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'Building a road by eye around
the mountain'
First reports from the 2008
Mountain Landscapes Initiative's charrette in western North
Carolina
‘The homes at the crest actually devalue the homes down below’
By Tom Bennett
Special to Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition,
Inc.
Cullowhee, N.C., May 14, 2008
– The blade of a bulldozer is an unforgiving thing, and once
you advance it on the side of a mountain and start scraping
off vegetation without any real plan, you are creating a
scalded surface that will take years to grow back.
This is the moment of destruction for that slope and
any stream below it. In the absence of any land-use planning
or enforcement of state regulations, as is commonplace out
here in the western part of the Tarheel state, one man can
spoil a 2,900-foot mountain and miles of stream. One man
can do that.
The mountains and streams do matter a lot, at least to
the people from all over this area who came here to Western
Carolina University to participate in the non-profit
Mountain Landscape Initiative and its week-long charrette, or series of workshops.
Does venting lead to real reform? Time will tell.
Perhaps the difference in this latest of many initiatives to
get modern government and land use out here is that the
sponsors videotaped the comments of dozens of people.
Surely this will bring to more decision makers a greater
understanding of the problems. See citizens’ testimonies
about what is needed to protect North Carolina’s mountains
and waters at
http://www.mountainlandscapesnc.org/info/day03.html
The passion that many feel about these issues was
apparent during the charrette.
“I’m from Clay County and I was watching the other day
as a man was building a road by eye around the mountain,”
said Jim Padgett, an architect.
“People feign ignorance about what they’re allowed to
do,” said Susan Ervin, a member of the Macon County Planning
Board in Franklin.
“The people who drive the backhoes don’t know the
rules,” said Roger Clapp, executive director of the
Watershed Association of the Tuckasagee River in Bryson
City.
ONE OF THE PLEASANT SURPRISES in these mountains is
that there are developers who apply conservation design
concepts to subdivision development voluntarily. They do so
at their own expense, even though the county they work in
lacks any ordinance requiring them to do it.
Tom Laskey is a land developer in Asheville who says he
has repeatedly run business-plan matrixes that show it is
more profitable to cooperate with, not sidestep, the
regulations.
“The homes at the crest actually devalue the homes down
below,” said Lasley.
He attended the charrette to tell western North Carolina
people to go to his web site and post comments to him
telling how to be more environmentally friendly as a
developer. This site is
www.lasleyconstructioncompany.com
If only all builders were like Tom Lasley.
Callie Moore of the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition
said builders traveling here from the sunshine state often
don’t adapt well.
“Erosion control measures that work in Florida don’t work
here,” Moore said.
In her view, three main environmental problems in the
mountains are:
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“lack of enforcement of existing erosion control and
stormwater rules;
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poor subdivision site design resulting in poor
development practices; and
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poor private access road design.”
A total of about 100 persons attended
hour-and-a-half-long water and mountains segments of the
Southwestern Commission of Sylva’s five-day event here. This
organization says when all this is over, it will present a
“tool box” of steps for local governments to voluntarily
take to achieve better government.
Forums in seven counties and the Qualla Boundary of the
Cherokee Indians preceded this culminating event.
‘OH, THAT'S JUST RED WATER’
Among other comments and news developments from various
persons around the meeting room today:
“We need to get to the point where each county is in
charge of its own destiny.”
“Our newspaper in Cashiers asked, ‘Where does our water
come from?’ And the answer was, ‘Nobody knows.’ The source
of our water is a rather mysterious thing.”
“The two Jackson County commissioners (who supported
passage last year of its historic steep-slope and
subdivision ordinances) were re-elected, and so the
ordinances are safe for another two years (when two other
seats on the commission will be contested).”
“Counties ought to hold seminars and certify citizens to
be observers and check on water-quality issues.” (Callie
Moore thinks that counties would be better served to spend
their time implementing the regulatory programs locally,
instead of training citizens to call the state.)
“We need a tool box that reduces the adversarial nature
of protecting water quality.”
“Roads need to be engineered so fire trucks can get up to
homes and put out fires.”
“How did we get to this? I mean, where there are high
mountain developments versus the traditional communities
down in the valley.”
“(To learn how to achieve reform here in western North
Carolina) go to Colorado and get information from there and
other places telling how this has been done.”
“There are stormwater requirements here only if the
developer wants to do that.”
“(In trying to limit development and protect the slopes)
you’re up against people who have got a major investment in
them and are looking for a major return.”
“We have not been able to get a transfer tax in North
Carolina, and so the cost of the services (of homes on the
mountains) falls on the general population of the county.”
“Boone passed a watered-down steep slope ordinance.”
“The (multi-story) Sugartop Hotel in Boone led to the
Mountain Ridge Protection Act of 1983.
“Wind power is an alternative to coal in the mountains…
The Tennessee Valley Authority has a pilot wind power
program on Buffalo Mountain.”
“The Land-of-Sky Regional Council has model ordinances
that counties and cities can adopt.”
Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River operates
a “mud meter” on Scotts Creek in Sylva:
http://watrnc.org/
Macon County’s Planning Board asked a developer how so
much sediment got into a river near his project. “Oh,
that’s just red water,” he replied.
“Water groups can do two things: they can educate and
they can enhance.”
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Tom Bennett of the Martins Creek community west
of Murphy is a board member and a volunteer for Hiwassee River
Watershed Coalition.
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