After spending 18 months developing an ordinance to regulate high-impact land uses, the Macon County Planning Board appears to be losing some of its steam.

At the board’s last meeting on Sept. 21 — where board members were supposed to create a list of land-use issues from which county commissioners would choose the board’s next project — only six out of 11 board members showed up. As a result of the meeting’s poor attendance, the board did not have a quorum and was unable to officially vote on a list of items to present to commissioners.

“We emailed them, we called them,” said Stacy Guffey, Macon County planner. “Aside from going out and picking them up, I don’t know what more we can do.”

Only one board member, Highlands Alderman Alan Marsh, called ahead of time to say that he was out of town. The meeting was the first Marsh has missed since being appointed.

However, fellow Highlands representative Eric Pierson, a developer and candidate in this year’s town board elections, is one of three planning board members with the lowest attendance rates. Pierson, along with one-time county commissioner candidate Jimmy Goodman and county finance officer Evelyn Southard have each missed nine of the 25 meetings the board has held since Jan. 1, 2004.

Franklin Town Manager Mike Decker and former county commissioner chairman Mark West have each missed eight meetings.

The only two board members in attendance at every meeting have been board chairman Ronnie Beale, a contractor by trade, and Lamar Sprinkle, a surveyor and developer.

According to the planning board’s bylaws, regular attendance at meetings is required. Only the planning board chairman may excuse absences and county commissioners must be notified when any member is absent from two consecutive meetings without excuse. Such absenteeism will result in a member’s removal from the board, the bylaws state.

Each of the board members with eight or nine absences has missed two consecutive meetings or more.

According to planning department staff, the board has attempted to deal with absenteeism internally and has not notified commissioners of the problem.

Despite lacking a quorum, planning board members went ahead with a discussion of possible projects to tackle — a subdivision ordinance, ridgeline development, steep slope building regulations, animal nuisances, or perhaps water and sewer development.

Upon the proposition of looking at a subdivision ordinance — one that could regulate lot size and limit ridgeline and slope development — Sprinkle raised a commonly held concern about property rights.

“What are you going to do about the man who owns that mountain?” Sprinkle asked.

However, Guffey said that property rights exist for everyone, not just for the man who owns the mountain but also for the man in the valley who looks up at it from his backyard.

As development has increased, the property rights argument has changed, Guffey said. It’s not so much about letting a person do whatever he wants with his land as it is about ensuring that the rights of all people — regardless of fiduciary power — are protected. Consequently, it is the public asking for subdivision, ridgeline and slope development regulation, Guffey said. The public’s desire for these regulations was made clear at community meetings and public hearings held in conjunction with the development of the high-impact use ordinance, Guffey said.

“I keep wondering why we don’t listen to the public,” Guffey said. “If we’re not going to take that stuff and turn it into something substantial then we might as well quit doing it.”

Sprinkle said that such regulations only made it harder for developers and slowed down the process. Plus anything the board would hope to accomplish with some form of subdivision ordinance is already addressed in another ordinance, he said, noting soil and erosion control policies.

Sprinkle asked board members if Macon County would be better off because of Wildflower — the newest of the county’s 641 subdivisions — located at the top of Cowee Mountain.

“I’d say no,” said planning board member Susan Ervin.

“I’d say yes,” Sprinkle said, citing tax revenue generated from the land sales and construction of high-end homes.

But Ervin questioned the viability of relying on the housing market to carry the county, saying that continued construction would eventually ruin the very resources that draw people to the mountains — beauty and rural lifestyle.

“Building can not be the only economy in Macon County for the foreseeable future,” Ervin said.

In the same vein, board member Larry Stenger asked whether there was anything that could be done to help families preserve lands that have been passed down through the generations. Higher land values and resulting taxes make it hard for local, long-standing families to afford to own large tracts of land anymore, Stenger said.

“We’re losing our heritage,” Stenger said.

“We’re not losing it, we’re selling it,” Beale said to Stenger.

“We’re selling it so you can build a house on it,” West said to Beale.

Without voting, the board agreed to present the subjects members discussed to the county board and ask commissioners for more direction.

“I just think it’s going to go back to the same old discussions they’ve had in front of them since 1992,” Beale said, referencing the county’s last long-term land use plan.

“Since 1974,” Guffey said.