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CITY OF HENDERSONVILLE
PLANNING BOARD
MEETING
City Operations Center
305 Williams Street
Monday, May 13, 2019
4:00 P.M.

I. Call to Order

II. Approval of Agenda

III. Approval of Minutes for the meeting of April 8, 2019

IV. Conditional Zoning District – Application from Jeffrey Harvey for a rezoning to a Conditional Zoning District to rezone a split zoned lot that is currently I-1, Industrial and R-6, High Density Residential to R-6 CZD, High Density Residential Conditional Zoning District for parcel #9569-81-3660 located on Edgewood Avenue.

V. Zoning Text Amendment – An application from Paul Brock of The Tobacco Merchant for a zoning text amendment to reduce spacing requirements for private clubs.

VI. Staff Comments

VII. Adjournment

The Hot Dog World Charity Change Jar for the month of May is being donated to Camp GLOW. Go eat at Hot Dog World! Your change, changes lives.

The Camp GLOW Family Fishing Day Fundraiser is Saturday, May 18 1:30-4:30 at Camp Pinewood, 300 Orr's Camp Road. Bring a chair/blanket, pole and bait. $10 for adults, $5 for students. Hot Dog lunch is included. There will be raffles and a 50/50 raffle. Come spend the afternoon making memories with your family and supporting Camp GLOW.

Lawrence "Larry" Freeman, 71, died Thursday, April 25, 2019 at The Lodge at Mills River surrounded by family after three years of fighting colon cancer.
Mr. Freeman was born in Henderson County to the late Billie Huntley Ledbetter of Hendersonville and Glenn V. Freeman, Jr. of Gonzales, Louisiana.
Larry is survived by a step-father, Dan Ledbetter of Hendersonville; two brothers, Bud Freeman (Mary) of Hendersonville and Alex Freeman (Cheri) of Boiling Springs, SC; his wife of 15 years, Karen Morgan Freeman of Mills River; children, Eddeana F. Moffitt of Mooresboro, NC, Vance Freeman (Amanda) of Huntsville, NC, Andrea Freeman of Dallas, NC, and Jennifer F. Cha (Michael) of Clarksville, TN; 19 grandchildren; nieces, Leslie Morgan of Hendersonville, who was raised like a daughter, and Hailey Freece, Kayla Freece, who were raised like granddaughters and his beloved four legged best friends, Punkin, Missy, and Roper.
Larry worked until his death with WHKP Radio in Hendersonville and started when he was 15 years old. He was a broadcaster, news and program director. He also worked for TV stations WSPA of Spartanburg and WLOS in Asheville. He also worked for Jackson's Funeral Home and Henderson County Sheriff's department as an investigator where he was severely injured in a car crash while working.
He was former Mayor of Mills River, served on Board of Directors at Pardee Hospital, was a 32 Degree Mason and was a member of Fanning's Chapel United Methodist Church in Mills River.
A special thank you to Dr. John Hill and his kind staff and the staff at The Lodge at Mills River and to Hospice.
There will be a private memorial service and all memorial donations can be made in Larry's honor to Fanning's Chapel United Methodist Church, 5490 Old Haywood Road, Mills River, NC 28759.
Groce Funeral Home at Lake Julian is assisting the family.

Garden Jubilee, one of the largest gardening shows in Western North Carolina, will be held Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during Memorial Day weekend. More than 265 plant and craft vendors will line Main Street from Sixth Avenue all the way down to Caswell Street, transforming the downtown area into an eight-block garden wonderland. Garden Jubilee is expected to draw 200,000 visitors to Hendersonville. It was named as one of the Southeast Tourism Society’s “Top 20 Events in the Southeast” for May 2019.

Garden Jubilee is a gardener’s shopping paradise with 265 vendor spaces lining Main Street. Local and regional nurseries will be selling 1000’s of annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs and hard to find plants on every block of the festival. Crafters create distinctive garden art to enhance the beauty of your yard. There will be handmade lawn furniture, jewelry, garden tools, yard art, planters, wind chimes, birdhouses, as well as soaps and pottery. Learn the latest techniques and tips from regional gardening experts located throughout the festival.

The Lowe’s Expo will be located at the Visitor Center at 201 South Main Street. It will feature lawn and garden workshops, a variety of plants for sale, beautiful patio displays, exhibits on how to build block walls and patios using pavers, outdoor furniture, grills and lawn equipment.

