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It would have
been easy for the Boone Town Council to bow to loud and angry opposition
from property owners Monday and reject measures to regulate development
on steep slopes. Instead, the council voted 4-1 for regulation -
a gutsy move that was in the best interest of both the environment
and business.
The vote was
the outcome of a process prompted by two events in the last few
years, as Monte Mitchell reported in Tuesday's Journal. A development,
The Village at Meadowview, marred the view on a slope above U.S.
321. And there was a scare when some homes in the White Laurel development,
visible from U.S. 421, shifted on their foundations during hurricane-related
rains.
The Boone Steep
Slope Development and Multi-Family Task Force went to work, coming
up with proposals for commercial and residential development on
slopes.
Eventually,
council members listened to critics and revised. The measures that
the council approved Monday were less restrictive than original
proposals. But many of the nearly 100 people who packed the council
chambers were still angry that the measures passed. Councilman Dempsey
Wilcox, the sole vote against the measures, said that the new rules
are an attack on some private-property owners and would be bad for
the local building economy.
But the measures
leave plenty of room for development.
What the measures
do is regulate building on land that is more than 100 feet above,
and visible from, the nearest major traffic corridor. And those
who build on very steep slopes, slopes with an angle of 50 percent
or more, will need a geologic analysis conducted by a state-licensed
geologist, among other requirements. People building on slopes of
30 percent to 50 percent would need such an analysis only if a town
administrator determines their property has a geologic hazard.
Council members
said they'd heard from several people who supported the measures
but were afraid to speak out for them. Those people shouldn't have
been afraid. It's hard to believe anyone was going to physically
attack them over this issue, although they might lose customers
and friends for vocal support of slope regulation.
And council
members face the threat of losing votes.
Maybe a few
of their critics on slope regulation will calm down and realize
that, in the long run, the best way to keep tourists and second-home
buyers coming to Boone is to preserve much of that wonderful scenery,
instead of building haphazardly on it. The council majority acted
wisely and courageously.
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