Gilmer County commissioners held a special meeting Monday morning to vote on advertising for passage of a revised land use ordinance. Instead, the document is headed for a ninth draft.
“I would rather do it right than do it quick,” said Gilmer County Chair Charlie Paris at the March 22 meeting.
Much of the discussion took place about requiring feeder roads for housing developments to have 60 foot right of way requirements.
Planning board member and developer Jim Dupont said this would reduce the number of roads available to develop land down to 12 percent.
Director of Public Works Jim Smith verified very few of the roads in Gilmer County have 60 foot of right of way.
As for development, Smith said the 60 foot requirement was not an overreach. Development brings more utilities which need to be located along the road, requiring right of way.
“We should be looking to the future, just not just what’s happening to us today,” he said. “We’ve got development going on right now on substandard roads which will increase traffic 10 to a hundred fold.”
Having to locate a water line in a ditch next to a road is not good planning, Smith said.
Post Commissioner Hubert Parker said one effect of the 60 foot requirement would be to shut down future development on Roundtop Road.
Dupont said staying at the 40 foot requirement would open up more possibilities.
One concern Paris voiced was future development in the county. He said fiber optic cable, water and sewer lines and natural gas lines require room to be installed along roadways.
“I’m not sure 40 foot will give us the ability to put those underground without affecting the draining, the ditching we have to maintain,” he said.
When these things come and the county has to go back and acquire right of way, people will be upset, Paris said.
“I am a big advocate of planning for the future,” he said.
Greater Gilmer Joint Development Authority Executive Director Kent Sanford said board members were not allowing for variations based on the size of developments.
Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson said she would be in favor of tweaking the requirements, more right of way needed for larger developments.
In the end, Paris asked attorney David Clark to keep the 40 foot right of way requirement but add language which would allow the county to come up with a system of classifying roads and judging the suitability for development.
Board members also asked for changes to driveway slope requirements and measures to prevent gravel from driveways from spilling into roadways.
Paris said he was changing his view on driveway requirements. Instead of requiring a driveway to be built for large tanker fire trucks to be able to access homes he was going to begin discussions on equipping the fire department as a mountain fire department.
He said if a driveway can accommodate a pickup truck, it can accommodate an ambulance. Firefighters could then use a mini-pumper truck to fight a fire at the home. Tankers could be placed farther away and feed the mini-pumper.
Gilmer County has one older mini-pumper now. Paris said they would look at purchasing more.
A ninth draft of the land use ordinance is slated to be ready for the regular April meeting of the board.