News

Commissioners seek to force city to provide sewer to cider company

Map shows the location of Flat Rock Cidery, which is seeking 1,100 gallon/day service to a city sewer line on Upward Road.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 21, 2025

Henderson County commissioners want to use a 25-year-old utilities agreement to force to the city of Hendersonville to provide sewer service to an Upward Road cidermaker, although City Manager John Connet says talks are under way to resolve the request.

Under the so-called Mud Creek Agreement of Dec. 20, 2000, the city and county negotiated a pathway under which a developer or landowner could get access to city sewer without agreeing to annexation.

The city’s policy to require an annexation petition as a condition of sewer access has been a flashpoint in the long-running conflict between commissioners and the city council over growth outside the city’s borders. At the behest of the Board of Commissioners, state Sen. Tim Moffitt filed a bill in the Legislature last month to strip the city of the authority to require annexation for sewer. The measure passed in the Senate and awaits action in the state House.

County Attorney Russ Burrell said the Mud Creek agreement supports commissioners’ ability to force the city to extend sewer to Flat Rock Cidery, a hard cider manufacturer located at 925 Upward Road.

“If you look at that agreement it basically sets out that if it’s within this area, the county has a right to do this,” Burrell said.

If approved, the item, which is on the commissioners’ consent agenda today, would authorize county administrators “to contract with Flat Rock Cidery” to construct the extension to the city’s sewer line on Upward Road in the county’s name but “at no cost to the county.”

“The City is unwilling to provide sewer service if Flat Rock Cider is not willing to be annexed into the city limits,” a staff memo said. “Under the Mud Creek Agreement, the County has the ability to construct a sewer line (if refused by the City), and the City must accept the connection of such line.”

Connet disputes the county’s reading of the sewer agreement.

“The city’s position is we don’t feel like it’s necessary to use the (Mud Creek) agreement,” he said. “We are actually in contact with the owner now to determine whether annexation is necessary or not necessary. We think the current proposal by the county commission is a little premature.”

In a letter to County Manager John Mitchell dated April 1, Connet cited another part of the Mud Creek agreement that he said controls the Flat Rock Cidery situation. Although the city issued a sewer availability letter to the cidery on Jan. 8 — one of the initial steps in getting city sewer service — that letter is “non-transferable to Henderson County or any other developer,” Connet said.

The Lightning did not hear back from Flat Rock Cidery owner Jeff Schenk by deadline of this week’s print edition.