With the power of water front and center on the minds of Western North Carolinians in recent months, Macon County continues to debate how to find the right balance between protections and permissions on use of private property near riverine areas. Without the full presence of Macon County Planning Board members at the November meeting, the questions of how to strike this balance remained as murky as the Little Tennessee River the day after a storm.
First, a recap
At the urging of a vocal segment of Macon County citizens, Macon County Board of Commissioners Chair Gary Shields used the chair’s prerogative in August to urge the creation of a private technical experts committee to review proposed ordinance changes related to drinking water quality, watershed protections, and movement of fill dirt in the flood fringe.
On Aug. 21, nine local citizens with diverse backgrounds in hydrology, biology, engineering, and the legal profession formed a “Water Quality Advisory Committee” (WQAC). The group was charged with providing technical information and making recommendations related to changes proposed by Commissioner Josh Young to the Macon County Water Supply Watershed Protection Ordinance and the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance.
The eminent team of specialists included Town of Franklin Council member Stacy Guffey, Ed Haight, Jason Love, Kenneth McCaskill, Bill McLarney, Lewis Penland, Carolyn Porter, Katie Price, and Doug Woodward.
The group attempted to present its first technical report to commissioners at the Sept. 10 meeting to provide context, but concerns about the legally required review process prompted commissioners to kick discussion of the ordinances back to the Macon County Planning Board and to table official votes until January 2025.
On Oct. 3, the WQAC, which found serious deficiencies in both ordinances, finally had the opportunity for a hearing, starting with the Watershed Ordinance. As proposed, Young wanted the county to remove language inserted in 2014 that addressed approvals for Special Nonresidential Intensity Allocations (SNIA).
Young, who serves as the liaison to the planning board, opened the October meeting with an invitation to dialogue and to dispel misunderstandings about the proposed changes.
“I had a couple of phone calls from people asking me why I wanted to put RV parks in the floodplain … in the watershed. And that’s absolutely nothing to do with what’s going on right here. Right now, you can put RV parks anywhere in Macon County except for two watersheds …”
Post the Hurricane Helene disaster, Young reflected, “A lot of people feel like this is coming from a place of money and just greed. I feel like if you really peel the layers of the onion back, there’s some sincere truth to how this can help everybody if it’s done the right way.”
“The issue is loosening restrictions, which presently preclude RV parks in the Franklin and Highlands drinking water supply watersheds, and in the Excellent Quality Waters area, recognized by the county as encompassing all of the Little Tennessee downstream (north) of the dam which impounds Lake Emory,” offered Bill McLarney.
Jason Love spent considerable time at the October meeting deftly walking the planning board through a history of development in and around the county’s drinking watershed; the concerns about E. coli bacteria already present and which could be exacerbated by changes to existing protections; and, concerns about how wastewater is handled in RV parks that are intended to be used for only temporary purposes but have often turned into long-term housing solutions for visitors and citizens alike.
Despite the findings of the WQAC, the planning board voted to refer the Watershed Ordinance back to commissioners with a recommendation to accept the revised language and potentially look at revising the ordinance in its entirety. Chair Jean Owen explained that without a directive from commissioners to review the full ordinance, the planning board could only vote up or down on the proposed revisions.
No quorum, no resolutions
A second round of dialogue took place on Nov. 7, but a lack of quorum for the all-volunteer planning board meant that an official meeting could not be called to discuss changes to the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance (FDPO). However, since more than 30 people had assembled at the community center on Georgia Road, Owen and Young invited those assembled to speak freely and present options, noting that no formal action on the FDPO would be taken that night.
Led by McLarney, members of the WQAC and local community then had an opportunity to illustrate concerns with PowerPoints, videos, prepared statements, and extemporaneous remarks on the proposed changes. The Advisory Group opposed the current changes of allowing 25% fill dirt in the flood fringe and would rather see a strengthened variance process, which would assist small landowners to conduct small improvements to their land without harming downstream neighbors. Reasons include the proposed change will likely result in a loss of farmland, exacerbate flooding and erosion problems, and pose risks to water quality and ecosystem function.
Town of Franklin Planner Justin Setser offered up best practices that the county should also consider.
Vice Chair Lee Walters provided his own review of the FDPO, calling for any changes to be consistent with the original objectives. Pointing out a number of areas where proposed modifications would be inconsistent, he also remarked upon the “poorly written” ordinance stating, “There are too many Swiss cheese holes in this thing. You could be a dirt contractor and build a pyramid on a quarter of land and not have any conflict with the [proposed] ordinance as it currently stands.”
He viewed the debate as, “an opportunity beyond what has already been proposed.”
“The commissioners have to vote on this; it’s still an open issue,” said McLarney at the close of the November planning board meeting. “We are here to help the county get it right.”
For those interested in reading the full reports provided by the Water Quality Advisory Committee, visit here or here.