The Rise & Fall of a Scenic Highway

April 3, 2000

Watauga County Commission votes unanimously to make the Doc & Merle Watson Hwy (construction just beginning) a scenic hwy, an essentially cosmetic designation (county-designated "scenic" roads carried fewer restrictions than did state-designated "scenic" roads), but the county's designation did prohibit billboards and off-premise signs on the roadway. The push for scenic designation is coming mainly from the business community, led by John Cooper of the Mast Store. The Committee of 100, an economic development arm of county government, and prominent members of the Chamber of Commerce also support scenic designation. On the other side of the argument -- against any restrictions on advertizing and therefore opposed to scenic designation  -- are business leaders Joe Miller (Boone Drug, Cheap Joe's) and Brad Moretz (Ski Mountain), among others.

Early 2002

Attitude on Commish has shifted strongly against scenic designation, partly as reaction to Widespread Panic that "zoning" is coming to Watauga! Democratic Commissioners Sue Sweeting and Pat Wilkie become bumper-sticker targets of "No Zoners." A "scenic byway" that restricts business -- in any shape, form, or fashion -- has become anathama.

June 18, 2002

Watauga County Commission votes not to seek scenic byway designation from the state for the Doc & Merle Watson Hwy.  Two of three Dems on the Commish (Sue Sweeting and Pat Wilkie) vote for scenic designation; third Dem and Chair of the Commish at that time, Jimmy Hodges, votes with the two Repubs to defeat.

Sept. 17, 2002

[lifted from Co Commish official minutes]

SCENIC HIGHWAY DISCUSSION

            Mr. Joe Furman apologized for an omission in information given to the Board in 2000 when the Doc and Merle Watson Highway was designated as a scenic highway. County Attorney Hedrick stated that a scenic highway is designated locally and that a scenic byway is designated by the State. The County Attorney stated that the Watauga County Board of Commissioners designated the Doc and Merle Watson Highway as a scenic highway in 2000 and that designation legally stands.

            Per Board instructions, six citizens were scheduled to speak for 5 minutes each; 3 in favor of the designation and 3 opposed to the designation.

            Mr. Brad Moretz, Ms. Lila Phillips, and Ms. Deborah Greene spoke in opposition to the scenic highway designation and requested that Board rescind the resolution from 2000 designating the Doc and Merle Watson Highway as scenic.

            Mr. Phil Minor, Ms. Susan Phipps, and Ms. Velma Burnley spoke in support of keeping the scenic highway designation.

            No Board action was required and none was taken.

Oct. 3, 2002

The Partnership for Watauga's Future, a coalition of business/environmental activists, stages a "community walk" on a section of the still unfinished Doc & Merle Watson Hwy. Hundreds show up and walk about two miles. Doc Watson himself shows up with his brother. Watson also signs the petition to keep the road "scenic."

June 2003

Watauga County Commish reaffirms its opposition to the state about scenic byway designation. All five commissioners are voting in lock-step: Republicans James Coffey, Keith Honeycutt, David Blust, Allen Trivette, and Democrat Jimmy Hodges. But local representative on the state Board of Transportation, Caldwell County's Sam Erby, privately favors scenic designation (not a well kept secret).

July 25, 2003

Despite the preferences of Co Commissioners and the vociferousness of "no zoners," led by Deborah Greene, the NC Dept. of Transportation schedules a public hearing on scenic byway designation for Aug. 20, 2003, at the Broyhill Inn.

August 20, 2003

Hundreds of people show up for public hearing, with slightly over 100 of them signing up to speak, on both sides (though only 15% of speakers opposed scenic designation). The crowd as a whole leans decidedly toward scenic byway designation. State Senator Virginia Foxx tries to grandstand for the "no-zoners" and is shut down by the moderator. (She'll go on to run successfully for Congress in 2004.)

December 4, 2003

Despite opposition from Watauga Co. Commish and many citizens, the NC Bd of Transportation votes in favor of scenic byway designation.

