Madison Planning Board forms ridge top subcommittee: Not as simple as 'save our ridges'
MARSHALL - In its first meeting since the commissioners broke up the county-formed ridge top work group and sent back the Planning Board's recommendations to the board, the Madison County Planning Board formed a ridge top subcommittee and set its first meeting date.
The subcommittee will hold a special meeting Friday, May 24, at noon in a conference room at the county commissioners' Elizabeth Lane offices.
The subcommittee will discuss amendments to the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance, which holds a 50-foot setback requirement for building on mountain ridges 3,000 feet and higher.
Planning Board Chair Jered Silver and other board members, including Clayton Honeycutt and Lee Wild, stressed the urgency of moving deliberately on the issue.
"I'm actually thankful the commissioners kicked it back to us, because instead of just dragging it out, we can get it done and we can do it in a way that makes sense for us," board member Clayton Honeycutt said.
"Let's put some meat on this puppy, and move forward. I made a lot of suggestions, and none of those are set in stone. All of them are up for discussion. But any of them will do better than the 50-foot setback, if we just pick one."
Honeycutt said the issue is more complicated than simply boiling it down to "save our ridges."
"I hear a lot from folks who want to save our ridges, and I understand that sentiment," Honeycutt said. "But there's a name associated with every one of those ridges. Traditional families that's owned that for generations. So we need to protect those property rights of those folks who may not have the resources to put a $1.4 million home on it.
"If we're saving these ridges, which I'm all for, then who are we saving them for, those few people that have made it through the gate, or those families that have been there all along. We didn't move here for the views. We fought for years just to try to keep them."
Silver said he "didn't see the point in taking more of individuals' rights."
"They've got as much right to build up there as anyone else," Silver said.
Honeycutt and Wilds said they'd like to see the issue of subdivisions be brought under control as well, an issue that Honeycutt discussed in the Planning Board's December meeting in which it voted to recommend the commissioners scrap the 50-foot setback requirement.
Silver also agreed with the idea of expanding regulation against subdivisions. The county currently has a subdivision control ordinance.
"But I will say, we don't want to make it so harsh that there is no development, because if there was no development for 50 years, a lot of people wouldn't be here," Silver said.
Honeycutt submitted his recommendations for a "Ridge Top Overlay District" in which he laid out a number of recommendations for controlling against subdivisions to the commissioners in the county's February meeting.
Honeycutt's recommendations are as follows:
Mandate rear lot line of 1,000 feet. Requiring the rear lot line to be a minimum amount will increase the potential homesite spacing throughout the ridge. This will have a far greater impact on any subdivision that may try to utilize ridge top development than our current regulation by itself.
Minimum lot size of 3.5 acres. This will provide for much less environmental impact from erosion. It will also decrease the aesthetic impact that high density development would create.
Require all subdivisions to utilize minimal street lighting beyond signage. This would limit light pollution along ridge tops and increase the overall harmony within the community.
Require subdivisions to create covenants that no exterior home lighting may be of photocell type.
Instead of allowing the clearing of 25% of the lot size, allow no disturbance beyond the homesite plus 25 feet beyond and driveway area. This will dramatically reduce the visual impact of homes in the overlay district.
No clear cutting of timber before a predetermined period prior to subdividing. This will prevent the potential developer from circumventing vegetation safeguards listed above.
Incorporate steep slope ordinance county wide.
"Subdivisions are the main offender here," Honeycutt said. "That's the one that everyone's going to see just constantly."
Wilds raised the idea of establishing side setback requirements as well to preserve ridge top views as much as possible.
"When we're in those protected ridge area, up those side setbacks," Wilds said. "If we make that front-back property line a minimum of 500 feet, 1,000 feet, whatever it is, then up those side setbacks to 100 feet. That way you can not have a house more than every 200 feet."
Like Honeycutt, Wilds said he felt the county was tasked with both protecting the ridges but also families' property rights.
"I think we're at a point right now where we have the opportunity to protect John Smith the homeowner or property owner, whether he's bought that, inherited that, whatever," Wilds said. "If what he's doing is building his house, family subdivision-type stuff, we have the opportunity to protect him. And we also have the opportunity to do what needs to be done with development.
"If we're talking Woodfin, if we just stayed within the regular subdivision ordinance, that's not going to happen. We don't have the infrastructure anywhere, especially over 3,000 feet, to put three or four houses on there. We don't have the sewage, the water. We couldn't do that. I completely agree with what Clayton said at the very first meeting that the 50-foot setback is a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Now let's do something."
The Madison County Planning Board's Ridge Top Subcommittee special meeting will take place at noon May 24 at 140 Elizabeth Lane in Marshall.
Johnny Casey has covered Madison County for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel for three years. He earned a first-place award in beat news reporting in the 2023 North Carolina Press Association awards. He can be reached at 828-210-6074 or jcasey@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Madison forms ridge top subcommittee as 50-foot setback issue looms
