News

New manager leads Mills River in era of growth

Jeff Wells started as Mills River town manager on Jan. 20.

By Bill Moss, Published: February 3, 2015

MILLS RIVER — Jeff Wells caught a bug for planning in car rides between his rural hometown and the bigger city of Chattanooga.

"I was just always interested in why things are where they are," he said. "Grocery store — why is it here? Why is the McDonald's here? Why is a convenience store way off on its own down here? I was always interested in maps and routes of how to get places, just always trying to find that shortcut. I was always very fascinated with that. That's where my love of the profession came from."
The Tennessee native started work last week as Mills River's new town manager, replacing Jaime Laughter, who became Transylvania County manager last August after leading town government for eight years.
Wells started his studies at UNC Greensboro as a business major and "hated it." He switched to geography with an urban studies focus and also earned a double major in history. "Luckily in college, like a lot of people do, I kind of found my way and my love," he said. It was Friday morning and Wells had just finished his first Town Council meeting. Fittingly for the farm community that has become ground zero of industrial development, the town board had just made a decision that will likely produce more change. It approved a property tax break expected to result in the building of a $27 million manufacturing plant and the creation of 173 jobs. It's Wells' job to help town leaders plan for growth.
"I really do enjoy public service," he said. "I've spent most of my career as a practicing planner but I had a great mentor in the city of Archdale city manager and I supervised a staff not too different from the number of staff here. I got a lot of experience in administration and budgeting."

'Perfect opportunity'

He left the job in Archdale to work for Benchmark, a consulting firm that provides planning services to cities in central North Carolina. While he worked as planning director for Kannapolis, he wanted to build on the leadership roles he had taken on "wearing many hats" in Archdale, a small town south of Greensboro.
"I really was able to learn about the role of administration and management and it was a career goal of mine and when I saw the opportunity here in Mills River I just saw it was the perfect opportunity for me." Because the Mills River town manager doubles as the planning director, "it seemed like the perfect for me," he said.
The move to the North Carolina mountains was a good fit for his young family, too. His wife, Rebecca, the daughter of an Appalachian State zoology professor and a schoolteacher, was eager to move back to the mountains.
"As time has gone on, she's missed it," said Wells, who is 38. "We did a lot of research, too, about the quality of life here. Everybody says such great things about it, and the quality schools here. It's a great professional move for me but it's also a great personal move for me and the family."
The couple have a son, Zane, almost 4, and a baby girl due in mid-March.
"It was real important for us to get here before baby girl came," he said. "We wanted to make sure Zane got acclimated and got into a routine."
A geography major, Rebecca worked in water quality management for the city of Greensboro for 10 years,. She currently stays at home with their son. The couple are renting a house for a year while they sell their home in Mooresville and decide where to buy in Mills River.

'How much growth?'

The biggest and most contentious topic on the Town Council is a multifamily housing proposal the Planning Board has recommended. Wells' assessment of the land-use changes reveals both a planner's caution and an appreciation for the farm community's reservations about too many people living too close together.
"It's a good proposal," he said. "I think that it would certainly need to be tweaked to fit what I feel would be good for Mills River. I think we probably need to assess things a little bit more globally and look at some options, perhaps look at single-family detached first and go in a little more graduated fashion. ... To go up to 10 units per acre is a pretty big jump."
The housing issue is a subset of the bigger question Mills River faces.
"I know one of the decisions the Town Council is going to have to decide in the very near future is how much growth does the town want?" he said. "The town's been very fortunate about getting some industrial development, which is great for the tax base because that keeps the tax rate low, but on the secondary side of that, you bring more industry here. That could increase the demand, as they've been talking about, for workforce housing and things like that. So how do you address that?"
Now, the boy who gazed out the car window as stores, subdivisions and burger joints whizzed by gets to guide Mills River leaders to an answer.