[13 years pass]

April 5, 2016

Watauga Co Commish votes 3-2 along party lines not to challenge the Watauga Bd of Adjustment's decision that the Johnny Hampton family had every right under God's blue heaven to sell a "polluting industry license" to Maymead. Jimmy Hodges, now chair of the Commish and now a registered Republican, votes with fellow Republicans David Blust and Perry Yates not to defend the scenic integrity of the Doc & Merle Watson Hwy. Democratic commissioners John Welch and Billy Kennedy vote to appeal the BOA decision.

Today

The air quality license for the planned Maymead asphalt plant on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Byway is on hold until Maymead fixes environmental violations at their existing plant in Boone. 

Welcome to your future, Doc & Merle Watson!

The Toxic Legacy of Commissioners Miller, Hodges, Yates, and Blust

While Watauga County Commissioners Jimmy Hodges, Perry Yates, and David Blust were turning a deaf ear to the pleas of citizens to appeal the Maymead asphalt decision to Superior Court -- because it would cost too much -- they were paying out to Eggers Eggers Eggers & Eggers over $47,000 to intervene in the Boone ETJ lawsuit.

[Above: the accounting of what's been paid to Eggers x 4 in the matter of the Boone ETJ lawsuit intervention]

Priorities? Yeah, both the Maymead decision and the ETJ lawsuit intervention reveal very clear priorities. If Boone loses its ETJ, there goes any zoning restrictions that would keep an asphalt plant, a cement facility, a race track from imposing their charms on a Boone ETJ residential neighborhood.

That's where commissioners Hodges, Yates, and Blust stand.

To be fair, the decision to intervene in the Boone ETJ lawsuit was initiated by then Commission Chair Nathan Miller (who's also represented both the fairgrounds race track and the cement plant in their efforts to subvert Boone's land-use regs). Both Yates and Blust went along with Miller. They share the blame. They must also now share the fall-out.

Cherokee Nation Routs the Army of God

The bullying of local governments to put "In God We Trust" on public buildings has been going on in North Carolina for years now, organized by a Christian dominionist outfit called the U.S. Motto Action Committee.

Watauga County Board of Commissioners Chair Jimmy Hodges lept on that bandwagon, and the Watauga County Courthouse now bears that declaration of religion in violation of the separation of church and state.

"In God We Trust" was adopted by Congress as our official motto in 1956 at the height of the Red Scare. It replaced the original motto "E Pluribus Unum," out of many, one. The new motto was a symbol then of terror and Christian backlash in the face of communism and still is a symbol of that terror, though now they're mainly afraid of a Kenyan-born Muslim president who made the horrendous error of being born black. Barack Obama is just a little too e pluribus for many white people, along with the entire public education system, voting rights, and amendments 13-16 of the U.S. Constitution.

Davidson Co.

North Carolina county governments have been falling like the proverbial dominoes to the current militance behind the push for "In God We Trust." To refuse to go along with this crowd is to risk being called "godless" or worse, a Methodist. In Davidson County, N.C., the authorities ordered the four words on the sides of every patrol car.

There have been a few -- very few -- bumps in this road to Christian theocracy in North Carolina. The Jackson County chair of the board of commissioners told the religion peddlars to not bother showing up there. But the sharpest slap in the face came from the Cherokee Tribal Council during the first week of February.

Cherokees Say, "How Dare You?"

The Christian shill for the U.S. Motto Action Committee got a reception at the Cherokee Tribal Council that might have been his Little Big Horn.

"You don’t even know our people,” Councilmember Tommye Saunooke, of Painttown, told the spokesman for the proselytizing committee. “You don’t know what kind of beliefs we have, and it offends me to think that you need to tell us what to do.”

“When you go to an indigenous community, you really have to put in time to learn about who those people are,” said Becky Walker, a Wolfetown community member. “I feel like if you had done that, you probably wouldn’t have come here.”

It only got worse after that. Charitably, the proselytizing committeeman was allowed to withdraw his resolution. He quickly left the Tribal Council chambers, his sanctified tail between his sanctified legs.

You can read the full blow-by-blow in the Smoky Mountain News.

Possible Appeal of Maymead Asphalt Decision On County Commish Agenda Next Week

County Commissioner John Welch has requested an agenda item for the commission's regular evening meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 16 (5:30 p.m.): Discussion of the Watauga Board of Adjustment's surprising decision to restore Maymead Asphalt's revoked permit to cook paving material on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Highway.

