Boone, Buncombe Take Steps To Curtail Building on Steep Slopes

The Steep Slope Task Force in Boone, NC has approved an extension of a steep slope building moratorium. To be enacted, the measure has only to pass the Boone Town Council, which I suppose it will.

The task force recommended adoption of a 120-day moratorium on multi-family development on steep slopes of 20 percent or more grade.

The City of Highland Park, Illinois has a site which explains steep slope buildings in some detail.

Buncombe County, NC also recently approved a similar measure. As small mountain towns grow, development is increasingly forced up hillsides, and into territory which can be dangerously flood, creep, or slide-prone. The new development is not restricted to large commercial buildings, but is often small single family homes.

Serious questions were raised about the wisdom of steep slope building in Boone, NC when the White Laurel subdivision was partially washed away after Hurricane Frances severely flooded the East Coast. One home was completely destroyed, and eight were condemned. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

The NC Geological Survey has an interesteing set of pictures from that event here.

I’d be curious to know how places like West Virginia handled steep slope building. It varies quite a bit from location to location.

About JW Randolph

Raised on the banks of the Tennessee River, JW's work to create progress in his home state and throughout Appalachia has been featured on the Rachel Maddow Show, The Daily Kos and Grist. He served first as Appalachian Voices’ Legislative Associate and then Tennessee director until leaving to pursue a career in medicine in 2012.