Buncombe County Commission

Man and a plan: Zoning Administrator Jim Coman shows off Buncombe County’s draft zoning maps. photo by Jonathan Welch

After fussing and fighting over zoning for decades, Buncombe County residents had surprisingly little to say when confronted with an actual draft plan.

Only a few members of the public spoke up about zoning at the Board of Commissioners’ Jan. 2 meeting. Planning Director Jon Creighton and Zoning Administrator Jim Coman gave a briefing on what zoning would look like in the county.

Beginning Jan. 22, planning staffers will host a series of public meetings around the county to share the draft plan with residents and get their feedback (see box, “In the Zone”).

Meanwhile, every property owner in Buncombe County will soon be receiving a letter explaining how their land would be zoned under the draft rules and how they can appeal the designation.

“How many letters are you going to send out?” asked Commissioner David Gantt.

“One hundred fifteen thousand,” said Creighton.

Considering what a political hot potato this issue has been over the years, the unveiling of the draft zoning plan turned out to be a low-key event.

The most stringent zoning rules, Creighton explained, would apply to those parts of the county within the Metropolitan Sewerage District. The remaining 80 percent of the county would be designated “open-use zoning,” which would impose only limited restrictions on landowners, he said. Eleven special uses would require additional county approval, however, including incinerators, concrete plants, asphalt plants, amusement parks, chip mills, motor-sports facilities and recreational shooting ranges.

Rising to speak next, Jim Coman emphasized zoning’s value in protecting farmland and open space.

Board Chairman Nathan Ramsey, a Fairview dairy farmer and longtime zoning opponent, was dubious. “How are we steering development away from farmland with zoning?” he wondered. “With one-acre minimum lot sizes, a person could develop 100 homes on 100 acres. How is that steering development away from rural areas?”

“That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case,” conceded Coman, “but if you zone it right around farmland, and if you also acquire easements between developed areas and open farmland, then you can steer development away from farmland.”

“I think that’s a big issue,” said Ramsey. “A lot of people in the county, especially in Beaverdam and Limestone Township, have brought this to my attention.”

Coman added that any land with a “bona fide farming use” — a handful of chickens, a horse or two plus pasture — is exempt from zoning.

“We have an extreme number of stand-alone ordinances right now,” he noted. “About the only thing we don’t tell people is what zoning district they’re in. We have a lot of the elements that are in most zoning ordinances already.

“What zoning will not dictate is the color or size of your house,” said Coman. “We have no interest in aesthetic regulation.”

Under the proposed rules, new mobile-home parks would be considered a conditional use, and plans for them would have to gain the approval of both neighboring property owners and the county Board of Adjustment.

Nevertheless, said Coman, “Zoning will not eradicate mobile-home parks. What we’re seeing, with mobile-home parks moving out of this county, is simply the escalating value of the land.”

Disputing another common argument, Coman maintained that zoning would not “prevent” affordable housing, the lack of which he termed “a bigger and bigger problem in this county.” But he also noted that “some of the districts will regulate whether or not you can have a mobile home there” — the most affordable housing option for many property owners.

The Buncombe County Planning Board and planning staff will continue to revise the draft ordinance in response to public feedback. A final version could be ready for a vote by mid-April, said Coman, though he added, “I feel that’s an optimistic timetable.”

“The more public input we get, the better the ordinance we will come up with,” he said. “And [over time] there will be fewer complaints and appeals.”

During public comment later in the meeting, Elaine Lite pressed the board to adopt a stand-alone ordinance covering multifamily housing, such as condominiums and new apartment buildings. At their Dec. 5 meeting, the commissioners directed the county planning staff to draft such a law, but only if it would not slow the progress on zoning rules.

“Stand-alone ordinances are very questionable legally,” Commissioner David Gantt told Lite. “The General Assembly prefers zoning as a way of accomplishing this.”

Lite said the county hadn’t learned from the bevy of subdivision applications it received right before its steep-slope-development ordinance took effect last July. A number of those projects have sparked controversy.

“We’ve got to close this loophole,” she declared, urging the commissioners to enact a moratorium on multifamily residential construction until the new zoning rules can be passed.

The commissioners appeared unmoved by her pleas.

Bean counting

County Finance Director Donna Clark gave an upbeat assessment of fiscal year 2005-06, calling it “a very positive financial year.”

The county’s net assets total $73 million, she said, while 70 percent of the county’s debt, amounting to $137.8 million, is tied up in bond issues for the county schools, A-B Tech and the Asheville Regional Airport.

Net assets increased by $1.6 million, said Clark, which she attributed to Buncombe’s 98.9 percent tax-collection rate — the highest among comparable North Carolina counties. The icing on the cake, she added, was the fact that expenditures came in under budget.

In a follow-up report, Budget Officer Diane Masologites gave an update on the county’s $65.7 million investment portfolio.

And in other business, the board appointed Katheryn Gubista to the Land Conservation Advisory Board. At 6:15 p.m., the commissioners adjourned the meeting and went into closed session to consider a legal matter.

In the zone

Buncombe County will host seven meetings in the coming weeks to explain the new zoning plan and solicit feedback from residents. Here’s the schedule:

Monday, Jan. 22
Valley Springs Middle School

Tuesday, Jan. 23
Owen Middle School

Thursday, Jan. 25
Enka Middle School

Monday, Jan. 29
Reynolds Middle School

Tuesday, Jan. 30
Cane Creek Middle School

Thursday, Feb. 1
North Buncombe Middle School

Monday, Feb. 5
Erwin Middle School

Each meeting will be held in the school’s cafeteria, and county residents are encouraged to drop in anytime between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Staff will be available to answer questions about the zoning designations, and maps of all the proposed zoning districts will be on display. Maps will also be available for public inspection in the Planning Department offices (46 Valley St. in downtown Asheville).

For more information, contact the Planning Department at 250-4830.