Prevailing rumor is that Commission Chair Jimmy Hodges is against an appeal. So, too, probably are Perry Yates and David Blust, both of whom are up for reelection this year. Those three hold the power to appeal to superior court their own Board of Adjustment's unaccountable decision.

Reelection. Hope for and fear about. That's the leverage the people have now on the issue of bringing more pollution into this county and plopping it down on a scenic highway and in the middle of residential properties.

The Politics of Water in Watauga County

Hodges

So this morning we find out that a deal has been struck between the town of Boone and Watauga County Commission Chair Jimmy Hodges: the county will grant two small easements for a Boone water line across property it owns in exchange for 500,000 additional gallons a day (gpd) of Boone water to be used for largely unregulated development outside the town, managed by private interests for their profit. (The town had already granted 250,000 gpd -- 100,000 more than the recommendation of Boone's own Water Committee -- for any developer who will take the old high school property off the county's hands.)

The likely boom in development will come first along the water transmission line from Todd, principally in the Deep Gap to Boone corridor.

This deal was engineered by Jimmy Hodges, working the levers on some members of the Boone Town Council who have been desperate to complete a water intake on the New River near Todd. Hodges' two fellow Republicans on the County Commission voted against the deal, immediately raising an expectation that Hodges may face a Republican primary in 2018.

Boone town government has always held the position that it shouldn't give away its water to unregulated development. Boone has land-use planning and development regs that have transformed the town in 30 years from a jumble of sometimes shoddy sprawl to a destination city recently named "Best Small Town in North Carolina."

But that principle of "no piping of town water without land-use planning" is now out the window. To drive home the point (and also underline the complete collapse of Boone's negotiating skills), Hodges is quoted in the Watauga Democrat: “We can get water from the town without the county having to pay for it.”

Duh.

The Unseen Hand of Sen. Dan Soucek in This Deal

Rep. Jonathan Jordan has been trying to stop the new Boone intake on the New River, along with an assortment of Ashe and Watauga citizens who have a variety of motivations.

Soucek

Jordan's "local bill H875" would halt the intake dead, without the approval of the two affected county commissions in Ashe and Watauga. What happened to that bill? Soucek is holding it -- blocking it -- and creating the unmistakable impression that he's now in cahoots with the real estate developers (and Jimmy Hodges), who are lusting after that water.

That should come as no particular surprise, but the political ironies are striking: Soucek has built his legislative reputation as a bitter enemy of everything "liberal Boone" stands for. Now he's in bed with the Town Council for the sake of that water intake.

They say the next great wars will be fought over water. Perhaps the next great cross-species romances will also happen over water.

Watauga's High Impact Land Use Ordinance -- AMENDED -- And the Citizens Win

Watauga Commission
Chair Jimmy Hodges

This morning the Watauga County Commission voted unanimously to pass recommended amendments to the High Impact Land Use (HILU) Ordinance, including expanding the uses covered by Category 1 (the most stringent designation) and (most significantly) adding a special use permitting section that will include from now on public notice to affected land-owners on any proposed HILU use under any category and an opportunity to present relevant, competent, and material evidence of why a permit should not be issued. The following evidentiary categories will be considered regarding a proposed development:

(1) Will it endanger the public health or safety?
(2) Will it injure the value of adjoining or abutting property?
(3) Will it be in harmony with the area in which it is located?
(4) Will it be in conformity with the land-use plan, thoroughfare plan, or other plan officially adopted by the County Commission?

Having watched and participated in struggles over land-use planning in Watauga since the 1990s, my enthusiasm for this enormous leap forward is based on an appreciation for history and for the ironies contained therein. We wanted a special-use permitting process when the HILU ordinance was first passed more than a decade ago, and the reigning powers at that time looked at us like we had tails. The reigning powers now are still Republican, but...

Things changed. The citizens rose up and made themselves heard. What the current County Commission heard loud and clear (and as someone this morning said), "We don't feel safe in this county." They should feel considerably safer this morning.

