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McGrady to co-chair pollution investigation

Etowah Business

Skeptical Planning Board tables action on 300-unit Etowah development

ETOWAH — Henderson County Planning Board members tabled an application for a big new residential development in Etowah on Thursday, saying unanswered questions about traffic, density, wastewater treatment and neighborhood compatibility made it impossible to move forward. A Miami developer whose proposed development of Horse Shoe Farm was denied by the Henderson County Board of Commissioners is seeking the county's OK for a similar development on McKinney Road in Etowah. John Turchin has submitted a master plan that includes a 299-unit development, including 173 single-family homes, 70 duplexes, 56 apartments, 16 guest rooms and 24 RV spaces on a 232-acre parcel on the French Broad River. The development, called The Farm at Eagles Nest, would include a restaurant, clubhouse, art center, wellness center, pavilion, art studios and dairy barn. It would include 598 parking spaces, 109 retail-commercial spaces and 10 RV/boat storage spaces and would cover 44 acres, leaving 180 acres of open space. The development would be served by the city of Hendersonville water system and Etowah Sewer Co. The privately owned sewer company sent Turchin letter saying its system had the capacity to serve the first phase of the project but would need an upgrade to serve later phases. Barring that, the developer would have to add an on-site sewage treatment plant. After the Board of Commissioners shot down his plan for the Horse Shoe Farm property, “we reconsidered and found this property,” Turchin told the Planning Board Thursday night. “It gave us a better campus, a bigger piece of property. We were able to spread out, using 44 acres, leaving a tremendous amount of green space. … We think we’ve put together a very comprehensive well-thought-out plan. From a marketing standpoint our marketing group really thinks we’re onto something that will be well accepted in the community.” Neighboring property owners spoke against the development. “How tall are these going to be — three stories, four stories? They’re going to be huge,” Bob Edwards said. “When Biltmore was adopted, they changed theirs until that was just single-family homes. Is this one of these places where people can just move in and live, in a camper?” Turchin said the apartment buildings would be two stories high and be no larger than a single-home family. “We didn’t move down here to look at apartment buildings and parking lots,” another resident said. “We can hear horses and cows mooing up the road now and roosters crowing. I can just imagine what we’re going to hear with this.” County Commissioner Grady Hawkins, an ex officio member of the Planning Board, pointed out that commissioners had recently heard about the probems with Etowah Sewer Co. The privately owned sewer company needs a half million dollars worth of repairs now, he said, and is unlikely to have the capacity to take on a 300-unit residential development. “I just don’t see that happening in phase 1, much less in two more phases,” Hawkins said. “I know of nowhere in this county you could put 300 units and not have a road problem. These roads were made in the 1920s, farm-to-market roads, little two-lane roads, and they have a tough time with the traffic they already have on them. To me this is incompatible with the land development code. To try to put this kind of density in it in my opinion is not what the land development code is about and is not what we told people was in the land development code … I just have a lot of concerns about this project.” Planning Board members Jim Miller and Chairman Steve Dozier said they could not vote in favor of the project without more information. The next step for Turchin Development is an Aug. 30 meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which will take up special-use permit applications for the seven eight-unit apartment buildings and the RV park. Turchin, a Miami developer who has built the Lodges at Eagles Nest in Banner Elk, told the Board of Commissioners last December that he is interested in building cluster-style communities for baby boomers. His first application for development of the former horse farm would have resulted in rental cottages that he said would be a good alternative to apartment style developments for seniors. Commissioners denied his rezoning request based on concerns about traffic and other factors.The McKinney Road property, owned by the John Thomas Hammond, James William Hammond and Annette Hammond trust, was also the site of a proposed development by Biltmore Farms in 2007 for a 652-unit development of single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes with a clubhouse, walking trails and open space. EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the location of the new proposed development as Horse Shoe Farm. The new development is on the Hammond tract in Etowah.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Tourism spending up 6½ percent in Henderson County

