed to give the OK to a set of amendments to its subdivision and pre-development ordinance that would set some new rules for road building. It’s the third public hearing held on the proposals, and planner Kris Boyd looks like he might make a career out of massaging this ordinance. The wording in the proposal is aimed at new roads in subdivisions. As anyone who has traveled the backroads of Haywood and other mountain counties knows, many neighborhoods have been built with dangerous, narrow roads. Before development ordinances hit the books, builders and homeowners pushed whatever kind of road necessary to get to their building lots. Some are so steep they are dangerous when it rains, much less when it snows. Emergency vehicles can’t maneuver them. Most problematic, though, is the tendency of roads like this to lead to erosion. That sends dirt down onto the land of adjacent or nearby property owners, or into the nearest river. County board Chairman Jim Stevens was absolutely right in his assessment of the problems of erosion: “Everyone lives downstream of someone,” he said. Eventually that dirt settles out, causing someone problems. Oh yeah, and it wreaks havoc on fish, insects, salamanders and other animals. Gordon Small, who works with the Haywood Waterways Association, said road construction is among the most prominent sources of non point-source water pollution in the mountains. County leaders sent the proposal back to its planning board because of a right of way issue. According to the proposal, roads in major subdivisions would need a 45-foot right of way. Some commissioners argued that would take too much land and might not be possible in certain conditions, so they asked the planning board to consider a 30-foot right of way. The ordinance, though, allows for 30-foot right of ways when roads are built prior to platting the subdivision. Variances are also allowed in cases where the lay of the land and other circumstances just won’t make room for the 45-foot right of way, the 18-foot road width, or the 20-degree slope. Commissioners will never develop a land-use ordinance that pleases everyone, but the planning board has come up with a reasonable set of amendments. As Small said, “The issue is not what we can do, but what we should do.” Commissioners will protect the property rights of everyone in the county by passing this ordinance, and by doing so they will also set a standard that can be amended if it proves too problematic in the future. For now, though, the county would have a minimum standard that would go a long ways toward protecting homeowners and the environment.