Boom. Boom. Boom.

That’s the sound of my own drumbeat, my personal plea for leaders in these mountains to get on with the necessary business of good land-use planning. I beat the drum constantly. So far, it’s been just a lot of noise in vain.

When good people have their lives turned upside down, they have a natural inclination to turn to elected leaders for help. That’s happening right now in Jackson County for people living in the Qualla community. Unfortunately, it may be too late to help - in this situation.

A paving contractor wants to build an asphalt plant on land known as the Old Worley Farm. There is a shortage of asphalt, he says, for many small contractors and builders. The plant will sit on one of the 12 acres, he said, and citizens won’t hear or smell it.

Fortner may be right. In Macon County a paving contractor built a plant right on the banks of the Cullasaja River that was within a hundred yards of some homes. At that site, the smell and noise are a constant annoyance to neighbors. Perhaps, if this plant is permitted, that may not be the case.

The state, for its part, has never turned down an application for an air quality permit for an asphalt plant. They have asked for modifications, have sought from applicants more stringent methods to protect air quality, but they have never said no. If HMC Paving follows guidelines, the company will get its permit.

Land-use regulations are the realm of local government. Towns and counties are the only ones with the legal authority to govern how land is used. The state often imposes waterway buffers or sediment regulations, but county commissioners and town aldermen must decide whether certain areas will be used for industry or commercial growth or residential development.

The state regulator I talked to last week bemoaned the fact that another asphalt plant controversy was brewing in the mountains. In fact, he didn’t say it in these words, but he implied that it was our own fault. Counties in the Piedmont and in the eastern part of the state have enacted county-wide zoning or comprehensive land-use plans. People know where certain types of activity - farming, ranching, neighborhoods, quarries, smokestack industries, asphalt plants - are allowed to go. They may have fought the land-use designations when they were enacted, but the final plan serves notice to all residents. They were given warning and had time to sell or move if they were upset at the possibility of what might occur down the road.

We in the counties of Western North Carolina have said no, time and again, to this type of regulation. So in Macon County beautiful farms and homes will forever hear and smell an asphalt plant. The same thing is about to happen in Henderson County. In Haywood County, neighbors will soon get to listen to the roar of race cars when a new speedway is finished. None of these industries or ventures are necessarily bad. The controversy concerns location and planning.

My land, people say. My right to do as I please, they shout. No regulations, they preach. We’ll take our chances, a very vocal contingent cries every time a county looks at land-use guidelines.

Unfortunately, elected leaders don’t always hear their citizens. Last year Jackson County citizens turned out in overwhelmingly numbers at public meetings to support a stringent billboard ordinance. Three commissioners - Roberta Crawford, Conrad Burrell and Franz Whitmire - approved a watered down version despite what citizens asked for.

Now many are calling for land-use planning. William Shelton, who lost a a seat on the county commission to Roberta Crawford by just a handful of votes, said at a Qualla public meeting last week that this plant and the ensuing uproar have may have provided citizens with a unique opportunity.

“We finally have an issue big enough to bring us all together. We have a right as a community to have a say. A community can come together and create community zoning,” said Shelton, who serves on the county planning board.

Crawford, whose district includes Qualla, said in an interview a few days later that she also supported limited land-use planning, but not a different set of rules for each community.

“That would be a nightmare,” she said.

Community zoning, however, has worked in other counties. The county could offer a menu of zoning or planning districts, and then each community could impose those districts on their township, voting precinct or community.

Perhaps Jackson County needs something in different. But it needs something. County leaders are still in the information gathering process of developing their own Smart Growth plan. At each hearing, people have expressed interest in protecting the rural nature of their communities. Time is slipping by and more situations like what is happening in Qualla are sure to occur. Another place is about to be forever changed for the worse.

In many ways the mountains are a victim of their own prosperity. Our real estate market continues to thrive, propping up the local economy despite our manufacturing losses. But real estate means more and more people, roads and driveways.

And more need to get off our butts and establish moderate land-use guidelines.

Boom. Boom. BOOM!

(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com)

 

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