Visitors in Henderson County spent $274.6 million in 2016, an increase of 6.5 percent over 2015, Visit North Carolina announced on Wednesday. “Tourism is one of the top economic drivers in Henderson County bringing visitors from over thirty-nine countries from around the world and all fifty states to experience our local heritage, agritourism, culture, recreation, dining and shopping, and other attractions,” Beth Carden,  Executive Director of the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority said in a statement. Tourism impact highlights for 2016:• Henderson County was among the top 10 counties, out of 100, in percentage of growth in 2016.• The travel and tourism industry directly employees more than 2,320 in Henderson County.• Total payroll generated by the tourism industry in Henderson County was $50.33M.• State tax revenue generated in Henderson County totaled $12.57M through state sales and excise taxes, and taxes on personal and corporate income. About $11.73M in local taxes were generated from sales and property tax revenue from travel-generated and travel-supported businesses.Gov. Roy Cooper announced in May that visitors to North Carolina set a record for spending in 2016. The $22.9 billion in total spending represented an increase of 4.4 percent from 2015.These statistics are from the “Economic Impact of Travel on North Carolina Counties 2016,” which can be accessed at partners.visitnc.com/economic-impact-studies. The study was prepared for Visit North Carolina by the U.S. Travel Association.“All eight economic development regions of the state had spending growth of 3 percent or more, and 96 percent of the state’s counties saw direct tourism employment growth from 2015 to 2016,” said Wit Tuttell, executive director of Visit North Carolina. “Tourism continues to be major driver of economic development across North Carolina, which is the sixth most-visited state in the country.”Statewide highlights include:• State tax receipts as a result of visitor spending rose 5.1 percent to nearly $1.2 billion in 2016.• Visitors spend more than $62 million per day in North Carolina. That spending adds more than $5.1 millionper day to state and local tax revenues (about $3.2 million in state taxes and $1.9 million in local taxes).• The travel and tourism industry directly employees more than 219,000 North Carolinians.• Each North Carolina household saves $497 in state and local taxes as a direct result of visitor spending in the state.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Ask Matt ... about Publix's plans for drainage

Q. Will the runoff from the Publix grocery store parking lot affect the flooding on Greenville Highway such as from the big July 8 storm? I asked Hendersonville City Engineer Brendan Shanahan about the project. Shanahan rolled out the drawings for the 6.9 acre Publix property and pointed out two locations for detention devices — one along Greenville Highway and another behind the store near Mud Creek. Plans call for a high tech underground system of collection chambers that will occupy an area equivalent to about 25 parking spaces. Yes, right under the parking lot! You can see them on the ground now, looking like rows of bright yellow plastic dog houses.Here’s how it works. Water runs off the asphalt surface and is collected in long plastic chambers buried 24 inches below the surface. These chambers are made of high strength half-pipe sections interconnected and set on a bed of gravel. The idea is to slow the stormwater entering Mud Creek and of course, Greenville Highway. Shanahan said that the Publix system is designed to detain 10,275 cubic feet of water or — for us non-engineers — the first 1.3 inches of rainfall. Eventually the impounded water seeps into the ground or is slowly discharged into Mud Creek flowing northward under the Steinmart-Fresh Market parking lot towards downtown Hendersonville.Shanahan added that the system is designed to trap parking lot debris and suspended solids. In other words, to keep the trash and mud out of Mud Creek. Maintenance of the entire system falls on Publix. The city will do annual inspections. If you want to see a neat clip on how the system works, search for “StormTech pipe animation video.”Whenever you disturb an acre of land, stormwater rules kick in. Above-ground retention ponds can usually be constructed at minimal cost but if the site is low-lying there are fewer options and stormwater detention gets expensive. The former Atha Plaza shops and adjacent buildings held back very little stormwater so what Publix is doing could improve conditions. It won’t take long to see what those little underground dog houses can do. Q. How do you pronounce the name of the new brewery being built on Seventh Avenue? Triskelion, according to brewery owner Jonathan Ayers, is pronounced tris-kell-ee-on with the emphasis on “Tris” as in Triscuit crackers. The word is of Greek origin meaning “three legs” but many historians consider it Celtic because the symbol was used in the late 19th century in Britain and Ireland. The triskelion symbol is captured on the current flag of Sicily which, of course, is a region of Italy. Need help saying words? Just go online and YouTube will pronounce it for you. * * * Send questions to askmattm@gmail.com.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Ask Matt ... who made those street lights?

