News

Commissioners boot comp plan vote beyond primary

By Bill Moss, Published: February 20, 2024

Henderson County commissioners pulled the planned adoption of the 2045 comprehensive land-use plan from their Feb. 21 agenda, kicking a highly anticipated vote beyond the primary election in which two incumbents face challenges propelled largely by growth management issues.

“We just recently received the updated version after all the changes that we went through,” Board of Commissioners Chair Rebecca McCall said. “We thought we’d given ourselves enough time to review it but some commissioners wanted some additional time.”

Asked which commissioners, she said, “We all agreed that it would be good to have extra time so it doesn’t really matter who. We had extended the 2020 plan to the end of March so the timing will be fine with the mid-March meeting.”

Asked whether the delay was intended to push a closely watched vote beyond the March 5 primary, she said, “I really don’t have any comment one way or the other regarding the primary but I don’t think it would be appropriate to have it in an evening meeting (on March 4) because it’s more suitable item for a daytime meeting.”

Incumbents Daniel Andreotta and David Hill face Sheila Franklin and Jay Egolf in the Republican primary. The challengers have criticized both incumbents’ moves to retreat from the stronger land conservation goals that the county Planning Board recommended and for their vote last October to ease the zoning code’s ban on construction next to creeks and rivers.