MINUTES
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
COUNTY OF HENDERSON DECEMBER 7, 1998
The Henderson County
Board of Commissioners met for a regularly scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. (on
December 7, 1998) in the Commissioners= Conference Room of the Henderson County Office Building.
Those present were:
Commissioner Grady Hawkins, Commissioner Bill Moyer, Commissioner Renee Kumor,
Commissioner Don Ward, Commissioner Marilyn Gordon, County Manager David E.
Nicholson, Assistant County Manager Angela Skerrett Beeker, County Attorney Don
H. Elkins, and Clerk to the Board Elizabeth W. Corn.
Also present were:
Finance Director J. Carey McLelland, Planning Director Matt Matteson, County
Engineer Gary Tweed, Public Information Officer Chris Coulson, Staff Attorney
Jennifer O. Jackson, County Planner Karen Collins.
CALL TO
ORDER/WELCOME
Clerk to the Board
Elizabeth W. Corn called the meeting to order on behalf of the County
Commissioners and welcomed those in attendance.
PLEDGE OF
ALLEGIANCE
Commissioner Grady
Hawkins led the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.
INVOCATION
Rev. Charles Evans,
Minister from Pinecrest Presbyterian Church, gave the invocation.
SWEARING IN -
Oaths of Office for Newly Elected County Commissioners
Tommy Thompson,
Clerk of Superior Court for Henderson County swore in the following
Commissioners: Donald Grady
Ward, III, re-elected
William L. Moyer, newly elected
Marilyn Gordon, newly elected
Family members held
the Bibles for some of the Commissioners.
Mr. Thompson then
swore in the newly elected Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisors:
Mr. Joe Lee Heffner
Andrew C. Brannon
ELECTION OF
CHAIRPERSON
Ms. Corn announced
that the first order of business was the election of a chairperson. She opened the floor to nominations.
Commissioner Moyer
nominated Commissioner Hawkins for Chairman.
Commissioner Ward made the motion that nominations cease. All voted in favor and the motion carried. Ms. Corn asked all in favor of Grady Hawkins
as the new Chairman to raise their hand.
The vote was unanimous and Ms. Corn turned the meeting over to Chairman
Grady Hawkins. Chairman Hawkins stated that it would be his honor to serve as
the Chairman, stating it was a very important day for him and for Henderson
County. The Board took a minute to move
about and change chairs.
ELECTION OF
VICE-CHAIRMAN
Chairman Hawkins
nominated Bill Moyer for Vice-Chairman.
Commissioner Kumor made the motion that the nominations cease. All voted
in favor and the motion carried.
Chairman Hawkins moved that the Board accept Commissioner Moyer by
acclamation. All voted in favor and the
motion carried.
CHAIRMAN -
Announcement
Chairman Hawkins
explained the two sign-up times in this agenda. Informal Public Comments will immediately follow the
Discussion/Adjustment of the Agenda and twenty minutes have been set aside for
that. Input will be limited to three
minutes each during that time period.
The second sign-up
time is for a Public Hearing at 7:00 p.m. on the moratorium. Public comments will be taken regarding the
moratorium at that time.
Chairman Hawkins
welcomed Representative Larry Justice and his wife Carolyn to the meeting.
DISCUSSION/ADJUSTMENT
OF THE AGENDA
Commissioner Kumor
stated that she had sent a memo to all the Commissioners regarding Acharting our course@ and suggested planning a retreat. She asked that it be added as a Discussion
Item to the agenda - it was added as item AD@ under Discussion Items.
Commissioner Ward
asked that one item be added under Update on Pending Issues - an update on the
permit situation for manufactured homes and the raceway. It was added as item
#2.
There were no other
adjustments requested. It was the
consensus of the Board to approve the above adjustments to the agenda.
INFORMAL
PUBLIC COMMENTS
1. Bill Eadie - Mr.
Eadie distributed petitions signed by 950 concerned residents of north
Henderson County in opposition to the racetrack. He is a representative of the North Henderson County Communities
Association. Many of these are your
citizens who became frightened by the threat to their quality of life, their
property values, the beauty of their area, the right to worship in peace and
frankly their safety. He asked the
Board to please do the right thing and stop the racetrack.
2. Kay Blackwell - Ms. Blackwell distributed a couple of
letters to the Board and expressed environmental concerns. The track is to be built in the flood plain
and the ramifications of that could be devastating to the environment. She requested the Board extend the
moratorium on the racetrack to allow for more public input and more research of
options.
3. Anthony
Peranio - Mr. Peranio read
an example of an ordinance based upon the General Statutes of North Carolina - AThis ordinance hereby prohibits the operation
of a racetrack, speedway, dragstrip, vehicular test tract or like installation
anywhere within the land area under the jurisdiction of Henderson County since
the operation of such an installation will be amicable to the public health,
welfare, safety, or convenience on the residents of the county@. Mr.
Peranio stated that such an ordinance would benefit all the residents of our
county in one way or another.
Commissioner Ward
stated that he felt there was a misunderstanding. When the Board put in place the moratorium it was on a noise
ordinance on a variety of issues and the racetrack just happened to be one of
them.
4. Dorothy
Freeman - Ms. Freeman is a
farmer located close to the proposed racetrack. She has farmed her property for 46.5 years. She stated that she currently has the only
access to Mr. Hyder=s
property which is 18 feet wide. 5,000
vehicles would come over this access to the racetrack. She stated that this is a moral issue. The racetrack would be in a flood plain and
over a natural gas line that has been there for 36 years. Mud Creek joins the
property and sometimes the floodwaters are 8 feet deep. She had brought a video of flooding in that
area for the Board=s
review.
5. Janis Moore - Ms. Moore lives on Howard Gap Road, within
l mile of the proposed racetrack. She
is a member of the North Henderson County Community Association. She has been an active realtor in Henderson
County for 20 years. She brought a map
with her with a two mile radius drawn and a five mile radius drawn around the
proposed track. She stated that the
five mile radius would take in half of Henderson County. A two mile radius would take in over 1,400
real estate parcels, 7 churches, Park Ridge Hospital, Heritage Hills Retirement
Center, Fletcher Park Inn, 6 Assisted Living and Nursing Homes. She asked the Board to consider the feelings
of thousands of residents that chose Henderson County because they wanted the
peace and quiet of a small town instead of a large city.
