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By Rose Hooper
A proposed 93-bedroom apartment complex on Savannah Drive prompted
Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority board members to consider
setting a precedent – but they didn't.
L. Lane Sarver Inc. had requested an allocation of 11,160 gallons
per day of water and sewer capacity to serve the planned residential
structures.
TWSA Executive Director Hugh Montgomery asked the board to consider
the request with a stipulation that Sarver apply for voluntary
annexation into the town of Sylva.
"You are saying 'annex or die' and that would be setting
a precedent," said board member Brad Moses.
Board member Lynda Sossamon, one of Sylva's appointees, raised
the question of whether TWSA had the authority to "tie allocation
onto such a stipulation."
"Even though I am one of the town's representatives on this
board, that sounds like blackmail to me," said Bobby Beck.
Montgomery told board members that "the developers' tax base
will surely grow according to our allocation." In turn, Montgomery
felt the developers should help the town grow.
"How else can Sylva grow without voluntary annexation? It's
an easy way to increase the tax base. Involuntary annexation,
on the other hand, is not so easy," the director said.
"Plus, it can create ill will," said board member Jim
Cochran.
"I think we would be overstepping our boundaries if we required
developers to apply for annexation to the town before we grant
them an allocation of water and sewer service," said Moses.
"I'm not in favor of setting that kind of a precedent."
Other board members agreed and approved Sarver's al'ocation request
without the stipulations.
According to TWSA's budget ordinance, when a developer is granted
an allocation, impact fees and acreage charges must be paid within
120 days. Sarver had asked to delay payment of those fees until
November 2004, but board members denied that request.
Montgomery reported that Tom Massie with the N.C. Clean Water
Trust Fund notified him by phone Tuesday that TWSA would receive
$343,000 for the Dicks Gap project.
Failing septic tanks from 34 residences have caused raw sewage
to seep to the top of t'e ground and contaminate the area and
Dicks Gap Creek. Although the unhealthy situation was created
by privately-owned systems, 'WSA agreed to "act as a good
neighbor and clean up the a'ea," according to TWSA Chairman
Mickey Luker.
"We're getting the money because the state ranked this project
fourth in need out of all those in the state," said Montgomery,
who estimated the total repair bill to be at least $400,000.
The trust fund grant requires a 20 percent local match.
Highlands Cove, a golf course and residential community in Cashiers,
has agreed to put $75,000 towards the stream restoration part
of the project.
In its development Highlands Cove had impacted over 100 feet of
stream and as mandated by the Clean Water Act and the N.C. Division
of Water Quality, the development must restore a stream of equal
size within the same river basin.
"In our restoration we will be impacting the Dicks Gap Creek
and that stream was about the same size as Highlands Cove needed
to restore so we happened to be the lucky recipients of the money,"
said Luker.
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