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WHO TO CONTACT

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The County Commission will be considering the draft Comprehensive Plan from now until they take a vote in the spring/summer of 2023.  You can email them, speak at the beginning of any of their meetings, and/or call them directly if you know them personally.  If you want guidance about how/when to communicate, please feel free to reach out to us.​

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EMAIL COUNTY COMMISSION 

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Please email them at least once before they vote on the plan, which could be as early as May.  Feel free to email them again, but vary your message.  Always be polite.  These are smart, decent, hard-working people who care about the county as much as we do:

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Rebecca McCall, Chair

(828) 697-4808, rmccall@hendersoncountync.gov

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J. Michael Edney, Vice-Chair

(828) 697-4808, jmedney@hendersoncountync.gov

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Daniel Andreotta, Commissioner

(828) 697-4808, dandreotta@hendersoncountync.gov

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David Hill, Commissioner

(828) 697-4808, davidhill@hendersoncountync.gov

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William Lapsley, Commissioner

(828) 697-4808, wlapsley@hendersoncountync.gov

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Copy and paste the addresses below to send one quick email to all County Commissioners:

wlapsley@hendersoncountync.gov, rmccall@hendersoncountync.gov, jmedney@hendersoncountync.gov, davidhill@hendersoncountync.gov, dandreotta@hendersoncountync.gov

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SAMPLE LANGUAGE FOR EMAILS

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Local officials have little respect for canned communications.  If they think someone told you what to say, they'll discount it.  So even though we offer sample language below, please read our Rural Protection and County Plan pages, think through the issues, and personalize your email. 

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Also note, county officials actually seem to believe that their draft Comprehensive Plan will protect our farms, forests, natural areas, etc.  So please don't question their integrity or good intentions.  Just politely offer your own perspective. 

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Below is sample language.  There's no need to mention all three desired changes to the plan.  Feel free to focus on just one or two that matter the most to you:

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Thank you for setting an intention to protect the county's rural areas from sprawl development, which threatens not just our farms and forests but also clean air, clean water, and the county's fiscal health.  Thank you also for wanting to create a local land fund.  Uses of the land fund should be broadened to include more than just farmland.  Still, you've made a great start

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To protect rural areas, you'll need to make three changes to the current draft: 

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• PROTECTION FROM SUBDIVISIONS:  Proposed rural densities are way too high.  Allowing up to one house for every acre, with greater density for some developments, will destroy rural landscapes that currently have only one house for every 10 to 25 acres.  The current draft is an open invitation for subdivisions to replace our farms and forests.

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• PROTECTION FROM INAPPROPRIATE COMMERCIAL:  Our rural areas need strong new restrictions for commercial enterprises.  A gun range, a commercial hotel, and a 1,000-unit storage facility threaten or recently threatened the beauty and serenity of Saluda, Green River, and Crab Creek, respectively.  Why should our rural residents need to raise money, hire lawyers, and defend themselves?  Instead, the county should make it illegal to destroy a community's rural character. 

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• PROTECTION FROM URBAN SERVICES:  You'll also need to do a better job preventing the extension of sewer and other services into rural areas, because they quickly attract development.  Shrinking the "utilities service area" will require cooperation with other players, including the City of Hendersonville.  Coooperation is always a challenge, but it must be done.

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Again , the county deserves high praise for wanting to create a land fund.  But that alone won't protect our rural areas from sprawl.  If you want the plan to fulfill its stated goals, you'll also need to make the three changes listed above.  Many thanks for considering my comments!

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CRAB CREEK'S LETTER TO THE COUNTY

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If you want to include further details on any of the three bullet points above, take a look at our own letter to county officials, sent in October 2022.  Note:  at the bottom of the first page, our letter mentions a rural housing density of as much as one unit per two acres.  That's based on an earlier draft of the plan.  The current draft doubles rural housing density to as much as one unit per acre.  If you want to talk about rural housing densities in your message, make sure you don't copy the outdated language in our letter.

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PAGE LAST UPDATED 2 FEBRUARY 2023.

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