CONSENT AGENDA
Commissioner Kumor
made the motion to approve the consent agenda.
All voted in favor and the motion carried. The CONSENT AGENDA consisted of the following:
Bond Approval for
County Officials
Pursuant to the
Board=s Rules of Procedure, the second order of
business of this organizational meeting of the Board is the annual review and
approval of the bonds for county officials.
The only officials required to be bonded are the following:
George H. Erwin, Sheriff
Nedra Whitlock Moles, Register of Deeds
Terry F. Lyda, Tax Collector
J. Carey McLelland, Finance Director
The bonds and
certain correspondence related to the bonds for the above-referenced officials
were included in the agenda packet for board review. The Staff Attorney had reviewed the bonds and reported to the
Board that they appear to be valid and in order.
Minutes
Minutes were
presented to the Board for review and approval of the following meeting(s):
October 21, 1998
Road Petitions
Staff had received
road petitions for the following roads to be added to the State Maintenance
System: 1. Katie Drive
2.
Red Fox Trail
Court
3.
Tall Pines Road
It has been the
practice of this Board to accept road petitions and forward them to NC
Department of Transportation for their review.
Tax Collector=s Report
Terry F. Lyda, Tax
Collector, provided the Tax Collector=s Report for the Board=s review.
Henderson County
Public Schools Financial Report - October 1998
The October
Henderson County Public Schools Financial report was provided for the Board=s information only.
Henderson County
Financial Report - October 1998
The October
Henderson County Financial Report was provided for the Board=s information only.
NOMINATIONS
Chairman Hawkins
reminded the Board of the following vacancies and opened the floor to
nominations:
1. Nursing/Adult
Care Home Community Advisory Committee - 4 vac.
The Board could
appoint to positions #18 and # 20, but can only nominate to positions #14 and
#23. There were no nominations at this
time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
2. Henderson
County Zoning Board of Adjustment - 6 vac.
1 regular member
(Kanuga area)
3 alternates: East
Flat Rock area
Lake Summit area
Bearwallow area
Two terms expire
12/31/98. (Tamra Crane and Keith
Shelley)
Commissioner Kumor
nominated Tamra Crane. Commissioner
Ward nominated Keith Shelley.
Commissioner Kumor made the motion to suspend the rules and appoint
these two. All voted in favor and the
motion carried.
3. Hendersonville
City Zoning Board of Adjustment - 1 vac. (alternate)
There were no
nominations at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
4. Henderson
County Hospital Corporation Board of Directors - 3 vac.
Terms expire
12/31/98.
There were six
nominees at the last meeting: Bill Dunn, Bill Blalock, Charlie Waters, Dr.
Caldemeyer, William Jamison, and Dan Waddell.
Commissioner Kumor
questioned here whether the Board would want to discuss Boards that the
Commissioners have someone sitting on in a retreat setting, (#4 Henderson
County Hospital Corporation Board of Directors, and #5 Henderson County Travel
& Tourism Committee). She asked that any appointments be rolled until after
holding a retreat.
Commissioner Kumor
had been informed by the County Manager that there was a question raised about her
nominee, Dr. Caldemeyer. Commissioner
Hawkins had raised the issue earlier with the County Manager about Dr.
Caldemeyer=s contractual agreement with Pardee Hospital.
Jennifer Jackson
stated that it was her understanding that Dr. Caldemeyer does have a
contractual relationship with Pardee Hospital and as such it would be a
conflict of interest for him to sit on the Board of Trustees.
Commissioner Kumor
asked if the Board felt it was important to have a physician on that Board. She
wondered what the Hospital Board would think of having a physician sitting on
the Board. Chairman Hawkins is
currently on the Hospital Board. There
is physician representation on the Board but not a voting member.
Commissioner Kumor
stated that over time we have all come to appreciate the value of Mr. Jamison
and she asked if it would be agreeable to the Board to name Mr. Jamison as a
Member Ameritus to the Board of the Pardee Hospital. In light of this, Commissioner Ward withdrew his nomination of
William Jamison to the Hospital Corporation Board of Directors and supported
such action. It was the consensus of
the Board that Mr. Jamison be appointed as a Member Ameritus and Chairman
Hawkins asked that the County Manager draw up that type documentation for the
next meeting.
Commissioner Moyer
stated that a resolution that appeared to be adopted by this Board sets up the
composition of the Board of Trustees. It designates pretty clearly where the
categories of people would come from and its not optional but mandatory that
the Board follow it in appointing people to the Hospital Board of
Trustees. It states that four trustees
will occupy undesignated positions, three will be business/professional, one
from a governmental agency, one medical/professional, one community health care
provider, and one County Commissioner may be appointed. He wondered whether anyone had taken a look
to see how we=re lining up with respect to what appears to
be what the Board said they would do in designating people for this Board.
Chairman Hawkins
stated that those were areas the Board was certainly targeting but he believed
it was the intent of the Board to have it as a general guideline for
establishing Board membership and not a mandatory thing.
Chairman Hawkins
stated that there now appear to be four nominees for the three positions.
Commissioner Kumor
raised the question of whether to throw the Commissioners= seat into the pot, making four
vacancies. Commissioner Hawkins had
been serving during the organization of the Hospital Corporation and now the
Board may choose to appoint or to not appoint a Commissioner to the Board of
Trustees.
Commissioner Moyer
stated that he felt this was a definite item for discussion at a Board Retreat
- to discuss what the roles are for Commissioners on Boards and which Boards
they should be on and not.
Chairman Hawkins
asked Ms. Corn to poll the Board for three appointments from the four nominees:
Bill Dunn, Bill Blalock, Charlie Waters, and Dan Waddell.
Ms. Corn polled the Board with each Commissioner getting three
votes. Both Bill Dunn and Dan Waddell
got four votes each so they will serve on the Hospital Board of Trustees. Ms. Corn was directed to poll the Board at the
next meeting for a tie breaker between Bill Blalock and Charlie Waters.
5. Henderson
County Travel & Tourism Committee - 4 vac.
Commissioner Ward
and Commissioner Moyer serve on this Board.
They are currently reworking the memorandum of understanding and the
committee is looking at it. He asked
that the Board roll this one until the next meeting so they can review the new
memorandum of understanding to see if there are any changes the Board would
like to be made.
