Highlands town commissioners don’t want low-income people living near town and therefore voted against giving water and sewer service to a proposed affordable housing development, several people told The Smoky Mountain News on Friday (Aug. 22).

“The people here don’t want certain people living here,” said William Parker of Franklin, who does carpentry work in Highlands.

The 48-unit affordable housing development cannot be built without access to town water and sewer, according to town officials. Town Commissioners John Dotson and Larry Rogers said their voting against the development this month had nothing to do with wanting to keep low-income people away.

“I wouldn’t say the town board thinks that way at all,” Dotson said. “We already have folks here that make a modest living.”

Dotson and Rogers said they voted against providing water and sewer to the development because they think it’s wrong to provide those services to people who live outside the town limits and don’t pay town taxes. Dotson noted that there are taxpayers within the town limits who still don’t have sewer available to them.

Bill Clinebell of Orlando, a former Highlands resident, told The Smoky Mountain News as he sat on a downtown bench that he thinks the commissioners voted the development down because they don’t want low-income people living near town.

Clinebell noted that many of the laborers in town are Hispanic and said the board would have probably voted to give the development water and sewer had it been “high end.”

Clinebell said he thinks the board used the water and sewer issue as a “guise” to vote down the development.

The need is there

At Mountain Fresh Grocery clerk Nowana Barnes and bagger Danielle Reese said the town needs affordable housing.

“It makes it hard on the people waiting on and serving people,” Barnes said. “I think it’s sad.”

Affordable housing task force member Bill Nellis said four country club managers told him they were in favor of the development, but he said they did not speak at the Aug. 6 town board meeting when the development was voted down.

Task force member Bob Wright said the country club managers did not speak because they’re “not going to do anything that stubs a toe with the membership.”

The proposed development, Shortoff Woods, would have been located next to the Highlands/Cashiers Hospital at the intersection of Buck Creek Road and U.S. 64 and had 24 affordable units and 24 market rate units. Crosland of Charlotte was the proposed developer.

Commissioners Amy Patterson and Dennis DeWolf voted for the development, while Dotson and Rogers were joined by Hank Ross in opposing.

Rogers said he also voted against the development because it was in the “wrong place” at a dangerous intersection. And he said residents of a neighboring retirement community did not want the development next to them because of noise concerns.

Rogers said he does not think affordable housing is needed in Highlands because the cost of living is too high for low-income people to live there any way.

Some residents told the commissioners that the development should not get town water and sewer because others outside the town limits have been denied the services in the past.

Patterson said the fact that others who live outside the town limits have been denied the services in the past was not an issue to her.

“This (affordable housing development) was something for the greater need of the community, not individuals,” Patterson said.

An employee at Dutchman’s Designs in downtown Highlands said she does not think the town board voted against the development to keep low-income people out.

“I think it was strictly a water and sewer issue,” said the woman, who refused to identify herself.

Ben Nelson, an employee at Silver Eagle Native American Jewelry, also said he does not think the board is trying to keep certain classes of people out of town.

“This town bends over backwards for people without money,” Nelson said.

Nelson added that the country clubs provide places for their labor forces to live. “People take care of their employees here,” he said.

What now?

The affordable housing task force met Aug. 22 to regroup.

The board’s vote was disappointing, members said, but they vowed to move forward in bringing affordable housing to Highlands. The task force said it would continue to consider the property next to the hospital as the site for the proposed development and also look at other properties.

The task force seemed to rule out a location for the development next to the town’s sewer treatment plant, saying accessing the property would require driving through the plant and that no one wants to live there.

If other people along U.S. 64 outside the town limits are allowed to tap into the city’s sewer like the affordable housing development wants to, a lot of the opposition to the development going in next to the hospital will go away, believes task force member Nellis.

Nellis said he thinks there is a swing vote on the board.

“If we solve the sewer issue we get the vote,” Nellis said.

Nellis would not identify the swing vote, and only commissioners Dotson, Rogers, DeWolf and Patterson could be reached for comment.

Nellis said he believes the sewer line along U.S. 64 has the capacity to serve homes there. Mayor Don Mullen said a study is needed to determine how many homes the sewer line can serve.

Kristy Carter with the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance, who is assisting the task force, suggested that a regional non-profit affordable housing organization be established to secure federal and state funding for projects.

Mayor Mullen told the task force that many of those against the project just didn’t want the project near their property.

“We like to think we’re a progressive community,” Mullen said. “We need to come into the modern age of housing.”

Affordable housing task force Chairwoman Maryann Sloan told the task force Friday that she is taking a “sabbatical,” saying she is tired and needs a break.

The Highlands affordable housing task force decided to move forward with bringing affordable housing to Highlands in the following ways after the vote against the project near the hospital:

• Continue to consider the site at the intersection of U.S. 64 and Buck Creek Road next to the hospital.

• Contact country clubs and other major employers and ask them about the need for affordable housing.

• Add another real estate representative to the task force.

• Include in the task force some who were opposed to the project so there can be more discussion.

• Identify all potential sites around the city that could be a site for affordable housing.

• Increase public education on affordable housing.

• Interview town commissioners who were opposed to the project and ask them what it would take for them to change their vote.

• Enlist the non-profit organization Macon Program for Progress to assist in bringing affordable housing.