Madison Planning Board plans to scrap setback in 'Ridgetop Overlay District' standards

MARSHALL - When the county commissioners meet in August, the commission will have before it legislation on the county's hottest issue of the year: ridgetop development.

This comes after the Madison County Planning Board's Ridgetop Subcommittee met June 26 at the Marshall library to finalize its recommendations on the issue, which includes proposed changes to the Madison County Subdivision Control Ordinance.

The subcommittee, comprised of Planning Board members Jered Silver, Clayton Honeycutt, Lee Wilds, Ken Kashuba and Daniel Rice, also plans to recommend to remove the 50-foot setback requirement as laid out in the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance.

The subcommittee laid out eight standards in its Ridgetop Overlay District, which would be added to the county Madison County Subdivision Control Ordinance under Section 8.10.

Those standards are:

• A rear lot line requirement of at least 400 feet.
• A minimum lot size of 4 acres to reduce erosion and reduce the impact of high-density developments.
• Minimal street lighting for all subdivisions.
• Requirement for subdivisions to create covenants that prohibit exterior photocell home lighting.
• No disturbance shall be allowed beyond the homesite plus 25 feet and the driveway area.
• No clear-cutting of timber permitted before subdividing.
• Buffer strip at least 20 feet wide, consisting of native trees and shrubs, shall be planted and maintained along all property boundaries visible from neighboring properties.
• No structure shall be placed in a location where its silhouette is visible against the sky when viewed from a neighboring property, and structures must be sited below the ridgeline or within natural vegetation to avoid breaking the natural skyline.

The subcommittee also plans to recommend a 50-foot side setback requirement.

As for the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance, which the county established in 1983, while the subcommittee plans to recommend to scrap the 50-foot setback, the subcommittee felt the ordinance's other requirements — a structure's maximum height limitation of 35 feet, a clearing standard of a maximum of 25% of the lot and a minimum lot size of 2 acres — would be adequate in its regulation.

The subcommittee also discussed putting a timeline on the timber clear-cutting standard, including adding an additional requirement of no timber harvesting within a certain time frame - the subcommittee discussed a 10-year period.

The idea was introduced by new Planning and Zoning Administrator Tom Herdelin .

"A waiting period before structural development can occur takes away an incentive and a market for a flipper, because no one's going to want to sell it and sit on it for five years and pay the taxes and liability insurance," Herdelin said.

Wilds said he would favor a reforestation program too, an idea which was also discussed by the board.

Planning Board Chair Jered Silver said he did not like the idea of placing restrictions on a property owner.

"I've never felt comfortable putting any burdens or restrictions on any kind of individual," Silver said.

The ridgetop development issue came before the county Planning Board after former Madison Planning Board member Russell Blevins submitted an application requesting the county remove the 50-foot setback requirement from the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance .

Blevins and Clif Parker purchased Mountain Park, a gated neighborhood in the Mars Hill headwaters of Gabriels Creek, in April 2023.

Parker is managing partner of Mountain Partners, the company that owns Mountain Park. Blevins and Parker own the undeveloped portions of Mountain Park.

Blevins owns roughly 400 acres at the head of Paint Fork, near Metcalf Creek Loop Road, where he hopes to build a cabin.

Still, the subcommittee, comprised of members of the all-volunteer Planning Board, said the updated legislation is "way better than what the county had" prior to November, when the Planning Board met to deliberate on Blevins' application.

"I think any one of these alone does more than the 50-foot setback," Wilds said.

On Feb. 13, Honeycutt presented a list of recommendations to the county commissioners, which became the basis on which the subcommittee's recommendations were founded.

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Honeycutt's "Ridgetop Overlay District" has an intent to protect the unique environmental and aesthetic characteristics of ridgetop areas in Madison County, and the standards aim to minimize the impact of development on these sensitive areas and ensure sustainable development practices, according to a draft of the standards issued June 26.

"We worked really hard to try to build something that's a consensus from all parties in the county," Honeycutt said. "I don't think we're going to produce anything that's perfect for anybody, but I think this is a big chunk, and we're not asking anybody to stop advocating for something else later.

"But this is a huge step forward for us."

The Madison County Planning Board will vote on the recommendations in its upcoming July 15 meeting. From there, the recommendations will go before the Madison County Board of Commissioners, likely in the board's Aug. 13 meeting.

Johnny Casey has covered Madison County for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel for three years. He earned a first-place award in beat news reporting in the 2023 North Carolina Press Association awards. He can be reached at 828-210-6074 or jcasey@citizentimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Madison Planning Board plans to scrap setback in 'Ridgetop Overlay District' standards