Commissioner Moyer
stated that one of the key things that needs to be resolved is the potential
liability of members of that Board. He
had asked the Staff Attorney to research that issue.
Jennifer Jackson
informed the Board that the Travel & Tourism Committee is covered under the
County=s Insurance Policy. There is coverage for both the Board members and the staff and
under a separate policy, the volunteers.
TENNIS SHELTER
DONATION
David Nicholson
advised the Board that the Henderson County Men=s Tennis Association had offered to provide the funds to design and
construct a small shelter at Jackson Park.
This shelter would be near the tennis courts and would serve as an area
for tournament registration, shade and picnicking. The members of the Association are willing to donate the funds in
memory of Walt Barilari. Mr. Barilari
was a member of this group who died this past summer.
The Board was given
a picture of the proposed shelter and a site map.
The Parks and
Recreation Advisory Board had recommended that the Board of Commissioners
accept this donation and construct this shelter.
Commissioner Moyer
made the motion that the Board follow the recommendation of the Parks and
Recreation Advisory Board and accept this donation and build this shelter. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
CONTRACT FOR
PLANNING SERVICES
Matt Matteson
reminded the Board that in June of 1998, the Board of Commissioners approved a Aproject position@ in the Planning Department=s budget that was requested with the
intention of putting that person in charge of rewriting the County=s Zoning Ordinance, a document which had not
been Aoverhauled from cover to cover@ since it was adopted in 1981. This past summer they advertised for such a
position but quickly found that filling the job would be difficult due to the
temporary nature of the position (one year) and the shortage of qualified
planners in the job market.
Staff has been
negotiating a service contract with Benchmark, Inc., a private planning firm
that specializes in writing and revising such ordinances. Benchmark has recently completed a similar
zoning ordinance rewrite for Iredell County and is capable of doing the project
in a timely manner. The Planning Board
reviewed and endorsed the Benchmark proposal at their November 20th
meeting noting that it was important that the Planning Board offer Aup-front@ overall policy direction on the ordinance rewrite project.
Funds for the
project are available and would be taken directly from the lapsed salaries for
the project position. If the proposal
is accepted by the County, work could begin in early 1999.
Commissioner Moyer
made the motion to accept staff=s recommendation and authorize the County Manager to enter into a
contract with Benchmark. All voted in
favor and the motion carried.
Recess
Chairman Hawkins
called a 10 minute recess.
PUBLIC HEARING
- To Consider an Ordinance Imposing a Moratorium on the Development of
Manufactured Home Parks in Henderson County, NC
Commissioner Ward
made the motion for the Board to go into public hearing. All voted in favor and the motion
carried.
Jennifer Jackson
reminded the Board that on November 18, 1998, the Board of Commissioners set a
public hearing on a proposed moratorium on the development or expansion of
manufactured home parks in Henderson County.
The public hearing was scheduled for this evening and was advertised on
November 23, 1998 and November 30, 1998, in accordance with applicable
law. The proposed moratorium is for a
six month period (to expire at midnight on June 7, 1999 if adopted tonight)
during which time any development or expansion of manufactured home parks would
be prohibited. The purpose of the
moratorium was to give the Board a reasonable amount of time to consider an
ordinance which would regulate manufactured home parks.
This public hearing
was being held to receive public comment on the adoption of the proposed
moratorium. On December 1, 1998, the
Planning Board considered the proposed moratorium but voted to send an
unfavorable recommendation to the Board of Commissioners.
Public Input
Chairman Hawkins
stated that there are about 26 - 30 people signed up to speak. He asked that each person limit their
comments to about three minutes. He
also encouraged that a single person could speak for a group of people and
would be appreciated.
1. Nathan Ward - Mr. Ward lives on Jackson Road and has
been there for 19 1/2 years. He stated
that the trailer parks were too many people, overloading the schools and lots
of other stuff that the taxpayers have to provide. He asked the Board to vote in favor of the people on Jackson
Road.
2. Susan Ward - Ms. Ward just stated that she agreed with
Mr. Ward=s comments.
3. Jim Clayton - Mr. Clayton lives on Flynn Branch Road,
off Jackson Road. He thanked the Board
for the opportunity to speak and welcomed the new Commissioners to the
Board. He asked the Board to consider
vested rights of the citizens of the area and asked the Board if they could
ignore those vested rights. He reminded the Board that they represent the
majority of the people here tonight and those people want a six month
moratorium on manufactured home parks to give them time to get a level of
protection that the Commissioners already enjoy.
4. Sheila
Franklin - Ms. Franklin
lives on Jackson Road in Fletcher. She
lives across the street from where there is a proposed 240 mobile home park and
just a half mile up the road from that there is a proposed 440 mobile home
park. Both these developers have
already put in for their sewer permit.
She spoke to density issues stating that the school they now have has a
capacity of 500 and they are already over capacity by about 50 students. She also spoke to the issues of traffic and
crime.
5. Dottie
Effinger - Ms. Effinger did
not speak.
6. Lane Godsey - Mr. Godsey spoke on behalf of himself and
also reflected the views and beliefs of some 400 parcel owners who have signed
a Zoning Application submitted today.
He urged the Board to adopt the 6 month moratorium and to extend to the
City of Hendersonville the suggestion that they do likewise as regards the
water permits for that same period of time.
He asked for those in the audience who were in favor of the moratorium
to indicate by raising their hands. It
was the majority of people in the audience.
He spoke about the
two massive mobile home parks that are planned for their community. They have water and sewer going out to an
unzoned area. The result of that is
that the land is unregulated. He spoke in opposition to the massive unregulated
nature of these proposed parks.
7. Paul Prosky - Mr. Prosky is the developer of a mobile
home community in Hendersonville called White Oak Park. He stated that they
have a lovely community and the residents seem to be happy there. He is also
President of the Western North Carolina Manufactured Housing Association. He spoke briefly in that capacity. He stated that they would prefer not to have
a moratorium on the development of manufactured home parks. They feel that there would be economic and
social consequences from cutting off this affordable housing. If there is a moratorium, they would like
to see manufactured housing treated equally with site built housing. If there
is a moratorium on the development of manufactured home parks, they would like
to see the same moratorium apply to any site build housing developments. What=s to stop a site builder from putting in a
similar number of units in exactly the same piece of land.
