News

Planning board OKs subdivisions containing 97 lots in Tracy Grove, Dana

Homeowner JR Blackwell tells the Henderson County Planning Board that septic tanks for 45 homes and adding more traffic onto Tracy Grove Road pose a health issue and safety hazards. ‘When I was a kid growing up, you might see 10 cars a day. Now you see 10 cars a minute,’ he said.

By Bill Moss, Published: February 28, 2025

Two subdivisions of similar size and density moved closer to getting a green light to break ground after the Henderson County Planning Board OK'd proposed master plans for both last week.

Over the objections of neighboring homeowners who expressed concerns about traffic and about septic tanks potentially contaminating their well water, the board OK’d plans for 45 homes on 25 acres bounded by Tracy Grove and Duncan roads. It also approved a master plan for a 52-home subdivision on the Orchard Trace par-3 golf course in Dana.

In Tracy Grove, landowner Christopher A. Smith plans a subdivision on property that had been an apple orchard farmed by the father-and-son growers Cecil and Allan Henderson.

“We’ve got 45 houses coming in with 45 septic tanks on third-acre lots,” JR Blackwell said during a public hearing. “That’s a health issue, in my opinion. I think there’s 20-plus houses (nearby), plus Mount Carmel church and WTZQ radio station. There’s wells that are the less than 100 feet from the property. My opinion, they may need to look somewhere else for a different way of sewer.”

Traffic was another concern.

“The intersection of Tracy Grove Road and Duncan Road — getting in and out, it’s almost impossible,” Blackwell said. “You’re going to be adding more traffic to it. We’ve got the school traffic coming through to the community college every day, and that’s been a cut-through now for everything from (U.S.) 64 over to south side of town. When I was a kid growing up, you might see 10 cars a day. Now you see 10 cars a minute.”

Stan Duncan, whose home is directly north of the site, expressed concern about the septic tanks and stormwater runoff.

“The leaching that comes down that hill hits that ditch, comes under Tracy Grove Road and hits a corner of my property and flows through my property until it gets eventually to one of the major creeks and empties into Mud Creek,” he said. “My concern is sewage leakage not being properly taken care of in those septic tanks coming down that hill.”

Scott Roach, the project manager for the subdivision, said the landowners had tried for weeks to work out a way to extend city sewer service to the site.

“We tried multiple routes,” he said. “We even approached about a lift station. The city of Hendersonville shot that down immediately.”

When a planning board asked why, Roach responded: “They don’t want it. They don’t want to own it, they don’t want to operate it.”

Homeowners who are already there, Roach said, will be able to tie into a new city water main that will be extended from Wilmont Drive, where another new development is going up.

“We are going to run at the developer’s cost about 3,300 linear feet of public water to the site and up into the site,” he said. “It will have fire protection. There will be hydrants there.”

Planning board member Rick Livingston tried to assure the opponents that local and state regulations protect water         quality in areas served by septic tanks.

“If this development meets the letter of the law regarding zoning, then please understand that our hands are, for the most part, tied,” he said. “If they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, there’s nothing we can do to stop it unless there are extenuating circumstances that we see that are going to cause major problems.

“As far as the sewer goes … before any septic system is approved to be installed, the Henderson County health department manages that. Those folks are experts at determining what’s safe and what’s dangerous, what might happen in the future. That’s the reason that we have those folks, that’s the reason that we lean on them for their expertise.”

Orchard Trace

On Sugarloaf Road, landowners Debra and Flaughn Lamb have submitted plans for 52 lots on 32.4 acres with 27 percent of the land set aside as open space. The homes would be served by Hendersonville city water and a private community septic system. Lot sizes would be 4,000 to 5,200 square feet, creating an overall density of 1½ units/acre.

The main entrance to the development would come off Sugarloaf Road at the existing driveway and connect via the internal lanes to a second entrance off Pace Road.

Aerial photos from 1961 and 1984 aerial show the property in use as an apple orchard. A farmhouse built in 1912 was used for many years as the clubhouse of the pitch-and-putt course.

The planning board voted 7-1 to OK the Orchard Trace plan after voting 6-1 in favor of the Tracy Grove subdivision, with board member Bruce Hatfield voting no on both motions.

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