Where I was Saturday

As a board member I felt obliged to attend but I truly was interested. My contribution was to bring a platter of finger sandwiches. Attendence was between 35-40 and I volunteered to be one of the evaluators for the 'Green Business' program. My mind is whirling with ideas and I need to make a couple of contacts this coming week.

“The Future of Watauga County Planning and You”
Saturday, Oct. 27, 2 p.m.
Boone Town Council Chambers
Sponsored by the Partnership for Watauga’s Future

The Program at a Glance:
Welcome & introductions … Kathy Copley
Boone’s Walkability Assessment … Blake Brown
Creating a “Green Business Plan” … David Ponder
Hazardous Slope Mapping … Rick Wooten
Hazardous Slope Legislation … D.J. Gerken
New Watauga River Flood Maps … John Callahan
Comprehensive Planning in Watauga

“The Future of Watauga County Planning and You,” a program organized around some of the county’s most pressing land-planning issues and the practical impacts of those topics on ordinary homeowners, will be presented on Saturday, October 27, at the Boone Town Council Chambers on Blowing Rock Road.

Attendees will be given basic overviews of a number of hot topics, to be followed by informational Q&A with authorities. “The idea is for our members to get all the basic points on steep-slope issues, for example, or the upcoming comprehensive plan,” said program organizer Kathy Copley. “It’ll be like ‘Community Issues for Beginners,’ with additional resources available for people who would like to learn more.”

A highlight of the program will be a presentation by Rick Wooten of North Carolina Geologic Survey (NCGS), whose team has been gathering detailed information for its current Watauga County landslide hazard mapping project. Wooten will discuss mapping methodology and preliminary findings from the project (which will be formally delivered to the County Commission in a public session at a later date). For example, in the infamous 1940 flood in Watauga County, when some 10 inches of rain fell over the course of six hours, there were over 2,000 documented “slope failures” in the county, with rock, dirt, and vegetation moving rapidly and catastrophically down-slope as debris flows. Many of those flow tracks have been located and will be mapped.

D.J. Gerken of the Southern Environmental Law Center will update the group on Saturday about the status of the statewide hazardous slope bill introduced in the N.C. legislature in 2007 and now referred to a study commission.

Also on Saturday will be an explanation and overview of the county’s new comprehensive planning process being launched this fall. Ordinary citizens will have several ways to participate and influence the “visioning” of what Watauga County should be in the future.

Also on the program on Saturday will be updates on the newest flood maps for the Watauga River basin in western Watauga County presented by Dr. John Callahan, and Boone’s “walkability assessment” and its implications for traffic flow presented by Boone’s Director of Public Works Blake Brown, and an update on the “green business plan,” launched in 2007 by the Watauga County Economic Development Commission, presented by David Ponder.

The meeting on Saturday, sponsored by the Partnership for Watauga’s Future (PWF), will begin with refreshments at 1:30 p.m. The program will begin at 2:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public.