8. Vito
Montaperto - Mr. Montaperto
owns Dana Hills Community in Hendersonville and developed it. He spoke in opposition to the moratorium
from a fairness issue. Over the last 2
weeks he has received about 13 phone calls from individuals he could not help,
individuals wanting to place their mobile home on leased land with
families. Mr. Montaperto developed a
retirement community. He gets calls
like this all the time. He stated that
the need is there. He has lived in this
area over 23 years.
9. Roger Wolff - Mr. Wolff lives in the Town of
Fletcher. He is not an out of town
developer. He is the developer of the
proposed 250 unit mobile home park on Jackson Road. He was speaking for himself only. He stated that he has been working on this property for several
months and has not tried to conceal his intentions. The previous owner had contacted others to develop it before his
agreement to acquire the property. He
has talked to the water people, the sewer people, the State people, a myriad of
people. He stated that he had acted in
good faith on the rules and regulations that were in place and are in place
now. He has made significant
commitments based on those rules. He stated that to stop him now would be very
detrimental and it would also deprive a goodly number of people in the long run
of a number of very attractive places to live. Mr. Wolff did state that he supports a mobile home park ordinance
and supports zoning. He feels that they
are long past due. But a moratorium is
something that he strongly opposes. He
stated that a moratorium was in essence rezoning, at least for the period of
time that the moratorium is in effect. He stated that if the Board wants to
change the rules for manufactured housing parks or establish rules, he stressed
that the Board needs to follow the notices, the hearing procedures, the Board
input procedures and the vote by this group of Commissioners. He requested:
1. The Board vote not to have a moratorium tonight
2. That we proceed in reasoning and in judgement according to
prescribed procedures
to establish a mobile home
park ordinance and zoning.
10. Monty Baker - Mr. Baker is a resident of Jackson
Road. He spoke on behalf of some of his
neighbors. He is a general contractor
and developer. He had a copy of the
Henderson County Land Development Ordinance - its stated purpose is ATo establish procedures and standards for the
development and subdivision of land within the jurisdiction of the County of
Henderson. It is further designed to
provide for the orderly growth and development of Henderson County by promoting
environmental quality, protecting and enhancing property ownership and land
values, coordinating and preservation of street and road rights-of-way with
existing and proposed roads, providing adequate light, air, and open space and
generally creating conditions essential to public health, safety, and welfare.
This ordinance is designed to further facilitate adequate provision of water
and sewerage and also to facilitate the further resubdivision of larger tracts
into smaller parcels of land.@ He stated that under the
General Statutes of North Carolina a development of manufactured housing for
rent does not fall under the definition and the purpose of the Henderson County
Land Development Ordinance. It was his
strong opinion that it should or at least language of equal strength should be
enacted to protect both the residents of such a community and the residents of
the surrounding communities. He urged
the Board to proceed with endorsing and supporting this moratorium so that the
Planning Board can reconsider and re-evaluate this whole issue.
11. George Erwin,
Jr. - Sheriff Erwin
congratulated the new Commissioners, stating that their plate is already full
with this issue tonight. He spoke not
as the Sheriff but as a Fletcher resident for the past 20 years. He stated that there is a dire need for affordable
housing but he stated that we must be careful of what we do to preserve the
quality of life that we have. He spoke about the numbers of people that tell
him that they moved to this area for the quality of life. He spoke briefly as
to what a steward is, stating that the Commissioners (and himself) are
stewards. He also spoke briefly to the
definition of a community. He asked the
Board to be cautious and not over-react. He said ALet=s take some time and find solutions that
everybody can work with.@
12. Charles
Messer - Mr. Messer is a
Fletcher Councilman but spoke tonight as a resident of the Town of
Fletcher. He requested the county adopt
a moratorium on proposed manufactured home parks. He stated that if we average 2 2 citizens per home, we would increase our population by more than 1,587
new residents. These two developments
would increase our population by approx. 48%.
He expressed concern about the added need for roads, schools, etc. The Town of Fletcher is currently in the
process of changing their requirements for a conditional use for manufactured
homes. Some of the items they are
looking at are limiting the density to 30 units per park, limiting four units
per acre, and requiring that all new manufactured home parks cannot be any
closer than one mile from any existing park.
The Planning Board has already made this recommendation to the Council
and they will hold a public hearing on December 14 to discuss these
matters. Fletcher is also working on an
ETJ in the area in question. He asked
the Board to please support the moratorium to allow the proper planning and land
use controls to be put in effect before our county becomes a hodge podge of
developments which will put a strain on all our limited resources.
13 Annissa
Barnwell - Ms. Barnwell did
not speak.
14. Neil Barnwell - Mr. Barnwell did not speak.
15. Franklin
Donovan - Mr. Donovan did
not speak
16. David Nichols - Mr. Nichols did not speak.
17. Carol Fonte - Ms. Fonte lives on Yellowstone Drive in
Fletcher. She would like to see
controlled growth, not this influx that is devastating on our schools, our road
system, etc. She would like to see
Hoopers Creek stay the kind of community that it is.
18. Ken Cawthorne - Mr. Cawthorne lives in Fletcher on
Mountain Laurel Lane. He spoke for
eight families who live off Mountain Laurel Lane. He felt that a moratorium is justified.
19. Ruth Baker - Ms. Baker did not speak.
20. Eugene Baker - Mr. Baker did not speak.
21. Cameron
Garren - Mr. Garren did not
speak.
22. Dick Lantrip - Mr. Lantrip represented the High Vista
Property Owners Association. He stated
that the County has the same obligation and responsibilities toward
manufactured home park development as it does toward any other type of
residential development within the county.
Apparently it is falling somewhat behind. He expressed that the unregulated mobile home parks in the county
are of no benefit to anyone, even those living in them. He stated that without the controls on
manufactured home parks that the other types of quality residential
developments are certainly going to be discouraged. He urged the Commissioners
to pass a moratorium ordinance tonight.
He also asked that for the proposed moratorium on manufactured home park
development be highly scrutinized to consider all the permits that have been
issued within the recent reasonable time, a week, 10 days, a month, 2 months,
that development construction has not yet started, that those fall under this
moratorium ordinance and have to cease and desist until the end of this
moratorium period.
