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Mills River delays decision on nursing home

Adjoining property owner Jerry Metcalf makes a point about a proposed nursing home on N.C. 191 near High Vista.

MILLS RIVER — The Mills River Town Board delayed a decision Thursday on a 34,000-square-foot 50-bed skilled care nursing home after adjoining property owners expressed concerns about stormwater runoff.

Henderson-Beystone Healthcare Properties LLC wants to move its Fletcher facility to a 9.4-acre site on N.C. 191 next to High Vista and near the Buncombe County line. The company has already won permission from the state to open a facility, said Michael Deloach, of Beystone. It needs a special-use permit from the Town Board to move ahead with construction.
Two landowners who own property adjacent to the site told the council that they feared the additional runoff would overflow onto their property. The land, which is a hayfield now, would be covered with the building, an office, maintenance shed, parking and access roads.
The applicants also asked for a variance from having to construct internal roads to DOT standards. The roads won't carry heavy traffic and don't need the thicker stone foundation and asphalt required by the transportation agency, said engineer Bill Lapsley, the CEO of William G. Lapsley and Associates.
Lapsley said two large and shallow drainage ponds with layers of soil and gravel would treat the first inch of stormwater and distribute it into the existing drainage system — through pipes, culverts and ditches — and down N.C. 191.
Property owners Jerry Metcalf and Jack Carver said they did not think the engineering solution would adequately handle the runoff. They also said they opposed the project because of lighting, noise and traffic.

 

The board recessed a hearing on the special-use permit until Jan. 10 and directed the applicant to come back with a plan that shows in more detail how the onsite stormwater ponds would prevent flooding on adjoining property.