Buncombe County recently enacted a stricter steep slope ordinance that has some people cheering while others are jeering over construction limitations.

In an effort to curtail the escalating trend of landowners building on steep slopes and ridges, county commissioners toughened their stance after voting 5-0 in October to provide stricter guidelines for those wanting to build on slopes with a grade of 25 percent or higher.

Under the new ordinance, landowners whose property has a 25-percent to 35-percent incline can disturb no more than 30 percent of the lot. Any incline greater than 35 percent reduces the proportion to 15 percent.

Nathan Ramsey, who chaired of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners from 2000-08, said the latest action is too drastic, as most of the land within the county falls within the ordinance guidelines.

“When I was on the board I supported many versions of the steep slope ordinance until it became too stringent,” he said. “It made sense until the latest rules, but now it affects most of the slopes in the county. It doesn’t work from a responsible growth standpoint. Basically everything in Buncombe County is now affected by the steep slope rules.”

Ramsey said he lost re-election in 2008 after he opposed the coming changes, and he again spoke out after realizing the new rules would harm lower-income families in the community.

“One of the biggest public challenges is that … owning a home is very unaffordable,” he said. “Forty percent of the citizens in Buncombe County cannot afford housing. It’s a huge challenge that just got bigger. There’s no doubt it will increase home prices. It’s really going to hurt housing affordability.”

Gillian Phillips, a planner with the Buncombe County Planning and Development Department, disagreed. She said many lots in the county that do not fall under the ordinance and that most of the affected land would have been built with larger, more expensive homes anyway.

Phillips said her department spent a lot of time consulting professionals, including engineers and architects, to determine what guidelines potential homebuilders would use.

“The purpose of the ordinance is really to have people use the best practices when using the land,” she said. “To date, we haven’t had any one not build on their property. They’ve all been able to meet regulations.”

Mountain Voices Alliance spokeswoman and Buncombe County resident Elaine Lite said her group supports the stricter steep slope ordinance. Keeping the ancient mountaintops intact is a priority.

“In the past we’ve really screwed up on the infrastructure of our old mountains,” Lite said. “Nobody’s been held accountable until now.”

Lite said unscrupulous developers, most from non-mountainous regions like Florida, are responsible for clear cutting large tracts of land on the mountaintops, causing huge problems for residents living on land below.

“We want to stop people who come from the flatlands and want to cut down the trees for the views, but they are destroying people’s land lower than them. The clear cut removal of trees and boulders has resulted in numerous landslides and loss of life. It’s painful to see the beautiful habitat for wild life gone and watch storm water runoff causing erosion and other safety issues,” she added.

“People who have lived for generations in pre-existing homes are experiencing flooding and landslides for the first time and they have no insurance to pay for it,” Lite said.

She said the new steep slope ordinance will put common sense back into the process and put safe limits on building.

“Some people don’t want any growth on the mountains,” she said. “We don’t say ‘you can’t do it.’ We just say ‘do it within reason.’ There has to be a balance in the community. It deserves protection.”

Michael Sanera, director of research and local government studies at the John Locke Foundation, said the newest slope regulations are nothing more than a theft of property through regulation.

“Buncombe County is taking away the value of the property without compensation,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s cheaper to steal it then to buy it.”

Sanera is concerned that potential property owners and builders will be kept in the dark about the ordinance when purchasing land.

“They need to give a full disclosure that they were made aware of the ordinance,” he said. “They need to see the maps that show if they are in the slope area or not before they buy.”

Sanera said the county should have enforced regulations that existed before October 2010, rather than create new ones. “The steep slope ordinance has very little to do with dangerous slopes and is more in response to a narrow public interest, a tiny elite trying to push their aesthetic values on others,” he said. “It’s a direct conflict with property rights.”

Ramsey agreed. “At the end of the day, you can enact rules that claim to protect public safety,” he said. “The biggest thing was people didn’t want someone coming in and developing farmlands and mountains. This has nothing to do with environmental protection. They simply didn’t want anyone ruining their view.”

Lite said it’s time to face the changes in the world.

“At this point global changes are happening,” she said. “We’re really going to have to come to the realization that things are not as they were. The world is a different place. We need to rethink our priorities. We need to value what we have here. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. The mountains deserve our protection.”

Karen Welsh is a contributor to Carolina Journal.