23. Doug Lassiter - Mr. Lassiter has lived in the Hoopers
Creek community for 15 years. His views
have already been expressed. He asked
for the Board=s support on a six month moratorium.
24. Bob Parrish - Mr. Parrish is the Mayor of the Town of
Fletcher. He congratulated the two new
Commissioners and thanked the Board for the opportunity to speak. He stated that the Fletcher Town Council and
himself fully support the Hoopers Creek people in their endeavor to try to seek
this moratorium on trailers. If that
is not possible, he asked for an interim zoning ordinance which would establish
a status quo and would give an opportunity to then plan and produce a permanent
zoning ordinance, county wide. He
thinks the county needs this.
25. Phil Monk - Mr. Monk is a resident of Mountain Laurel
Lane in the Hoopers Creek community. He
asked the Board to protect the citizens= rights of Henderson County.
26. Boyd Massagee - Mr. Massagee spoke representing Suzanne
Tiller and certain others in the group.
He asked the Board two questions - AIf you really have no problem about any of the issues that have been
raised with you by either side, if you don=t see there=s a
safety, fire, police protection, density of the area, if none of those in your
minds are significant concerns then I think you just need to deny the
moratorium and go ahead and do something else after this meeting. If any of them bear any merit. If you care what the Planning Board is that
you all have appointed and your predecessors appointed, if you care what they
think, I have a hard time finding any reason not to declare the moratorium and
give them an opportunity to make a decision, make an investigation and then
either at that time say no we=re not going pass an ordinance or pass one. But if you=ve got a question about whether you should do something or not it=s a serious question, I have a real hard time
saying I=m categorically going to go this way without
more study, unless you are real real sure that=s the right way.
Second item that I
would raise with you is the question that I=ve been told by my people has been raised, not infrequently, and that
is about the question of whether or not there is a right on the part of Mr.
Wolff to do anything. Does he have the
so called vested right. As you know
there are two ways that can happen. You=ve got an ordinance passed and simply
provides that if you want to get and determine if you have a vested right for
any kind of a project you can come to you with a written documentation and
certain specifications in there and you have a right to hold a hearing, got to
hold a hearing first under your ordinance, then you gotta pass the
determination of yes that=s gonna be a vested right. If
that=s done and you have the hearing and you so
pass then that person has a vested right.
If you don=t do
that, he still have responsibility under what we call the old common law, that
is the law before you pass the ordinance - to the effect that he=s got to go so far in a project - you all cannot say when he=s 9/10 through you can=t do this, we=re not going to let you do that.
The court said his rights are vested.
I suspect everybody in the room knows that. The questions to me that I wanted you to look at are these -
under the law there is a burden on Mr. Wolff to show you that he has a vested
interest. I couldn=t help but get intrigued with the parallel of
the basketball franchise and yet I ain=t heard no evidence about him buying a franchise, hadn=t heard any evidence about him hiring a
player, I hadn=t heard any evidence about him buying a
uniform and I ain=t
heard he=s bought up the first basketball yet. Now he may have a contract to buy some
property, may have talked to, I was intrigued with his verbiage - I talked to
the water people, I talked to the sewer people. You gotta get a permit from these kinda folks. And categorically and clearly our courts have
said not only do you have to apply for them, you=ve got to get these permits before you=re gonna be vested. I have
handed to your City Attorney or County Attorney just a little brief - which - I
suspect she knows the law more than I do.
She=s gonna present to you her thoughts I assume
at the end. I would ask her to give you
a letter if you would to hand up - I=ve got a copy of that for each of you all. You=re
gonna find, the new ones are gonna find and the old ones remember that you go
out of here with more paper than you came in with and if you=re short of paper I just wanted to help you
and make sure you had enough. I don=t think there=s any question about the fact that this man does not have a vested right
and I would ask you to declare a moratorium.
Thank you.@
Staff Comments
Jennifer Jackson
informed the Board that staff met the end of the week last week. She informed the Board that there are
approx. 250 manufactured home parks in the county. Our health department is getting approx. 100 improvement permits
monthly, which is an improvement to put in a septic tank and of those, approx.
60 end up in the inspections office for set up permits for manufactured
homes. Of those, about 35 end up with
actual completed manufactured home complete installations. The manufactured home industry is seeing a
fairly substantial increase in Henderson County. She stated that it was perfectly appropriate for the Board to
consider a manufactured home park ordinance to address many of the concerns
that have been expressed to the Board this evening. Since we have so many manufactured home parks and to date there
has not been any regulation of them, except perhaps in the zoning areas, you
can essentially have a piece of property in the unzoned area, apply to get a
septic tank permit and get an electrical pole put on and you are capable of
putting a manufactured home on that space.
Because there is a distinction between an actual unit and a space, staff
had proposed changes in the proposed moratorium.
Ms. Jackson asked
the Board whether they wished to regulate spaces or actual manufactured home
units. They would be treated
differently. Staff proposed that the
Board regulate spaces. One of the
reasons for that is that under the proposed manufactured home park ordinance
you are regulating spaces. Anybody that
has a space would be grandfathered and therefore not subject to the new
regulations. If you regulate spaces it
becomes a little bit harder to enforce or administer because it is harder to
identify on the ground where the actual spaces are.
She reviewed two
definitions that were proposed to be added to the proposed moratorium:
AManufactured Home@ means a dwelling unit typically built in
accordance with construction requirements of the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) Housing Code, but not constructed in accordance with
the standards set forth in the North Carolina State Building Code, and which is
composed of one or more sections, each of which was substantially assembled in
a manufacturing plant and which is designed to be transported to the home site
on its own chassis, and which, in the traveling mode, is more than forty feet
in length or more than eight feet in width, and which is designed to be used as
a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the
required utilities, and which includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning
and electrical systems contained therein.
AManufactured Home Space@means an area of land within a Manufactured
Home Park designed for the exclusive use of one Manufactured Home and
associated accessory buildings and which shall be defined on the ground by the
presence of water and sewer service connections and electric service equipment,
collectively referred to as ARequisite Utility Connections@. A lot or lot of record, as
those terms are defined in Section 170-5(B) of the Henderson County Code,
without the Requisite Utility Connections shall not establish a Manufactured
Home Space.