The original HILU came about because of the threat of an asphalt plant on the Roby Greene Road. It was a grudging ordinance. Powerful forces wanted no land-use regs of any kind. A county committee made up equally of "zoners" and "no-zoners" argued and jaw-boned and negotiated for months, and what emerged eventually was watered-down and weak.

Another asphalt plant threat suddenly emerged this year, and what has happened now is not weak, not compromised away into insignificance. It has teeth now. It remains to be seen how it will work, but the citizens who banded together and formed High Country Watch deserve praise and congratulations for moving this county forward light-years from where it was.

DAN SOUCEK & THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Realistically, part of the pressure that began to mount on the County Commission to change the HILU was prompted by the power-grab obligingly engineered by Senator Dan Soucek to take away Boone's extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ), at the behest of major developers who despised Boone's land-use planning regs.

Sen. Dan Soucek

As you should know by now, the three-judge panel hearing Boone's lawsuit against Soucek's "local bill" yesterday threw out the law as unconstitutional.

But the upset among ETJ residents living in fear of what could happen to their investments after Soucek's law passed was certainly part of the increased public awareness and the energy that funneled into High Country Watch.

That struggle isn't over, of course. Soucek told the Watauga Democrat, "I fully intend to ask [the Attorney General's Office] to appeal. The residents of the ETJ shouldn’t have their properties subject to a town council that they didn’t vote for. They’re my constituents, and I will continue to fight for their property rights."

Whose property rights? The individuals who originally induced Mr. Soucek to file his bill. The rest of you can, well, suck it!

Soucek wants to see this case reach the NC Supreme Court, where a 5-4 conservative Republican majority ought (he thinks) uphold his power-grab (as it recently upheld giving public tax dollars to private schools, another of Mr. Soucek's pet projects). He's possibly right. Considering the blistering he just experienced from the three-judge panel, we don't know. But by its action this morning, the County Commission rendered at least some of the fear among ETJ residents moot. (County regs do not, however, address steep-slope development, which is a major feature of Boone's regs.)

Ironically, Soucek helped move Watauga County miles down the road toward effective land-use planning. Also ironically, it took a new Republican County Commission Chair, Jimmy Hodges, to swing the vote. Nathan Miller would never have taken the county where its gone today.

Of course, we are realistic. Only a limited number of uses are covered by HILU:

Category 1: Asphalt Plants, Cement Mixing Facilities, Quarries/Stone Crushers, Chemical Manufacturing, Chemical Storage Facilities, and Explosives Manufacturing.

Category 2. Automotive Graveyards, Propane or Gasoline Bulk Storage Facilities, Chip Mills, Electricity Generating Facilities (excluding Wind and Solar Power Farms), and Junk/Scrap Yards.

Category 3. Fuel Oil Bulk Storage Facilities, Electric Substations, Commercial/Industrial Development with aggregate building footprint 50,000 square feet or greater, Recycling Facilities, and Solar Power Farms.

Still to be subjected to special use permits and county land-use planning are high-density housing projects (The Cottages, anyone?), but we've taken a step in the right direction.

The Evolution of Deborah Greene

Back in 2001-2002, Deborah Greene led the county forces who were against land-use planning to protect the citizens/homeowners from polluting industries, specifically (and most especially) asphalt plants. We were fighting on the other side.

Deborah Greene won that battle and in the process managed the defeat of county commissioners Sue Sweeting and Pat Wilkie in the fall of 2002, lambasting those two women as "pro-zoning."

Deborah Greene was a formidable opponent, the best organizer and strategist that the local Republicans had -- smart, capable, and effective.

Last night at yet another public hearing before the Watauga County Commission on yet another proposed Maymead asphalt plant, I heard Deborah Greene repent. She said, "I'm ashamed to say today that I opposed the group [Citizens Against Pollution] that fought an asphalt plant at Roby Greene Road because I was afraid that my farm would be zoned. I'm older and wiser today."

"If it takes zoning to stop it [the newest Maymead asphalt plant]," Greene said in closing, "then zone it!"

Goes to show that there really are "second acts" in America. And that Maymead now has another potent force lined up against their power and their greed.

FOOTNOTE
Several speakers at last night's public hearing mentioned ruefully that there had been no public notice nor public hearing when Maymead first decided it would put an asphalt plant on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Byway in close proximity to residential development.

