Tax change could preserve mountain land

Last August, Buncombe County mailed out its first tax bills reflecting the new land reevaluations and the new tax rate. After two appeals, taxes [on our property] went up an average of 329 percent.

We live on Cisco Mountain, facing the Blue Ridge Parkway, and have enjoyed this land for years. I have hiked all over it and seen bear, fox, possum, great horned owls, red-tailed hawks and pileated woodpeckers. I have enjoyed an ever-changing carpet of plants including blue violet, nightshade, beardtongue and spurge. I have even found an arrowhead. In the winter from the ridge, you have beautiful views in both directions.

When mountaintop land gets taxed as development land, many landowners have no choice but to sell or develop. There is no hope of preserving this area’s majestic mountains without new tax policy and ideas.

Tennessee has a Greenbelt Law that creates a tax reduction for persons owning between three and 1,500 acres who “dedicate their property to farm, forestry or open space uses.” Owners either execute a perpetual open-space easement or their land must be part of a plan for preservation approved by a state or local planning agency. In return, the land is taxed at 25 percent of its “use” value—much less than market value. (If subsequently sold for development, for example, the seller pays a sizeable rollback tax.) Adopting such a forward-thinking tax policy is one important way we could publicly recognize the importance of preserving our mountains.

Mountain land close to Asheville is particularly at risk, having been evaluated based on surrounding sales in the expensive valleys below. Several conservation groups are working to preserve the mountains outside Buncombe County, but I know of just one (underfunded) group, Asheville’s Green, which is working to preserve green space and some mountain views within the city.

One recent property development, Falcon Ridge, near the top of Cisco Road in Haw Creek, reveals what may lie ahead: On slopes of over 30 percent or more, the city is allowing 37 units on 42 acres. It is being cleared for lots, and after each major rainstorm, rivers of red-clay dirt run down Cisco Road to Haw Creek and then the Swannanoa River, choking the fish and other river wildlife. Perhaps Falcon Ridge will be the city’s equivalent of Reynolds Mountain: a wake-up call to the need to control steep-hillside development.

What can we do? Call each Buncombe County commissioner at 250-4001 and City Council member at 259-5600 to encourage them to adopt stronger land-use ordinances and create tax incentives for landowners to preserve their property. Encourage your state legislators to help landowners afford to conserve their land, and to increase funding for land preservation. Visit landfortomorrow.org for more information about conservation initiatives.

Contribute to Asheville’s Green, P.O. Box 8346, Asheville, NC 28814, to help the city buy up significant tracts of mountain land for public use (see www.ashevillesgreen.org). Visit blueridgeforever.org for more information about that group’s work.

Do this now, because it is these beautiful green mountains that make Asheville and Buncombe County the special place we call home!

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