Permits that would
be permitted under the moratorium would be septic tank permits, the improvement
permits issued by the Health Department because they are not under the Board=s jurisdiction to administer or to dictate to
them what they can and cannot permit.
Well permits because they are issued by the Health Department and
governed by the Board of Health. Any permits that the state would issue such as
a discharge permit for a wastewater treatment package plant. Sedimentation, erosion, and control permits
which would be issued by the state, we have no control over that and therefore
this moratorium would not govern. Any
City sewer and water permits. The Board
does not have jurisdiction to control those matters. Any other permit that would be issued by another local government
would not be affected by this moratorium.
At this time, Ms.
Jackson distributed the memo to the Commissioners from Boyd Massagee regarding
vested rights. He relayed to the Board
two types of ways a developer can obtain a vested right. One is through the vested rights ordinance
which the Board is charged with administering.
The other is the common law vested rights which is where determination
would have to be made based on substantial expenditures and good faith and
reliance on a governmental approval for a project. Ms. Jackson stated that another way to establish a vested right
is through a building permit. If a
building permit or a set up permit has been issued that grants them a vested
right to continue with that project to completion.
Speaking to the
vested rights in this particular case, Ms. Jackson was not sure that staff had
a completed application yet from the developer and therefore she encouraged the
Board hold any discussion on that until an application is put forward to the
Board and then to consult with the County Attorney on how that should be
handled at the time.
Ms. Jackson stated
that it was unclear whether the Board wished the moratorium to apply in the ETJ
of a municipality that is currently exercising its powers under the land use
powers. Staff recommended that the
period for the moratorium be reduced to 90 days. The Planning Board has a very good working draft and have been
working very diligently to get a manufactured home park ordinance to the Board
that would regulate these issues. They
hope to get that to the Board some time in early January.
Ms. Jackson reviewed
the proposed changes to the drafted Ordinance imposing a moratorium on the
development or expansion of manufactured home parks in Henderson County,
NC.
Ms. Jackson informed
the Board that the Planning Board did consider this matter at their meeting on
December 1 and at that time there was a lot of good discussion but the Planning
Board did vote unanimously to send an unfavorable recommendation to the Board
of Commissioners.
Ms. Beeker stated
that it was staff=s
feeling that if you were implementing a manufactured home park ordinance to
offer a level of protection to the residents that would be moving in the park,
that you would want to offer people who buy the lots the same level of
protection as people who lease the lots.
Currently in an unzoned area there is no minimum lot size. If you=re thinking about controlling density, they could slice it up into
little tiny pieces and sell those lots whereas, she believed the issue that the
Planning Board is working on is how close together should those manufactured
homes be and how many should be allowed to go in there and things like
that.
Ms. Beeker offered
one other clarification - as written if there is a park that exists currently
that already has spaces ready for mobile homes to go on those spaces. With the changes recommended, they would
allow people to go ahead and move into the park. It would not preclude spaces that are already established with
utility connections and power from being filled.
Chairman Hawkins
asked if anyone else wished to speak, as the Board was about ready to close the
public hearing. There was one more:
27. Joe
Kilpatrick - Mr. Kilpatrick
lives off Jackson Road and he spoke in support of the moratorium. He asked that the Board consider that 90
days might not be enough time for our zoning ordinance to take effect. He asked that the Board consider a 6 month
moratorium on mobile home parks.
Commissioner Kumor
made the motion for the Board to go out of public hearing. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
For purposes of
discussion, Commissioner Kumor made the motion to adopt the amended moratorium
as presented by Jennifer Jackson at this meeting.
Commissioner Ward
raised a question concerning 90 days being enough time to let a zoning overrule
a mobile home park. The County Attorney
was not prepared to answer that question.
Commissioner Gordon
stated that in her thinking the moratorium that we are considering tonight
doesn=t pertain to zoning, it pertains to the
development of a manufactured home park ordinance. Zoning and whether or not it could be put in place within some
time frame shouldn=t be a
part of the discussion.
Commissioner Moyer stated
that from a philosophical standpoint he is personally opposed to
moratoriums. He thinks the citizens are
entitled to know the rules that apply to their land whether they be purchasers
or sellers and he thinks on the basis of fairness, to throw in a moratorium at
the last minute is not a fair thing to do.
He is particularly concerned when it identifies a type of housing and
whether a moratorium can ever be appropriate when targeted against a particular
type of housing which may adversely affect many citizens in the county and
other areas other than Hoopers Creek.
He also is concerned about false expectations as Commissioner Ward
mentioned - that the moratorium is going to create with respect to a lot of
things. On the other hand, he thinks it
is very unfortunate that the proper planning tools had not been put in place to
protect these various areas and he thinks the Board has to share some of the
responsibility for that. He offered
another suggestion, realizing that there was a motion on the floor. He was concerned whether 90 days was
sufficient to get the ordinance from the Planning Board some time in January
and then for the Board to review and act upon it, he felt that 120 days would
be more appropriate and he felt the Commission=s feet should be kept to the fire to get that done. He also asked that the Board consider
changing in the definition #3 to #30 so that we are only dealing with parks
with more than 30 spaces.
Commissioner Gordon
stated that she can agree with what Commissioner Moyer proposed as amendments
to the motion but stated that there are other factors that go into size. If you try to limit size across the board
through an ordinance too artificially low, they could preclude manufactured home
park development and could make the cost of development so high that it wouldn=t be economically feasible. The Board could really limit a housing
segment that they should be servicing.
If the board is addressing amenities, supervision, etc. in a mobile home
park, Commissioner Gordon stated that they can be more effectively done in
larger parks - the more units the more services that could be provided by the
park developer. If we keep it too low
its going to be very difficult for them to provide amenities in that park and
keep the rental per unit competitive.
Commissioner Kumor
stated that one thing that has to be looked at is the implications of that
dense a development going into a community with only one road in and the
implications to a gradual influx of families that demand that our future of
looking at $100 million for schools has now gone up by $12,000,000 -
$15,000,000 and we haven=t even started on the first school yet. She mentioned also the impact
that it has on all the infrastructure within the community.
Commissioner Gordon
stated that she had asked our Zoning Administrator how many mobile home parks
have been permitted in our zoned areas and she couldn=t remember the last one. She didn=t know of any being placed in a zoned area in Henderson County. As Hoopers Creek and other areas of the
county are looking at zoning she asked that they bear in mind all these issues.
