Town leaders are taking a seemingly atypical stand in the debate over the Waynesville watershed, one that appears almost out of character when compared to their past record.

The three elected officials who support forest management in the watershed — including logging — are the same three who supported several ground-breaking ordinances over the last six years that have made Waynesville one of the most environmentally-friendly towns in the region.

Mayor Henry Foy, Alderman Gavin Brown and Alderwoman Libba Feichter are the visionaries behind Waynesville’s progressive land-use plan that has won state and national smart growth accolades. Measures include requiring developers to plant trees along the street curb and in parking lots, limiting light pollution and runoff and encouraging in-fill development instead of gobbling up outlying farmland.

Foy, Brown and Feichter helped pass the toughest mountainside development regulations in the region, limiting the number of trees that can be cut down by developers. The steeper the slope, the more trees a developer is required to leave on a tract. Their regulations encourage developers to leave a portion of the subdivsion as green space.

They have butted heads with the Department of Transportation over road-widening projects, resisting the carte blanche addition of extra lanes without the inclusion of sidewalks, trees and landscaped medians.

They keep a tight rein on the town’s water and sewer lines, resisting the county’s requests to expand the lines beyond their town limits to facilitate development and encourage sprawl.

When it comes to the 8,400-acre Allens Creek watershed, they have a proven environmental record as well. They spent $1.35 million to buy the remaining 690 acres of the watershed over the past few years. The move brought every acre of land upstream of the town’s water source into town control, except the tracts in the Blue Ridge Parkway corridor, which is owned by the National Park Service.

Last year, they passed a conservation easement that prevents any of the watershed from ever being sold or developed.

Aldermen Gary Caldwell and Kenneth Moore have also supported the progressive measures, but Foy, Brown and Feichter led the way.

“Everything we have done is to protect Waynesville’s environment,” Foy said.

Political motives

Those on both sides of the watershed issue admit it has become a political stomping ground. Some town board members claim those opposed to logging on the watershed don’t care as much about the forests as they do making political hay, finally finding an in issue on which to attack Foy, Brown and Feichter.

Before aldermen passed an easement protecting the watershed, albeit with limited logging, no one was lobbying them to do something about the watershed.

“Where was Charles Miller 10 years ago?” Brown asked about one of the staunchest opponents of the plan to allow some logging in the watershed.

Miller, however, said his only motivation is protecting the watershed. The issue has ballooned only as a result of some aldermen’s blatant disregard for public opinion, Miller said.

“If you have town aldermen who won’t listen to the people, what else are you supposed to do?” Miller said. “Doctors, lawyers, judges, politicians, ex-politicians, housewives, school children, you name it and they are really disturbed about it. This is the most controversial issue that has come up in the town of Waynesville.”

Feichter said there is a misconception being propagated in the community.

“There is a group of people who would like for the public to believe that the town of Waynesville, once it has this agreement in place, is immediately going to start cutting trees on the watershed. That could not be further from the truth,” Feichter said.

But even if it is just one tree, Caldwell and Moore said, the residents are against it.

“I think the majority of the citizens don’t want people in there logging,” Caldwell said. “I have never talked to anybody that’s for it.”

Caldwell and Moore proposed mailing surveys to all the residents in the town. The survey would be sent out in conjunction with a newsletter describing the choices.

“When the citizens for the town of Waynesville voted me to represent them, I tried to do my dead level best to represent them, and I thought this was a big enough issue to where at least we could have the citizens’ input,” Moore said.

Feichter, who spent months researching forest ecology, water quality, and the latest forest management theories, said a newsletter would fall short. People would make a decision based on gut feelings and stereotypes. Feichter said her gut instinct three years ago would have been don’t cut trees.

“I am basically a tree hugger myself. But what I found is that cutting trees is not always a bad thing, and that with some selective cutting, it is healthy,” Feichter said.

Brown said he was also skeptical of cutting trees. That was before a tour of Coweta Laboratory, a U.S. Forest Service tract in Macon County where the latest forestry techniques are used.

“That convinced me more than anything I’ve seen that this is the way to go,” said Brown, also a self-described tree hugger.

Brown said there will be a town-wide poll on the watershed — the next town board election.

“It is going to be in November 2007,” Brown said.

Feichter said she knows the watershed will be an election issue, but she won’t go the politically easy route in the meantime.

“If people think I have made the wrong choice, then their option is to take my seat, and I can live with that because I believe what I have done is in the best interest of the people in the town of Waynesville,” Feichter said.

Foy, who could be serving his last term as mayor, said their move to protect the watershed is a great legacy.

“To me, it is exciting. I think it is one of the best things this board can leave to the town of Waynesville for the future,” Foy said.

Brown has made it known that he is interested in running for mayor of Waynesville when Foy steps down. Caldwell said he has been approached by town residents asking him if he would run for mayor in 2007, but is undecided.