Q. In June there was a crew from South Carolina replacing streetlight fixtures in downtown Hendersonville. The new ones look like LED lights. Why are they changing the streetlights and are those lights made locally by GE? City Public Works Director Tom Wooten said that the goal of the re-lamping project is to improve the overhead lighting on the avenues between Church Street and King Street plus the alleys and the areas around the Dogwood Parking Lot. There are about 75 lighting fixture change-outs of various intensity ratings. All are LED lights.Streetlights are not individually metered so the City pays Duke a monthly rate based upon the number and type of outdoor lighting fixtures. The new LEDs will cost the City slightly more than the old mercury vapor or sodium vapor lamps but the lumen rating (brightness) is higher. Plus there is a benefit from having presumably safer nighttime activities. Duke Energy will not charge for doing the replacements but the utility benefits from using considerably less power than the old lights required plus there is less maintenance for utility crews because the LEDs last longer.But on the source question I had to dig deep. Engineers at GE were quick to tell me that these were “not our lights.” The Contractor that Duke Energy hired to hang the lights was closed mouth and Duke was slow to come forth with specifics. But the folks with American Electric Lighting (AEL) in Ohio confirmed that the flat cobra head type fixtures just installed in Hendersonville were made in one of two places – Conyers, Georgia or Monterey, Mexico. AEL is a subsidiary of Acuity Brands, a large lighting corporation with home offices in Georgia.GE’s newly renovated facility in East Flat Rock makes LED streetlights so I asked our Chamber of Commerce to comment on the fact that Duke was not shopping locally for streetlights. The Chamber quickly recognized the contributions that GE has made in the community dating back to arriving here in 1956 –treading carefully because Duke is a member too. But neither the Chamber nor the City can dictate which fixtures Duke Energy will use. Duke officials stated that their company selects their products “based on pricing, product quality, light output, product availability and product support from the supplier.” Duke has used GE products in the past and has some in service now. With headquarters in Charlotte, Duke is a $23 billion utility that operates in the Carolinas, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio serving 7.5 million customers.One more thing. GE recently announced it was considering selling its lighting division which is headquartered in Cleveland. It is unknown if and how such a move could affect their East Flat Rock plant. The company recently changed the name of the lighting division to “Current, powered by GE.” Stay tuned.   *  * * * * Send questions to askmattm@gmail.com.     Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Brewery planned for Busy Bend

Although it’s not Beer City yet, Hendersonville seems to be trying to catch up to the craft beer capital to the west.. Dry Falls Brewing Co., a father-and-son team from Weaverville, plans to open a brewery in the 77-year-old Oates Paint & Body Shop by late this year.Jeff Golliher, 56, and his son, Evan, are weekend home brewers who have plans to transform the 5,900-square-foot shop by constructing the brewery on the right and a taproom on the left, behind double garage doors.Figuring there were enough breweries in Asheville, they asked a real estate agent to look for a suitable building in Hendersonville.“When our realty agent found it and we first looked at it, we said, ‘Hey, this is it.’ … We want to do our very best to maintain the historic character of the building and appreciate the long tradition and history of it,” he said. “My wife’s a social studies and history teacher.”They plan to add parking behind the building.“We actually own both the buildings,” he said. “We plan to do some remodeling to the smaller one to increase space between the two. We talked about maybe leasing it out for a potential coffee shop. Our main focus is to get the main building back in restored condition.” Like Asheville, which has won national polls as Beer City USA several times, Hendersonville is becoming a craft beer hotbed in its own right. Dry Falls would be the seventh brewery in Henderson County ranging from one of the largest on the East Coast to microbreweries. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. attracts thousands of craft beer drinkers to Mills River. The Blue Ghost pours beer in Fletcher. Hendersonville has three now, with Triskelion and now Dry Falls set to open this year.A contractor pulled a permit last week for the body shop renovation construction last week.“We’re doing interior demolition and a roof,” said Alfred Bottego of Precision Craftsmen of Asheville. “We’re going to put new roof and dry out the whole building and reconfigure the inside for a tasting room.”Plans call for brewing tanks on the right side and the tasting room behind the double garage doors on the left.“You’ll be able to see the brewing process and get the beer right out of pot and into the cooler and right out of the tap,” Bottego said. “This is new coming out of the ground. He’s just a local guy and this is a venture he wanted to pursue.”Bottego said he plans to be done with the construction work by Thanksgiving.“I know he’s going through all the due diligence and licensing,” he said of Golliher. “My concern is obviously the construction.”Golliher both have fulltime jobs now.“We’ll eventually do this fulltime,” he said. “We’ll be hiring a brewer to take care of the brewing operation we’ll have kind of a taproom manager to oversee the taproom activities. This thing’s kind of a family affair for us. It’s me, my wife and son. Home brewing is kind of a weekend passion for us.”They plan to be open 4- 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon-midnight Friday and Saturday and Sunday afternoon until 8 p.m.Golliher likes the location.“I always tell everybody, ‘Do you know where the hot dog place is and they say ‘oh yeah, yeah.’” The owners have no plans for food other than offering snacks for sale and possibly partnering with food trucks. They hope to open in late November or early December.The family is considering calling the public side of the house the Busy Bend Taproom.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Vote for Hendersonville as South's Best City

The Henderson County Tourism Development Authority is encouraging residents and fans of downtown to vote for Hendersonville as the South’s Best City in the annual South’s Best contest sponsored by Southern Living magazine.   Read Story »