Commissioner Kumor
stated that this Board of Commissioners through the last 5 years has only
wanted to regulate manufactured home parks with regard to public health and
safety issues so that folks who live and select this method of habitation have
every right to expect their health and safety to be as much prized as it is in
some of our high priced developments.
Following much
discussion, Commissioner Kumor amended her motion to add an amendment to
include 120 days as the length of the moratorium as opposed to 90 days and 30
spaces in a park as opposed to 3 spaces.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Chairman Hawkins
explained that the moratorium is in effect for 120 days. Applause followed.
Recess
Chairman Hawkins
called a five minute break.
IMPORTANT
DATES
The Commissioners
reviewed the AImportant Dates@ calendar.
David Nicholson
reminded the Board that this Wednesday is the annual Employee Holiday Luncheon
and encouraged each Commissioner to attend.
At 1:30 that afternoon Mr. Nicholson is meeting with the Senior Center
group and invited any Commissioners to come to that meeting.
David also reminded
the Commissioners that Buncombe County is hosting a reception for the NACo
Board on December 11 at 8:00 p.m. at the Grove Park Inn. He asked anyone wishing to attend to contact
Ms. Corn to make reservations.
The date was
mentioned for the 1999 Legislative Goals Conference as being January 14 & 15.
The Board also needs to delegate their voting delegate for the conference.
Mr. Nicholson also
informed the Board that the Day Reporting Center Advisory Board is having a
retreat at Highland Lake Inn on December 14 and they have invited any Commissioners
who would like to come to their lunch that day.
Commissioner Kumor
had asked the Board earlier to think about a retreat date for the Board.
Following discussion, it was decided to have a retreat workshop for the Board
on December 15 at 12:30 p.m. for about three hours. The Board will likely set a formal retreat date following that
workshop.
Commissioner Ward
left the meeting at this point. Chairman Hawkins had excused him to make a business trip.
GENERAL
OBLIGATION REFUNDING BONDS, Series 1998
Carey McLelland
informed the Board that the packet for this item included meeting extracts and
an escrow deposit agreement for the 1999 General Obligation Refunding
Bonds. These were drafted by bond
counsel in New York. The meeting
extracts contain a Resolution that prescribes the details and provides for the
sale of the county=s
refunding bonds as well as approval of the terms of the escrow agreement
between the County and First Citizens Bank & Trust. The bonds are set to be
sold on December 15 by the LGC. The
savings numbers over the term of the bonds are still in the neighborhood of
over $1,000,000.
Finance Director J.
Carey McLelland presented the following resolution and Grady Hawkins moved that
it be adopted. Commissioner Kumor
seconded the motion. All voted in favor and the motion carried (4 ayes, no
nays). The documents are hereby
attached as a part of these minutes.
SET PUBLIC
HEARING - Schedule of Values
Robert Baird asked
the Board to set a Public Hearing on the proposal of the 1999 Schedule of
Rules, Standards, and Values and the 1999 Present-Use Value Schedules for
December 16, 1998.
Pursuant to NCGS
105-317(c)(2)(b), the Henderson County Board of Commissioner will hold a public
hearing on the proposal of the 1999 Schedule of Rules, Standards, and Values
and the 1999 Present-Use Value Schedules.
Commissioner Kumor
made the motion to set the public hearing as requested for December 16 at 9:00
a.m. All voted in favor and the motion
carried.
The 1999 Schedule of
Rules, Standards, and Values and the 1999 Present-Use Value Schedules are on
file for the public to review at the Henderson County Assessor=s Office, 200 North Grove Street, Suite 102,
Hendersonville, NC 28792.
UPDATE ON
PENDING ISSUES
Annexation
Chairman Hawkins had
spoken to Carey McLelland about making an update to the report the Board
received last December on annexation.
Chairman Hawkins distributed copies of last year=s report.
Carey McLelland
explained that annexation or incorporation by municipalities in the county has a
negative impact on the amount of sales tax revenues the County will have
available in future budgets. Sales tax
revenues are distributed to Henderson County quarterly by the N.C. Department
of Revenue on a per capita basis. When
a municipality incorporates or annexes an unincorporated area within the
County, this reduces the per capita percentage allocation distributed to the
County and increases that which is distributed to the city or town. However, this reduction does not take effect
immediately. The population numbers are
adjusted at the beginning of each fiscal year based on annexations or
incorporations that take place during the preceding fiscal year.
Fiscal Year
1995-1996 was the largest reduction in sales tax revenues for the county in the
most recent past. The Village of Flat
Rock incorporated (1,778 persons) and the City of Hendersonville annexed
unincorporated property (1,287 persons) prior to June 30, 1995. This resulted in a loss of $429,023 in sales
tax revenue per year distributed to Henderson County during FY 1995-1996.
No annexations or
incorporations by municipalities occurred which significantly affected sales
tax revenues during FY 1996-1997.
At June 30, 1997 the
Town of Laurel Park annexed unincorporated property (336 persons). The projected loss due to this annexation is
$51,507 per year. This loss was
factored into sales tax revenue projections for the County=s FY 1997-1998 budget.
The City of
Hendersonville, the Town of Fletcher, and the Town of Laurel Park are all
considering further annexations during FY 1997-1998 that may affect sales tax
revenue projections for the FY 1998-1999 budget. There is not enough information available at this time to
determine if these municipalities will annex other areas or the population numbers
that will be affected.
The Planning
Department had provided information for the Board=s review on past and proposed annexations by the City of Hendersonville
and the Towns of Fletcher and Laurel Park.
Chairman Hawkins
asked the Board=s opinion on a response to the municipalities
regarding their annexation policies and to ask in that request if the City of
Hendersonville is going to be as fair to the citizens as they are to businesses
referenceing the Senate Bill (SB #198) that passed last year that allowed
selected businesses not to be annexed in lieu of portions of tax payments.
Commissioner Kumor
stated that this is a good topic for the Board=s up-coming retreat. She felt
that the City of Hendersonville annexes at their own risk because at some point
they will lose their current small town identity.
Commissioner Moyer
stated that he is opposed to annexation.
He stated that you have to look at what is the appropriate role for the
Commissioners to play and how to best play it. He felt that the Chairman or representatives from the Board
should start by meeting with Mayor Niehoff and/or their representatives and see
if there is a way to work this out that we could be involved in a positive
fashion and go forward working together.
