|
Corps will not hold Legasus hearing
By Justin Goble
Letters went out Tuesday to all those who asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a public hearing with regard to a golf course development planned atop Cullowhee Mountain, but the answer was not the one many candidates had hoped to receive.
No public hearing is planned at this time with regard to Legasus of North Carolina’s planned Webster Creek community, according to the letters dated April 24 and signed by Kenneth Jolly, chief of the Regulatory Division for the Corps’ Wilmington District. Jolly assures those who commented that all their concerns have been entered into the record, and that the Corps is “communicating with the applicant and the appropriate agencies regarding these concerns and is currently in the process of obtaining the information necessary to resolve or adequately address these issues.”
Jolly indicates that if the Corps does not receive the information it needs, a public hearing may be necessary but that there is no “valid interest to be served” by holding a hearing on the matter at this time.
Jolly also said the Corps is preparing an environmental assessment to see if an Environmental Impact Statement, which many commenters also requested, is warranted.
While the comment period with regard to Legasus’ Corps of Engineers application has closed, interested parties may still submit information to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Water Quality, which will accept public comment through May 15, according to spokesman Susan Massengale.
Massengale said that the application Legasus filed with the Corps requires a 401 water quality certification from the DWQ.
“(The Corps) needs something from the state that ensures water quality will be maintained,” Massengale said last week.
Legasus was not required to file a separate application with the DWQ, Massengale said.
Those wishing to comment to the DWQ may do so by writing Mail Service Center 1650, Raleigh, NC 27699-1650, attention Cyndi Karoly. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail to cyndi.karoly@ncmail.net.
Legasus plans to develop a 1,810-acre tract into its 828-unit residential community.
According to the plan submitted to the Corps, Webster Creek, which is one of five developments Legasus collectively calls River Rock, will include two golf courses, including a championship course designed by Phil Mickelson.
Access to the property, which straddles Cullowhee Mountain’s ridgeline, is from Moody Bridge Road in East LaPorte.
Legasus plans some home sites on the Cullowhee Mountain Road side with the golf courses and most of the residential development on the N.C. 107 side, according to the permit application. The company proposes to impact 3,890 linear feet of stream channel along Mill and Webster creeks and Mine and Cherry Gap branches, and such waterway disturbance requires Corps approval.
The developer’s application also indicates that .48 acres of wetland will be disturbed, and that most of the planned impacts involve golf course construction and road crossings.
Legasus’ Cullowhee Mountain development is not subject to steep-slope and subdivision ordinances enacted by Jackson County commissioners last summer because Legasus, which announced its plans just days before a moratorium on new subdivisions took effect, proved the non-contiguous River Rock communities had vested rights.
|