It might interest current County Commissioners that, as originally proposed, the High Impact Land Use Ordinance did include public notice and a public hearing for those negatively affected by the location of a polluting industry. That provision was removed by the Republican-dominated County Commission of that day (as Jimmy Hodges might well remember, since he was sitting on the Commission at that time, as a Democrat).

That public notice/public hearing provision should be reinstated now.

Will the Watauga County Commission Do Anything About the Proposed Maymead Asphalt Plant?

The Watauga County Commission won't do anything to protect the citizens from another asphalt plant if they listen to their attorney, that's for sure.

The attorney representing Eggers Eggers Eggers & Eggers was very discouraging when Commissioner John Welch asked what the procedures were for instituting a moratorium, which is what the majority of the speakers at the public hearing tonight begged the commissioners to pass. Oh it's very difficult, it's very hard, it has to pass rigorous tests, EggersEggersEggersEggers belly-ached, but every specific "test" to warrant a moratorium that EggersEtc. mentioned seemed like a snap to me, especially the presence of an "immediate threat."

What is the proposed Maymead asphalt plant on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Byway if not an immediate threat?

Commission Chair Jimmy Hodges said that his fellow commissioners would be considering their options as they went into closed session with their -- ahem! -- attorney, the ineffable Republican agglomeration of EggersEggersSquared. Everyone left the commissioners' meeting at that point, for their closed session. I didn't wait around for them to come out of closed session, and neither did any members of the press. Maybe someone is posted as a guard of the public trust there and will let the rest of us know if the Eggers' brand held the commissioners in check and if they might have stumbled into actually doing something for the rest of us.

Jimmy Hodges, as always now, is the swing vote. The other two Republicans were noticeable silent after the public hearing, though you could see Mr. David Blust's body language and Mr. Perry Yates's facial expression as not-prepared-to-take-action "tells." Mr. Hodges, on the other hand (along with the two Democrats, John Welch and Billy Kennedy), was at least mouthing sympathy and understanding for the plight of residents and school children at two elementary schools near where Maymead intends -- by its own estimate -- to spew 62.32 tons yearly of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds. (Several people during the public hearing said they didn't believe Maymead's estimate for their own pollution -- why would they have any incentive to be honest under NC's current trust-the-polluter regime? -- and neither do I. Those estimates of air pollution are quite simply public jokes worthy of public ridicule.)

Anyway ... Jimmy Hodges, he's the man with the power to do something. Will he? Dunno. He has a history of voting for moratoria on asphalt plants back in the 1990s when he was first on the County Commission. But, of course, he's become a registered Republican since that time, and it's the ironclad Republican doctrine that private land ownership trumps public health, private investment by the neighbors, and the moral dictates of God Himself.

Watauga Turns a Corner

Nathan Millerism appears to be really, most sincerely dead in Watauga County.

And the people rejoiced.

Jordan Bill Targets Boone's Planned Water Intake

Yesterday, just making "crossover" in the General Assembly:

RALEIGH A bill to restrict local governments' land purchases resurfaced in the state House early Thursday after being voted down in committee Monday, but only after its scope was significantly narrowed.

The bill would originally have required that municipalities and other units of local government get permission from their county commissioners before buying property.

Now it applies only to Ashe and Watauga counties and only to acquisitions in which units of local government are condemning property outside their boundaries.

[Asheville Citizen-Times]

Jonathan Jordan’s House Bill 875, entitled “Restrict Municipal Eminent Domain,” did pass the NC House yesterday and is now before the Senate rules and operations committee. It would become effective upon approval instead of July 1st, as in the original wording. If passed, the bill would require the consent of county commissioners within the affected county before a municipality could acquire property by eminent domain ... clearly targeting Boone's intentions of obtaining easements for a water pipeline from the New River.

This nasty little piece of special targeting will pass the Senate because ... it will. Who in the Republican majority in the General Assembly would miss an opportunity to punish the Town of Boone?

