The Macon County Watershed Council met Monday afternoon (Oct. 29) to make some final revisions to Macon County’s Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Ordinance before commissioners vote on it at their Nov. 5 meeting. The meeting followed an Oct. 23 public hearing regarding the issue.

About 200 Macon County residents attended the public hearing. After the public hearing, County Board Chairman Harold Corbin said approximately 27 people spoke at the hearing with nearly a 3-1 majority supporting the ordinance.

“I think we have a good ordinance,” Corbin said.

The ordinance is somewhat stricter than the state law regarding sediment and erosion, requiring a sediment and erosion plan for land disturbing activities of one-half acre or more. The state requires a plan for disturbances of one acre or more.

The county will exempt one-half acre sites if the contractor is on an “approved contractor” list. The county will provide training for anyone who wishes to be considered an approved contractor.

The county ordinance will also have a slope trigger for requiring a plan. At the end of Monday’s meeting the language determining the degree of slope still had not been reconciled, but consensus seemed to be anything greater than a 45-degree slope would require a plan.

Permits (not plans) would be required any time building permits were issued and land disturbed, regardless of the size of the disturbance. Permits and any associated fees and/or fines would go to pay for a sediment and erosion control administrator and administrative costs.

Macon County Planner Joe Stark said the county issues an average of 600 building permits per year. County Manager Sam Greenwood said a sliding fee scale would be designed to make permits equitable.
Jimmy Goodman, who raised the issue of cost at the public hearing, raised it again at Monday’s meeting.

“I feel like we’re being charged double for a service the state already provides,” Goodman said.
Watershed Council chairman George Sweet said it wasn’t a double fee because the fee money would come back to the county and not go to the state. Sweet admitted, however that the county would require fees in some instances where the state wouldn’t.

“It is an additional cost we will be paying in order to get local control,” Sweet said.

David Jones of Appalachian Construction is a grading contractor and a member of the Watershed Council.

“We want to be proactive and catch any problems before they start. Getting the right people to administrate the ordinance will be the key. We don’t want to be punitive, we want to protect the water,” Jones said.

The Watershed Council suggested an April 1, 2002, effective date if commissioners pass the ordinance. Greenwood said he thought that would be a reasonable time frame for the county to find a qualified administrator, create a fee schedule and arrange for contractor training.

Macon County commissioners will read the ordinance for the second time Nov. 5 and vote on it. If it passes it will become law.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News