Despite pressure from developers, TWSA holds line on plant expansion

By Rose Hooper

With the town's possible incorporation in mind, TWSA members were asked to make a decision on the expansion of the 16-year-old Cashiers sewer treatment plant.

Some, like William McKee, who was representing the Village Conservancy, support waiting for the expansion to see if Cashiers incorporates.

Others, like real estate developer Ray Trine, urged the authority to proceed now with the plant expansion and not depend on the outcome of the proposed incorporation.

"We are past the point of delaying it any further," Trine said of the expansion.

During its next session, which begins Jan. 29, the N.C. General Assembly could act on Cashiers' petition to incorporate. If the petition receives a favorable ruling, a referendum could be held as early as 60 days, or as late as 120 days, from the legislative action.

What worries the TWSA board, Chairman Mickey Luker told both sides, is the possibility that an incorporated Cashiers could declare a moratorium on development.

"In its incorporation petition Cashiers had to list four services it would provide as a town. Sewer was not listed, so we are not so much worried about the town taking over that service," Luker said. "But zoning was one of the services offered. As a town, Cashiers could enact a moratorium on building expansion.

"If we had put the $1 million up front to expand the plant, we could not receive any return on our money," he continued.

Developers could also lose, Luker told them, if they had pre-paid any impact fees to connect to an expanded sewer plant.

"The town could say your projects don't fit with the new zoning regulations and you wouldn't be able to build. You would simply be out all the money you put up front," Luker said.

When TWSA couldn't come up with the $1 million low bid amount to expand the plant, then-Executive Director Jerry King secured a list of developers who had agreed to pay sewer impact fees totaling $950,000.

"When we signed those commitments to pay impact fees, we did so with the understanding that TWSA would move forward on the expansion," developer Sam Lupas told the board.

"I felt, and so did a number of people, that signing the commitment represented our vote to proceed with the expansion," said Lupas, who owns property in the proposed incorporated area but does not live there.

"It is not that we aren't in favor of expansion; it's just that we are delaying it," Luker told Lupus.

"A lot of things could happen," said incorporation supporter Paige Berstein. "Incorporation could become a dead issue - at several stages, and if Cashiers does incorporate, nobody knows who the mayor and aldermen will be or what they will do."

Trine asked the board not to "base your decision on the failed premises that incorporation will happen. If you are concerned about a moratorium, you might be fighting the wrong fox," he said. "You should be concerned about developers' action if the plant isn't expanded.

"Cashiers is going to grow, that's a given... and right now you control the zoning," he said.

McKee said he, too, supports growth and expansion but "in an orderly fashion."

Joining McKee, attorney Ed Henson told the board, "Your decision to wait is the right decision."

Developer John Hale asked the board to vote on proceeding with the plant expansion, regardless of the incorporation outcome.

Though no board member called for the vote, TWSA Vice Chairman Chuck Wooten stressed, "If the referendum fails and your interest - and the money - is still there, we will proceed with the plant expansion."

For the past two years a moratorium at the 100,000 gallons-a-day plant has prevented any new hookups. Last May the state granted an expansion permit for an additional 100,000 gallons a day. Expansion was again stalled when the $1,024,000 low bid from RPB Systems Inc. of Asheville came in $224,000 higher than TWSA had anticipated.

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