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Sylva leaders ponder ETJ as tool to control development
By Carey King
After a failed annexation attempt this past summer, Sylva leaders have decided to take a different tack at controlling development beyond the town's limits.
An extra-territorial jurisdiction – a boundary up to one mile outside town limits in which residents must obey Sylva zoning rules – is instead the option town leaders plan to explore.
They asked the Sylva zoning board Oct. 26 to look into the idea further and report back in coming months.
"Right now, we're having to take a hard look at strategic annexation. If you can afford it, it makes sense," said town Manager Richard McHargue, referring to Sylva's inability this past August to pay for a water line that developer Carlton Brown requested in exchange for volunteering his 40-home subdivision on Cope Creek Road for annexation.
"We're half sold out of Phase One right now. It's unbelievably hot," said developer Carlton Brown of his 40-home subdivision, below, currently under construction off Cope Creek Road. Homes there range from $140,000 to $170,000 and will receive water from a private system, he said. Brown had offered to allow the town of Sylva to annex his property in exchange for running a municipal water line to the area, but that deal fell through after the town found the project too expensive. Below, construction has yet to begin at Bill Melton's 50- to 100- home development between Wal-Mart and N.C. 116, though lots are beginning to be cleared and a gravel road built. Houses there will range around $200,000, Melton said. Both areas are of concern to Sylva leaders, who decided Oct. 26 to have the town's zoning board explore the creation of a one-mile extra-territorial jurisdiction outside Sylva's limits. – Herald photos by Carey King
"I think the longer we don't have any ETJs or controls, the developers will come and make their bucks and go back to Charlotte or Atlanta or wherever they're from. Then we're stuck with dirt roads and all that comes with it," McHargue said. "I think the ETJ is one tool, and I don't know what else it would be, to gain ground on what's going on out there in the community."
"It gives you a lever to hold to, like Forest Hills is doing right now," agreed town board member Eldridge Painter.
The community near Western Carolina University adopted an ETJ in 2001 over the protests of its neighbors. Residents who live within a town's ETJ pay no taxes to the town, but must follow its zoning laws. While they cannot vote for members of the town council, they do have a representative on the town's zoning board.
"They will have representation from that aspect," said Sylva Mayor Brenda Oliver.
While industry has dwindled in the area, projected growth at WCU, Southwestern Community College and in the medical field is high, and that means that new developments will soon spring up to fill the housing needs of new residents, Oliver said.
"The housing's not out there. Folks, I'm in real estate. I know," Painter told fellow town leaders.
New developments planned just outside town include not only the 40-home Magnolias at Cope Creek, but builder Bill Melton's 50- to 100-home Whispering Heights Estates between Wal-Mart and N.C. 116.
Three hundred apartments and condominiums are in the works for property off Dills Cove Road formerly owned by Willa Mae Scroggs. A Florida construction firm is directing building for that project, which may also include a recreation center, community facility and swimming pool.
A 40-unit affordable housing complex planned to be built on Savannah Drive near Nicol Arms Apartments has been put on hold pending federal grant dollars, but that project or others like it are certain to come with the county's growing population, town leaders said.
Jackson County officials have recently discussed adopting a subdivision ordinance, but as of now, the county lacks development standards, and that worries Sylva leaders.
"I think we should take a stronger look at an ETJ because who knows what's going to happen in the next couple of years, especially out (N.C.) 107," agreed board member Danny Allen.
In places where establishing an ETJ boundary out one mile would bump up against other municipalities, the ETJ would by law extend instead half the distance to the next town's limits, Oliver said.
"In the mountains, you have natural boundaries, so you'd probably want to run the ridge line and not make it piecemeal," board member Maurice Moody said.
In addition to the ETJ, town leaders may also later look into the idea of an "areas of consideration" plan, which involves designating areas outside town limits as places the town may later choose to annex. The areas could extend further than the one-mile ETJ, but residents there would not be subject to town zoning rules.
"To me, the areas of consideration is long-term, 10-years like," said Moody. "To spur growth and get things moving, I feel we need to do something as quickly as practical."
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