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Officials discuss draft subdivision ordinance
By Derek Hodges
One week after adding three positions to local inspections departments, county officials spent part of last Tuesday evening (Oct. 26), working through a revised draft of the subdivision ordinance that some say may necessitate more inspectors.
Discussion between county commissioners and planning board members centered around the number of lots that constitute a subdivision.
Planning board members have done extensive work on the proposed ordinance that now, including appendices, is 52 pages long. The length of the draft and the amount of regulation it would impose seemed excessive, said Commissioner Brian McMahan.
"I just don't want people to feel like we're trying to overregulate them," McMahan said, joking that someone who submits an application may be dead before the process is finally completed. He said passing the current draft would likely require more county employees.
Planning board members have cut considerable amounts from the proposal, but have also added several pages of their own changes. One thing that hasn't changed is the original intent of the ordinance: "To guide and regulate the subdivision of land within Jackson County in order to preserve the public health, safety, and welfare."
Planning board members presented parts of the draft for discussion with the Commissioners. These included definitions of the various sizes of subdivisions the ordinance will govern.
According to the current draft, a minor subdivision is one that includes 10 or fewer lots and no new roads, no changes of right-of-way and no new utilities. Under the proposal, developers who want to subdivide a tract into a minor subdivision would have to complete a process that includes meeting with the planning director, submitting an application, a review of the application by various departments and agencies, and recording the proposed plat after it is approved.
Major subdivisions are those with 11 or more lots and/or those that include the building of new roads, creation of new right-of-ways, and/or utilities. The draft defines two types of major subdivision, those with less than 30 lots and those with more than 30. As with minor subdivisions, the approval process for both categories of major subdivisions would begin in a meeting with the planning director and completing an application.
For major subdivisions under 30 lots, six copies of the application and a preliminary plat would be submitted to the planning director. Those copies would then be passed on to the Jackson County Department of Public Health, the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority, the N.C. Department of Transportation, the county inspections department, county Soil and Water Conservation District, and any other agencies that may be needed to assist in the approval process.
Next, an estimate would be made by an outside contractor as to how much the needed improvements will cost. The applicant would then accept or reject that estimate and either begin work or begin an appeal of the estimate.
In a major subdivision of 30 or more lots, virtually the same process would be followed as in one with less than 30. The major difference would be that the six organizations who are only mailed a copy of the application for a smaller subdivision would send representatives to meet together and discuss the proposal.
McMahan said he thought the ordinance would be particularly unfair to people who want to subdivide their land between family members and those who own a large tract of land and decide they want to sell part of it. Under the current draft, both these scenarios would require an application process.
Commissioners' Chairman Stacy Buchanan suggested that one solution would be to define a subdivision as a division of land into three or more lots, a provision he based on the fact that Jackson County considers a driveway that serves three or more homes a road.
Several members of the planning board stressed that the current draft is not the final form, that more work sessions will be required and more changes will be made.
During the meeting the commissioners also received the final draft of the county's recreation master plan.
It includes plans for converting Sylva's pool into an indoor/outdoor facility, development of several new and existing county parks, and additions to the county's greenway system. More information on the recreation and parks department can be found at their redesigned Web site, www.rec.jacksonnc.org.
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