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LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: (more questions than) Answers Desk is open

By Lightning Editorial Board, Published: October 26, 2023

The Lightning editorial board was invited to take a turn behind the (more questions than) Answers Desk as this week’s guest prober of important public issues.

We were happy to oblige. So let’s get on with it. Today’s topic is the decision last week by the Henderson County Board of Commissioners to relax the county’s prohibition to allow construction and fill in floodways. OK, we’re not promising we can run all these to the ground but we’ll give it our best “Jack Russell vise on the ankle” effort to cut through the fog and dissembling. Shoot.

What is a floodway anyhow?

According to the planning staff, a floodway is “the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot.”

The channel of the river? Developers can now build in the river?

Well, the three honorables who voted for fill in the floodplain — commissioners Michael Edney, Daniel Andreotta and David Hill — didn’t say that exactly but if you see pile drivers pounding away in Mud Creek and the French Broad River you’ll know why.

Who asked for this?

Funny you should ask. We have no idea. The staff description before the Planning Board and the Board of Commissioners is classic slippery government-ese: “Planning staff received an application for a text amendment (#TX-2023-04) to amend the special fill requirements for the floodways and non-encroachment areas.”

But it didn’t identify the applicant?

Nope. Susan Frady, the retired city of Hendersonville planning director who now works for the pro-development Partnership for Economic Progress, presented the application before the Planning Board. She’s declined to identify the applicant when the Lightning has asked.

Sounds fishy. Did anyone warn against the change?

Glad you asked. Yes! Mills River Fire & Rescue Chief Rick Livingston, a certified swift-water rescuer, warned that narrowing the channel for water increases the velocity of floodwaters and thus heightens the risk to the public. “From an emergency services standpoint,” he said, “we’re talking about human lives.” The planning board voted 5-2 to recommend denial. Planning Board member Linda Bradley, whose family owns Turf Mountain Sod, and County Commission Chair Rebecca McCall, who represents the apple country district, both warned about the loss of farmland. And Commissioner Bill Lapsley, who spent 45 years as a civil engineer around here, strongly admonished his colleagues not to open this floodgate, to coin a phrase.

Seems like all that would have carried the day.

Nah. Commissioner Michael Edney said the floodway land amounts to less than 1 percent of the county’s total acreage. That was apparently more persuasive.

But is that relevant?

Of course not. It’s lawyerly misdirection. Of course the floodway is a minute fraction of the total acreage. Minute but not de minimis, if we might use a courtroom word ourselves. It still matters that the county’s made a change to potentially make flooding much worse, endangering lives and property and enriching developers in the process.

What happens next?

Our answer, as we sign off from the (more questions than) Answers Desk, is: Next time it starts to rain hard, avoid driving anywhere near Mud Creek or the French Broad River.