Madison ridge top group plans to scrap 50-foot setback, but subdivisions 'main offender'

MARSHALL - Madison County's Ridge Top Subcommittee, composed of five members of the county Planning Board, stressed its intentions to move deliberately in drafting its recommendations to send back to the Planning Board.

In its first special meeting May 24, the subcommittee, comprised of Madison County Planning Board members Daniel Rice, Lee Wilde, Clayton Honeycutt and Planning Board Chair Jered Silver, met with Development Services Director Brad Guth and Assistant to the County Manager Mandy Bradley at the county commissioners' Marshall offices.

In the meeting, the board laid out its goals and main talking points, and determined that in addition to the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance, which Madison County formed in 2010 that includes a 50-foot setback requirement for building on ridge tops 3,000 feet and higher, the subcommittee plans to beef up regulation of its subdivisions.

In the Planning Board's May 21 meeting, it granted a building permit to the homeowner at 32 Hickory Ridge Drive, located in the Seven Glens subdivision on the border of Madison and Buncombe Counties. The project will go before the Madison County Board of Adjustment on May 28, where the applicant will seek a 25-foot variance to the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance's 50-foot setback requirement.

"Subdivisions are the main offender here," Honeycutt said in that May 21 meeting. "That's the one that everyone's going to see just constantly."

As pointed out by Guth, the Seven Glens home, which will be the second Seven Glens home to go before the Board of Adjustment in which the owner is seeking a setback variance came before the Planning Board because the Seven Glens development was established prior to the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance's 2010 foundation.

"That lot was subdivided before the ordinance was in place, so they didn't have to meet the minimum lot size, which is 2 acres, but they still have to meet the setback, which is why they're going to the Board of Adjustment for a variance," Guth said of the May 21 meeting.

Silver and Honeycutt pointed to subdivisions such as Seven Glens and Wolf Laurel and numerous lots in those developments being smaller than the 2-acre minimum lot size put in place in the 2010 Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance.

"Seven Glens is a good example, Wolf Laurel is a really good example," Silver said.

The Board of Adjustment approved the first Seven Glens project in its January meeting, the first project that was approved for a setback variance after the Planning Board recommended in December to scrap the 50-foot setback requirement in response to an application from Russell Blevins, who owns both sides of a ridge at Mountain Park in Mars Hill.

To avoid this scenario in the future, the subcommittee discussed the possibility of including a box to check off on the building applications to indicate whether the development site was established prior to 2010.

Public comment

The subcommittee did allow public comment, and Blevins was one of three attendees who spoke during the public comments period, where he reiterated his stance that because he owns both sides of the ridge, he should be able to build on top of the ridge, where he feels is his most stable building ground.

The subcommittee members agreed with Blevins.

"If an individual that owns however many acres wants to build a house with the normal setbacks of 20 feet, that's not what we're really worried about," Silver said. "That group of people should be able to build their house without this affecting them."

Barbara Fant owns a ridge in Spring Creek and said she felt building on ridge tops was like "putting lipstick on a pig."

"It is a fool's mission to build on a ridgeline above 3,000 feet," Fant said. "To build above 3,000 feet, you have to be able to withstand a wind of 120 miles per hour."

The group said it ultimately agreed with keeping in place the majority of the components of the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance, except for the 50-foot setback requirement, which board members said they would like to see changed.

Wilde said the group agrees with the majority of the regulation in the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance, including the 20-foot property line setback, the 35-foot maximum building height and the maximum 25% lot clearance.

As it's laid out in county ordinances, if the ridge is not the property line, there is a 20-foot setback requirement.

As for a timeline, the subcommittee members said it would like to meet weekly so as to bring the recommendations to the Planning Board's July meeting for a vote.

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Subdivision, ridge top overlay district regulation

Honeycutt drafted a list of recommendations in a "ridge top overlay district" in the Madison County Subdivision Control Ordinance.

In the draft recommendations, Honeycutt listed a number of a recommendations for the lots that are at 3,000 feet and higher, including establishing a rear lot line and regulating a minimum lot size of 3.5 acres, as a suggestion for a framework.

Currently, county ordinances regulate a 2-acre minimum lot size. While Honeycutt's recommendations list a 3.5-acre minimum as a suggestion, Wilde advocated for bumping the 2-acre minimum lot size to a 4-acre minimum.

Honeycutt said he'd like to see the rear lot line maximum raised, so as to "spread those houses out."

The 25% lot clearing is a bit more difficult to enforce, Honeycutt said.

"Our topography is such that there's not a box that everything fits in," Honeycutt said. "The majority of good developments, good subdivisions, the kind of subdivisions we want to see in our county, they would adopt most of this in their HOA."

Silver and Honeycutt both said they've built houses in a number of subdivisions, and added that many subdivisions' HOAs are stricter than the current county ordinances.

"Ultimately, the goal is to spread houses out," Honeycutt said in the subcommittee's discussion of rear lot lines and suggestions of setbacks.

"Let's make the least impact that we can."

The Madison County Planning Board's Ridge Top Subcommittee will hold its next special meeting May 31 at 12:30 p.m. at the Marshall library, located at 1335 N. Main St.

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: Ridge top group plans to undo 50-ft. setback, beef up subdivision laws