Henderson County Business

Industry recruiters announce officers, new board members

The Partnership for Economic Development announced officers and new members of the Board of Directors for its new fiscal year. The new chair is Pat Wagner with Continental Automotive Systems. A member of the board since FY13-14, Wagner has served two terms as treasurer and for the past year has been chair-elect. Her direct experience in manufacturing provides a strong industry and employment voice to the board. Other officers are: Chair-Elect Jim Rasmussen (Morrow Insurance Agency), Treasurer Steve Gwaltney (First Citizens Bank) and Past Chair Will Buie (WGLA Engineering). Lindsay Thompson (The Van Winkle Law Firm) is serving as a new director with a three-year term, while Chris Hykin (SMARTRAC Technology Group) and Beau Waddell (Reaben Oil Company) will serve one-year chair appointments. The complete listing for our Board of Directors, including Elected, Appointed and Ex-Officio Directors, can be found can be found here. “We are pleased to welcome our new and returning Board members,” Buie said. “These individuals bring a wealth of experience and different perspectives to our organization and will be tremendous assets in furthering our mission. We are especially thankful to Pat Wagner for her willingness to dedicate time and ideas in leading the Partnership.” Outgoing Board members will be honored at the organization's annual celebration, on Thursday, Oct. 12, in downtown Hendersonville. The evening will be a chance to network with peers, celebrate accomplishments and look forward to new challenges and opportunities. Details and RSVP instructions for the event will be provided soon.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Hendersonville Moose Cafe closes

Moose Café,a popular brand for country breakfast and Southern cooking, has found what many restaurants before it have learned: A corner spot in the sprawling Wal-Mart shopping center is a tough location. Obsured by the Wal-Mart gas station, the space in the southeastern corner now has an empty parking lot and the need, again, for a new tenant. Originally built in 2002 as a Lizard’s Thicket family style restaurant, the building has housed a seafood restaurant, Greek restaurant and several other eateries. The Moose Cafe opened in 2014. Owned by JCC Rental Properties LLC of Homestead, Fla., the 1.75-acre parcel and 6,300-square-foot building are assessed on the tax roll at $1.4 million. "I found out that it closed," said Bill Walker, owner of the Moose Cafe at the WNC Farmers Market in Asheville, which is not connected to the Hendersonville location. "It was individually owned by a guy who owned a hotel over there and had a franchise agreement with the Moose Cafe in Greensboro. Usually when a restaurant closes it's not doing very well." He said he had not heard much from diners about the closing. "I don't think they had that many customers to make comments," he said. "It doesn't surprise me because we had heard it wasn't that busy." A commenter on TripAdvisor.com reported that the Southern food restaurant closed for good on July 20. "On Thursday, July 20, 2017 my wife & I drove to this cafe since their telephone answering process left us 'wondering' about our need to make a reservation for a group breakfast for Friday, July 21. We found a handwritten sign posted on the front door 'Closing at 1:00 p.m.' "We drove back to the cafe on Friday July 21 and asked of two folks at the rear service entrance about the status of the cafe. We were told it had closed, permanently, '... yesterday.' There is still a hand-written sign on the door, except now it says "Closed at 1 p.m." Outside, signs of the restaurant had already vanished. Removing the Moose Cafe sign revealed the name of the last occupant before Moose: the Mad Greek Eatery. The Moose cafe phone was unable to take messages. The mailbox was full.     Read Story »

Mills River Business

Mills River brewery creates this year's Oktoberfest seasonal

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. will introduce this year's special Oktoberfest beer — created at Sierra Nevada's Mills River plant — during its two big Oktoberfest in September. For the past three years, Sierra Nevada has partnered with a different German craft brewery to create an authentic fest beer fit for celebrating the world’s largest beer festival right here at home. This year, Brauhaus Miltenberger, one of Germany’s most highly regarded craft brewers, was tapped for the collaboration. “Cornelius and his team from Brauhaus Miltenberger embody the spirit and tradition of Oktoberfest,” says Brian Grossman, second-generation brewer for Sierra Nevada and manager of the Mills River plant. “It was great to host them at our brewery in Mills River for the creation of this year’s fest beer. They brought literally centuries of family brewing experience to the mix and helped us create the ultimate festival beer.” “We tried to re-create a classic Oktoberfest beer in the true German tradition,” says Cornelius Faust, fourth-generation brewmaster for Brauhaus Miltenberger. “We used traditional techniques to create layers of rich malt notes that remain light and crisp to the taste. That’s the secret of an authentic fest beer—complex malt flavor in a lager that remains easy to drink while you are celebrating the Oktoberfest season.” Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest is a deep golden lager weighing in at 6.1% ABV with an authentic, rich, and layered malt flavor balanced by traditional German-grown hops. New for 2017 is Oktoberfest in 12-ounce cans, in addition to 12-ounce bottles and draught offerings. Named one of America’s best Oktoberfest festivals, the event is a big celebration of German culture and tradition, with live music, dancing, costumes, contests and, of course, beer. Mills River welcomes guests Saturday, Sept. 30.     Read Story »

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