News

County orders emergency plans for festivals

Valley Hill Fire & Rescue Chief Tim Garren speaks to county commissioners.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 1, 2016

Organizers of special events that attract more than 500 people will be subject to a new requirement to plan for emergency services, traffic management and other services thanks to the action of a divided Board of Commissioners.

The board on Monday adopted the land development code amendment for the special events over the objections of Commissioner Michael Edney, an attorney who described the ordinance as an unconstitutional infringement on the right to assemble. He mentioned a political rally and other events planned in a quick time frame that would be unable to comply with the requirement for a detailed advanced plan.
Edney submitted an alternative draft that made the applications optional.
Four commissioners voted in favor of the ordinance after first responders expressed support for it. The emergency services and law enforcement leaders were still smarting from the experience of two big festivals on the same weekend last year that brought traffic and safety concerns and triggered complaints from neighbors and left one attendee dead.

Sheriff Charlie McDonald, Emergency Management Director Rocky Hyder, Rescue Squad Chief Jimmy Brissie and two rural fire chiefs all urged the board to support the land-use code addition.

Rick Livingston, chief of Mills River Fire & Rescue, said cars from a festival at Deerfields, a retreat off South Mills River Road, had blocked access to an emergency first responders were trying to reach beyond the festival area.

“Henderson County is having more and more large scale events, primarily in the Mills River and Crab Creek areas,” he said. “We look to see these large scale events present problems for emergency services that we need to be addressing proactively rather than reactively. We could not reach the site of that emergency because both lanes were blocked. That’s just one example that could have been prevented through proactive planning at this level.”
The ordinance requires festival organizers to meet with planners and law enforcement, health, fire and rescue agencies to draw up plans to respond to emergencies.
Livingston, a member of the Planning Board, said he had met with Deerfields owners, brothers Greg and John J. Redden, and explained the planning process in a dry run. They accepted the proposal, he said.
“We spent a year researching and developing a proposal we felt was suitable and agreeable to everyone,” he said of the Planning Board's work. “The property owners, the attorneys for the property owners, everyone we spoke to felt like it was fair and there was no problem with it. We felt like it was reasonable and that’s where we stand today.”
Emergency Management Director Rocky Hyder said planning is the key.
“If 500 (attendees) is a reasonable standard then I don’t think we have an objection to that,” he said. “Let’s go ahead and establish some standard, work with it … and we can let you know what works and what doesn’t.”
Edney said the ordinance lacked enforcement measures, was applied unequally and raised too many questions.
“I’ve got concerns about the constitutionality,” he said. “That’s what led me to come up with my version, which mandates a notice requirement so law enforcement and emergency services can be prepared. The remainder I make discretionary where they can go through the hoops but they don’t have to.”
Livingston said that doesn’t go far enough.
“I’m all about the Constitution. I’m with you on that,” he said. “But why can’t we put some common sense constraints in to this planning process? If we’re going to do this, leave enough teeth in it where it’s going to benefit us as emergency services. If you water it down where it says you can do it but you don’t have to that doesn’t accomplish anything.”