Garden Jubilee is going back to its’ roots by showcasing regional gardening experts giving free clinics throughout the event at the Visitor Center. The expanded schedule of clinics offer a variety of topics from planting to composing. Make sure to bring a pen and paper to take notes and ask questions.

“What to Grow in the Shady Part of Your Yard”                                     Saturday, May 25, 10:00 a.m.“Native Plants & Pollinating Insects”                                                         Saturday, May 25, 11:00 a.m.“Using Unique Trees in Your Landscaping”                                            Saturday, May 25, 12:00 p.m.“Techniques Used to Prune Woody Plants”                                            Saturday, May 25, 1:00 p.m.“Fescue Lawns and How to Care for Them”                                           Saturday, May 25, 2:00 p.m.“Native Bees – Nature’s Pollination Machines”                                      Sunday, May 26, 10 a.m.“Don’t Spoil it, Soil it! Composting 101”                                                   Sunday, May 26, 11 a.m.“Mushroom Log Inoculation”                                                                      Sunday, May 26, 12 p.m.“Starting a Veggie Garden in Western NC”                                             Sunday, May 26, 1 p.m.“Building Joy in to Your Garden”                                                               Sunday, May 26, 2 p.m.

Two hospitality tents will be available during the festival. One will be located on South Main Street in front of the Historic Courthouse between First and Second Avenues, while the second location be on North Main Street at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Main Street. The hospitality tents offer shoppers an area to leave their purchases with festival volunteers so visitors can continue to shop without lugging plants and bags. A festival map and vendor directory will be available for shoppers searching for a particular vendor, product or general information.

Shoppers are welcome to bring a wagon to make transporting purchases easier

Hendersonville city ordinances prohibit animals in the event area, please leave pets comfortably at home.

Go online for additional information about Garden Jubilee to, visithendersonvillenc.org/garden-jubilee or call the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority at 828-693-9708 or 800-828-4244.

It was a weekend of firsts at the 45th annual Southern Cross at Palmetto Golf Club.

For Christ School's Cameron Akers, it was a first major individual championship fueled by his first hole-in-one and his first albatross.

The ace came in Friday's first round on the par-3 ninth hole, helping him to the solo lead after a 4-under 67.

The albatross, golf's biggest bird, came in the final round on the par-5 14th and was the biggest shot in his four-stroke victory. Standing 205 yards from the pin, and with playing partner Drayton Stewart chasing him closely, Akers thought about hitting a 4-iron before ultimately grabbing a 5-iron thinking the ball would land short and run a little bit onto the green.

It did – and then it disappeared.

"It ended up doing exactly what I wanted to," he said. "Hit it really good, landed 5 feet in front of the green, rolled up and then didn't see the ball as it got to the pin. I can't make stuff up like that. I really can't put that into words."

Akers, a junior, said his shot on 14 had the exact same ball flight as his ace on 9 – pulled a little to the left before fading back to the right. At its apex, he thought it might go in.

Minutes later, everyone had to go in – lightning in the area caused two delays in the final round, the first as Akers' group stood on the 15th tee and the second coming later when there were just two groups left on the course.

The first stoppage didn't bother Akers much. He was able to chat with his parents and keep things calm, then returned to make a nice par on 15 before chipping in for birdie on 16. The nerves started to creep in as he played the last two holes, each of which he bogeyed to post 5-under 137.

That was four clear of Stewart, but one mystery remained – Trinity-Byrnes Collegiate's Gene Zeigler, who opened with a 68 in his Palmetto debut and was in the final group of the day.

By the time he reached the 15th hole, though, the tournament was already well out of reach. Zeigler's scorecard didn't yet have a par on it at that point, just a mix of low numbers and high ones that had him at 5 over for the day.

Palmetto's loop alone was an example of how Zeigler's day went. He drove it left into the hazard on 15 but got up and down for that first par, then chipped in after going long off the tee on 16. Yet he still couldn't make up any ground, and he finished in a tie for fifth at 2-over 144.

After all of the delays and waiting and wondering, it was finally official that Akers was the champion.

"It's huge. I came to this tournament three years ago for the first time, little freshman just trying to play with the big boys," he said. "It's been a heck of a ride here. I came here not really thinking much about scores, but really just coming down here to enjoy it. I love Palmetto. I love this tournament. Coming down here every year is just huge for me."

Fox Creek's Colin Trahan was the low local, finishing in a tie for third at 143 with Rock Hill's Nick Mayfield. Trahan's week at Palmetto, punctuated by a nice birdie on 18, earned him a spot on the All-Tournament Team.