Commissioner Kumor
brought up the issue of the cost of sewer installation and the investment cost
for that. AMaybe we want to ask that if citizens are
willing to be annexed to be provided sewer that they be given some ...@.
Following much
discussion, it was the consensus of the Board to add this as an issue to a
retreat setting.
Permit
Situation/Raceway add-on by
Commissioner Ward
David Nicholson
informed the Board that we have received sewer applications for both the 250
mobile home park unit and a 440 mobile home park unit in the Hoopers Creek
area, however; those applications are not complete and they have not paid their
impact fees and there has been no allocation granted to those two
applications. During the last break he
met with some of his staff and told them that tomorrow morning we need to
contact everybody who has a permit issuing capability in county government to
conform with this Board=s actions and it will be our staff=s position that these should not be worked upon anymore because they
were not provided to us complete nor were the fees paid to begin with. We will discontinue any looking at those
until the moratorium is complete. If
the individuals who are developing these wish to come to this Board of
Commissioners and ask to be considered for a vested right or whatever, then
they can certainly do that.
David Nicholson also
informed the Board that Henderson County is getting no contact from the people
who are talking about developing the raceway at all. They have not been in to talk with our sewer folks, our building
folks, or anybody like that at this point in time. Staff did follow up on the State permits and he asked the County
Engineer to inform the Board about that.
Gary Tweed had
talked with the Regional Engineer for the State Sedimentation and Erosion
Control and their inspectors found a small violation on the site. They were clearing brush and the clearing
had gotten out to more than an acre, which would require an Erosion Control
Plan. The Consultant for the racetrack
developer is submitting a two phased Erosion Control Plan, the first phase
being under the current property owners name for this clearing activity with a
second phase to be coming later. The
second phase would be for the racetrack development. Neither of those plans had been submitted as of about noon today.
WATER LINE
EXTENSIONS
David Nicholson
informed the Board that staff had assumed that the Chairman was receiving
requests for the water line extensions.
Come to find out they were being sent to the Planning Department. The Planning Department had just been saying
someone was in a zoned area or whether it was a residential or commercial type
environment. All the rest of the sewer
line extensions were going to either the Mayors or the Town Managers. For some reason, it was not coming to this
office.
Mr. Nicholson
informed the Board that we have received three water line extension
applications as follows and according to the City Manager, the Hendersonville
City Council will consider these extensions at their December 10 meeting:
1. Whitemark, Inc.,
Housing Development
Mr. Nicholson
explained that this is a 440 mobile home park unit. His suggestion to the Board was to write the same letter to the
City of Hendersonville that the Board has put a moratorium in place and let
that be the only comment to them.
2. South Crossing
Business Park
The Planning Board
has already seen this one. This is on
the corner of US #176 and Hwy. #25 intersection and is a seven unit commercial
business park.
3. Cummings Cove,
Phase III
The Planning Board
has already seen this one. This is for
section one of phase III and is another phase of residential homes being built
in the Cummings Cove development.
It was the Board=s consensus to write a letter to the City
about #1 and let them know that the Board has put a moratorium in place and not
to respond to # 2 and #3.
Chairman Hawkins
informed the Board that from the December 3 meeting of ABHWA, effective today
the City of Hendersonville started selling to ABHWA 2,000,000 gallons of water
which is about 9.7% of the ABHWA=s daily water usage. He stated
that the City of Asheville felt that they are down to about a 90 day water
supply. He stated that if we=re looking at any new water allocations, the
next 60 days is really going to be critical, based on whether we get any rain.
ELECTED
OFFICIALS SALARIES
David Nicholson
reminded the Board that the Board of Commissioners sets the salaries for
several locally elected officials. It
would be appropriate for the Board to establish these salaries at tonight=s meeting.
To assist the Board with this discussion, staff had provided charts of
similar size counties and their compensation for most of these positions. They have not been able to locate a
statewide listing of the salaries of school board members. Staff will continue to research this issue.
In December of 1997
and prior to their filing period, the Board established the base salaries for
the Sheriff, Register of Deeds and Tax Collector. The base salary and the incumbent=s current salary are shown below:
Position Base
Salary Current
Salary
Sheriff $52,424 $55,995
Register of Deeds $38,305 $43,256
Tax Collector $43,089 $50,845
The Board may also
wish to review the compensation of both the Board of Commissioners and Board of
Public Education at this time. The
current salary of the members of these Boards is listed below:
Board Member Salary
County Commissioner $
7,442 (+$75 per special called meeting)
County Commissioner Chair $14,884 (+$75 per
special called meeting)
Board of Public Education member $ 2,100
Board of Public Education Chair $ 2,800
Following
discussion, Chairman Hawkins made the motion that the Board accept the current
salaries as presented. All voted in
favor and the motion carried.
Chairman Hawkins
stated that the information on the Board of Education members and the
Commissioners is something the Commissioners can study between now and budget
time for further discussions.
PETITION TO
ABANDON CAVE INN DRIVE (SR #1661)
The County had
received a petition from William Cone and Randy Evans asking that the County
request NC DOT to abandon and remove from the State maintenance system Cave Inn
Drive (SR #1661). This petition, along
with various letters of support and maps of the area were submitted for the
Board=s review.
The comments of the Planning Department were also included as was a
summary of the request and certain issues raised by the request.
NCGS 136-63 sets out
the procedure by which a road may be abandoned. This statute requires that before NCDOT abandons a road in the
manner requested, the Board of Commissioners must adopt a resolution requesting
that the road be abandoned. The
adoption of such a resolution must be based upon a finding that Athe best interest of the people of the County
will be served thereby.@
Although no public
hearing is required to abandon a road, it would be appropriate to hear from the
interested public, as well as public safety officials before making such a
determination. Staff offered the date
of January 4 at 7:00 p.m. for a public hearing on this item.
Chairman Hawkins
made the motion to set a public hearing for January 4, 1999 at 7:00 p.m. for
this item. All voted in favor and the
motion carried.
CLOSED SESSION
There was none.
There being no
further business to come before the Board, Chairman Hawkins adjourned the
meeting at 9:38 p.m.
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk to
the Board Grady Hawkins, Chairman