But ... this special targeting of Boone seems based on the Nathan Miller Era of the county commission and may not take the true measure of its new County Commission Chair Jimmy Hodges, who is a Chamber of Commerce sort of Democrat-turned-Republican and who is almost guaranteed to like the idea of a new water system (which, need we add, can be completed by Boone, at the expense of Boone citizens, and then blithely seized by the General Assembly for a "regional water authority," with the help, no doubt, of the same Jonathan Jordan).

This is bad business for Boone, all the way around.

Meanwhile in Watauga: Not Quite 'The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius,' But Closer Than We Were

The second day of the budget workshops clinched the impression that the Watauga County Commission (still 3-2, Republican advantage) has gone decidedly moderate since the departure of former Chair Nathan Miller. Under new board Chair Jimmy Hodges (a former Democrat, ahem), there's a whole new tone of expansive progressivism. Or maybe we should hedge our bets and borrow presidential candidate Jeb Bush's term for the campaign he intends to run: "an inclusive conservatism."

I knew we were in very different post-Nathan Miller territory when Democratic Commissioner Billy Kennedy pushed yesterday, on the final afternoon of the budget workshops, for a $10,000 grant for the Hospitality House. If you'll recall, under the Nathan Miller Regime, funding for most non-profits was either greatly reduced or zeroed out. The Hospitality House was a particular target for zeroing out, and for the last few budget cycles it got nothing from the county while providing social services that would otherwise fall on the county to provide.

$10,000, Commissioner Kennedy proposed, and Chair Jimmy Hodges said, "I'm okay with it." That comment was not lost of the other two Republicans, Blust and Yates, who now appear out-numbered on that issue. Jimmy Hodges has become the unpredictable swing vote on the Commission.

What happened in the discussion yesterday is by no means final or official. It was a "penciling in" of an amount for the County Manager and his finance team to juggle in coming up with a final budget that will be voted on later this spring. So we'll see if Mr. Hodges continues to be "okay with it."

Other Issues
County Manager Deron Geoque plans a modest cost-of-living increase for county employees ("but not for county commissioners!" Perry Yates almost shouted. He didn't like the perception of a salary increase for elected commissioners).

Matt Vincent, head of the Tourism Development Authority, said he wanted the county to take over maintenance of capital improvements, like greenways and bike trails, because the fear of maintenance costs was preventing the Tea Party element (my words, not Mr. Vincent's) on the TDA from initiating grant applications for more capital improvements. Commissioner David Blust, who's always complained about maintenance costs, remained conspicuously quiet at that moment.

The Republican majority on the commission expressed love for Horn in the West and unified hostility toward the restoration of the Appalachian Theater in downtown Boone. Commissioner Kennedy was urging his fellow commissioners to give equal support to both the Horn and the theater as community-building venues for the performance arts, but Boone-hatred is still pretty much the modus operandi of county Republicans. "Not enough parking," Yates groused, and Chairman Hodges focused on "bars" downtown and "intoxicated people" as reasons the theater will never succeed. But the commission agreed to invite the people in charge of the theater restoration to a meeting soon to 'splain themselves and (presumably) beg for money.

A New Tone on the Watauga County Commission (Hurray!)

The Watauga County Commission, in its post-Nathan Miller honeymoon phase, is a decidedly different place. Case in point at the two-day budget workshop that started today:

Right off the bat, the commissioners heard a consulting firm's feasibility report on a new county recreation center, with a whopping bottomline of $25,169,200 (including "soft costs"). The question that County Manager Deron Geoque posed to the sphinx-like Republicans: Do we proceed with more feasibility costs on this project, namely civil engineering (detrmining the water table, for example), surveying, etc.

Everyone was waiting for new Chair Jimmy Hodges to speak, and he finally did. He said he was in favor of a new rec center ("I support this," were his exact words), but he threw a curveball as he began channeling his inner real estate broker. Hodges wants to pursue acquiring new property for the project, namely the original Lowe's property where Appalachian State University now has its warehouse and purchasing department.

Hodges has a vision of a new county recreation center operating in tandem with the new school of nursing and an expanded medical center campus, which is indeed an arresting, in fact invigorating, vision for a county that has been extremely cramped for any progressive vision since, oh, 2010.

God knows how this will play out, but without Nathan Miller sandbagging their thought processes, the other two Republican members of the Commission appear ripe for seduction by a more liberal spirit on the board.