The rounds of the day belonged to South Aiken's Drew Greene and Hilton Head Christian's Daniel Azallion, each of whom shot a final-round 68. Greene, who shot 77 Friday, made a big charge on the back nine Saturday. He eagled 10 from 4 feet, birdied 11 from 6 inches, then birdied 14 and 15 before a little bit of tree trouble forced a closing bogey. Greene led the T-Breds with a 145 total.

"We hit the back side and just decided it was time to get something going," he said. "All the sweat and tears up to this point, my fifth and final Southern Cross, it was like, let's finish this fittingly. Tough bogey there on 18. It was a heck of a day."

For Rock Hill, it was a first Southern Cross title and a first big win for a golf program without a lot of marquee wins. Coach Matt Bell gave his team, making its second Southern Cross appearance, a goal – everybody break 80.

They went above and beyond that.

Rock Hill posted a final-round 219, led by Mayfield's 69, to finish five shots ahead of Hilton Head Christian for the team title.

"This is huge. Our school has never won anything this prestigious," said Bell. "So we're very, very proud. Now we're gonna move on to Upper State Monday and hopefully bring home a state title this year."

The Bearcats weren't slowed down much by either weather delay. Bell said they had major momentum before the first horn, but they were able to maintain it. After the second, they came out attacking the flag on 18 to seal the championship.

South Aiken was the low area team at 474. Aiken finished at 489, followed by Fox Creek (498) and North Augusta (517).

The Tryon Toy House is up for sale once again.

Roberta Heinrich, with Walker, Wallace & Emerson Realty, the house is for sale for $249,000. While the house is currently being marketed as a residence, with Heinrich suggesting that it would be a fantastic Airbnb opportunity, the house’s location in Tryon’s central business district and proximity to Trade Street would allow for business use.

“The cottage is darling,” said current owner Katie Hicks.

According to Hicks — the professor emerita of art and art history at USC Upstate, for whom the university’s visual art center is named — the home still features great amentities, many of its original Arts and Crafts architectural elements and its Mother Goose tiles. Hicks and Heinrich both expressed their hope that the home will remain largely unchanged by its next owner.

Hicks said she hopes that someone will be able to turn the Toy House into something that will benefit the town, perhaps an arts-related use, as she had planned when purchasing the property nine years ago. She also said the Toy House could make a great single residence with an art studio or workroom.

 

It's that time again!!

The popular decorated acrylic bears make their return from hibernation onto Main Street in Hendersonville this Friday, and organizers are especially excited about this year’s unique batch of designs. They are truly beautiful.

The annual Bearfootin’ Public Art Walk reveal takes place Friday starting at 6 p.m. at the First Citizens Bank Plaza on Main Street. The event kicks off the season when 20 colorful bears will line Main Street to be later auctioned off for charity.

During the reveal, the bears will be unveiled one by one before the crowd. Each bear was purchased by an organization to benefit a charity or nonprofit of their choice. The bears are then painted by local artists.

After reveal, the bears will remain together on the plaza for the weekend before they are dispersed along Main Street. The bears will be displayed on Main Street until they are auctioned off in October.

Last year’s auction raised $47,200 for area charities and nonprofits as well as for the Downtown Hendersonville association.

The N.C. Department of Transportation has received national honors for its innovative use of drones during the state’s coordinated response to Hurricane Florence.

NCDOT was awarded the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's XCELLENCE Award in the humanitarian category at the AUVSI’s annual XPONENTIAL conference this week. The award comes with a $5,000 prize, which the Division of Aviation has elected to present to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund.

The entry from the Division of Aviation’s drone program was selected out of more than 140 other entries worldwide. The division was honored for its groundbreaking use of emerging drone technology to keep people safe from a tragic storm in a way that had never been done on this scale.

“Utilizing drones and other technological advances helped NCDOT keep people safe during Hurricane Florence and aided all our recovery efforts,” said N.C. Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon. “Being recognized for this exemplifies exceptional teamwork coming together to use technology in ways we couldn’t even imagine just a few years ago and is an example of ingenuity at its best.”

More than a dozen NCDOT drone teams flew more than 200 missions and captured 8,000 pictures and videos of the damage and flooding left behind by Hurricane Florence in September. This helped state and federal agencies make real-time decisions around aiding emergency response, planning detour routes, assessing future repair needs, expanding disaster declarations and warning the public of the dangers faced on North Carolina's roadways.

