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County mulls stricter rules for outdoor festivals

A death at one festival and a beer permit snafu at another last July have prompted Henderson County planners to propose tighter rules for large outdoor concerts and festivals where alcohol is served.
The Henderson County Planning Board last month heard about a proposed amendment to the land development code that would impose stricter requirements for festival permits.
Two festivals in the county encountered problems in July.
A 35-year-old man was found dead in a stream at the Transformus gathering, a “Burning Man” type festival at Deerfields, a retreat in Mills River. The man was pronounced dead after he was transported to a hospital.
That same weekend, Oskar Blues Brewery’s “Burning Can” festival at its mountain bike track and campground in Crab Creek near the DuPont State Forest had problems with beer permits.
The Transformus and Burning Can organizers did not contact the county in advance to get permits. The process now in place involves an informal application for a temporary permit issued by county Code Enforcement Officer Toby Linville.
“Right now you come in, provide me all the information you can about the event and I issue a zoning permit for temporary use,” Linville said. “So in the future for these large events they will come to our Technical Review Committee and will need to provide us with a security plan, a medical plan and evacuation and we’ll be helping them with those. When you get an event that large you need to have that stuff taken care of ahead of time.”
Oskar Blues did obtain a permits when it hosted a national cyclo-cross competition at the REEB Ranch last October.
“Honestly, when they had the Red Bull Dreamline event at Oskar Blues, the event coordinator did all these things and then for their Burning Can event Oskar Blues didn’t do those things ahead of time,” Linville said. “We’re going to make sure all those things are in place.”
John Mitchell, the county’s director of business and community development, said planners have met with Oskar Blues officials and with Deerfields owners John and Gus Redden to explain the proposed rules.
“When the code was originally written there were no events like this in the county,” Mitchell said. “We’re trying to come up with a rule which will encompass a music-related event that would be of size that you would want assurance” of health and safety. “What we’re trying to do is address a hole on the code.”
The zoning code text amendments the county Planning Board discussed last week would allow landowners to hold concerts or festivals once every 30 days for up to three days. The permit would allow the events to operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. The proposed regulations would require organizers to:

  • Keep the events at least 50 feet from a home.
  • Arrange for garbage pickup and site cleanup.
  • File a site plan that meets county requirements.
  • Submit an “emergency action plan” for security, emergency medical services, evacuation plans and access for ambulances, fire trucks and law enforcement officers.
  • Obtain a permit from the county’s Technical Review Committee, made up of planners, the county’s code enforcement officer, NCDOT engineers and health department officials for festivals and concerts drawing more than 499 people. For purposes of such a permit, the sheriff’s office would also review the application.
  • Obtain alcohol permits from state regulators and food sales permits from the county Health Department.

The county staff and Planning Board are still weighing the threshold for requiring festival permit. They don’t want to cast the net so widely, Mitchell and Linville said, that it covers events like a backyard wedding with a couple hundred guests. The Planning Board will take up the zoning code amendment again at its Oct. 15 meeting.
In a related text amendment, the Planning Board recommended a noise ordinance amendment that would exempt permitted concerts and festivals from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.