Community News

Amid neighbors’ complaints, Half Moon Heights developer commits to erosion control

Homeowners in the Wolf Chase subdivision say the removal of trees and grading work for a 93-home development has caused mudslides, damaged a neighborhood walking trail and destroyed wildlife habitat. Forestar, the developer, has committed to remedial work on stormwater runoff and erosion control, city officials say.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 8, 2025

Residents in the Wolf Chase subdivision next to a 93-home development on a slope above their homes hope that city and county regulators can force the builder to fix problems that have caused severe stormwater runoff, mudslides and flooding.

The homeowners turned out for the regular meeting of the Hendersonville City Council last Thursday night to air their grievances about the development and hear a lengthy report on the situation from Brent Detwiler, the city’s public services director.

“Wolf Chase has experienced 17 documented mudslides and flooding episodes since January of ’24,” homeowner Lois Van Reese told council members. “Except for Hurricane Helene, these mudslides were not a result of massive rainfall. In fact, our latest rainfall, Aug. 14, was only 1½ inches. So I have questions for the council and city officials. Once Forestar leaves the mountain, who pays for the ongoing cleanup of this mud and flooding?”

Plans are in the works now, Detwiler said in his presentation, to fix problems caused by the clear-cutting of the mountain forest, grading and paving. Regulations are shared by the city and the county, which enforces stormwater runoff prevention and erosion control during construction.

“The primary deficiency that has been identified is a lack of vegetation on the construction site,” he said. “And there’s been heavy rainfall that has caused repeated sediment runoff events” that have impacted Wolf Chase. “There should be vegetation on the site, even while it’s being constructed.”

In a recent meeting with city and county engineers, the developer committed to numerous fixes on the site, which is cleared with roads and curb and gutter but so far contains no home construction.

Inspections by city and county regulators, Detwiler said, had identified damaged or overtopped silt fences, sediment escaping buffer zones, basins discharging downstream during heavy rain and rills and gullies on the slopes.

“During our meeting on site, the developer presented to the county’s staff a sediment control plan for additional silt fences, rock check-dams, regrading of diversion ditches and riprapping, all designed to reduce downstream sedimentation,” Detwiler said. “The developer told us over the last three weeks or so they actually removed that sediment pond and installed their post-construction storm water measures and they did that to basically be able to hold additional water.”

The developer was scheduled to seed the site this week and was ready to repave the roads. “No land-disturbing activities will resume until the site is fully stabilized,” Detwiler said in his report.

Rezoning granted in 2021

The city council granted a rezoning in December 2021 to allow the homes on a ridge above the Wolfpen and Wolf Chase communities over the strong objections from neighboring homeowners based on traffic, density, stormwater runoff and quality of life.

An HOA committee called NO to Half Moon Heights warned that deforestation would cause loss of their view, loss of habitat, harmful stormwater runoff and flooding.

“Roads are the greatest contributor to stormwater runoff, along with sidewalks, driveways, homes, and the removal of the tree canopy and open forested areas that catch and absorb the rainwater,” the committee said at the time.

In February of this year, concerns over wetlands protection caused the council to delay a decision on a rezoning to allow the developer to expand the subdivision by 59 more homes toward Old Sunset Hill Road.

Wolf Chase residents said after the meeting Thursday night that they’re exasperated with the level of enforcement by stormwater and erosion control regulators at the cleared site, especially when many problems they predicted four years ago have come to pass.

“For the past two years, we have been on the receiving end of massive flooding, mud run-off, destruction of our nature trail and stormwater retention basin, along with homeowner flooding and most likely property devaluations,” homeowners said in an email to the Lightning ahead of last week’s council meeting. “In addition, the animal habitats that have been destroyed in our neighborhood has left these animals displaced, and with no food supply. The 33.65 acres of land served as a shelter for our wildlife and supplied them with wild blackberries to nourish themselves.”