"The Humanitarian Awards demonstrate the profound ability of the recipients to positively impact lives through unmanned systems technology,” said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI. "We proudly recognize the five winners and hope their accomplishments will serve as an inspiration to utilize unmanned aircraft systems to accomplish remarkable achievements for our society.”

This was the first year that AUVSI has presented an XCELLENCE Award in the humanitarian category. Zipline, a partner with NCDOT on the Drone Integration Pilot Program, was also among the winners selected.

More growth and progression for the Mills River area of Henderson County.

The area’s newest brewery is getting closer to opening its doors, hoping to bring some warmth to local drinkers’ cheeks as early as this summer.

Burning Blush Brewery, under construction on Boylston Highway in Mills River, hopes to open in late July, but it could be as late as this fall, according to owner and brewer Whit Lanning.

Lanning, 32, has been living in South Carolina, but is coming back closer to home here in WNC to open the brewery in Mills River with his family. His mother, Melody Lanning, will be in charge of brewery operations and his sister, Ryan Lanning, is set to head up the website, social media and IT.

Whit Lanning graduated from N.C. State with a degree in chemistry and moved on to brewing school at Brew Lab in Sunderland, England. He then worked in South Carolina for about 10 years, including at Thomas Creek Brewery and Birds Fly South Ale Project in Greenville and Carolina Bauernhaus Brewery and Winery in Anderson.

Next, he’ll lead the brewing at Burning Blush, where he hopes to create a wide gamut of crafted beer styles.

From work he’s done in the past, Lanning is very familiar with barrel aging, sour cultures and mixed cultures, but is hoping to also focus on IPAs as well as English-style beers, German-style lagers and more.

The building, which can be seen alongside the highway between the intersection with Highway 191 and Presbyterian Church Road, sits on about 2 acres and will be around 8,700 square feet, with 2,600 of that dedicated to the taproom. The rest will be used for production on a 15-barrel system that should be arriving soon, he said.

Starting out, they’ll have six 15-barrel fermenters and two bright tanks, as well as 10 serving tanks so beer can be served to customers straight from the tank, which Lanning says he feels provides a better taste than when a whole batch has been kegged.

At first, the brewery should be producing between 500 and 1,000 barrels per year, he said, distributing some of the kegs to restaurants with a canning line coming at some point. Early on, however, the focus will be front and center on the taproom.

“The biggest thing we’re excited about is just having a place for the community to come in, bring your families, bring your dogs,” Lanning said, adding that the brewery hopes to get involved with community outreach as well. “Just get people together. I think that’s the most important thing.”

He said they’re going for a good family environment, and one goal for him and others leading the brewery is to be front and center for customers, as he feels the owner-to-customer experience is lacking in a lot of places.

The taproom will also feature a covered outdoor area of about 700 square feet, lawn space and 50 parking spots alongside overflow grass parking.

The name Burning Blush is a reference to an Edgar Allen Poe poem. Lanning explained that Poe was writing letters to a love interest that were being intercepted by her father, but then Poe was invited to her wedding. When she saw him for the first time, she got a “burning blush,” in her cheek, something Poe later wrote about in a poem.

Burning Blush is shooting for a Victorian-Romantic-Gothic vibe, Lanning said, with chandeliers planned for the taproom as well as large castle-style doors and stonework in front.

The bar that will be used in the taproom is waiting at Needful Things in Hendersonville, a 1930s-era bar from Chicago the brewery purchased and is waiting to install.

Burning Blush is one of two breweries under construction in the area, with Mills River Brewery constructing its new home close by on Banner Farm Road. With Bold Rock Hard Cider also just a stone’s throw away, there’s the start of a corridor of taprooms for Mills River.

This release from the office of Peter Knight, Superior Court Judge:

J. Tyler Ray has been appointed as the Clerk of Superior Court for Henderson County following the vacancy created by former Clerk Kimberly Justice’s move to District Court. Mr. Ray, an attorney, has practiced law in Henderson County since his graduation from Campbell University School of Law in 2006.

He is a native of Henderson County and has been active in the community, including service on the Board of Directors for Valley Hill Fire and Rescue, Inc., and as a deacon at the French Broad Baptist Church. Mr. Ray’s work as an attorney is comprised of several years of the general practice of law with The Stepp Law Firm; in addition, from 2008 to 2013 Mr. Ray was an assistant Public Defender in the judicial district which includes Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties.

As provided by law, the appointment to fill the vacancy was made by Resident Superior Court Judge Peter Knight. Judge Knight released the following statement: “I enlisted the assistance of a committee comprised of practicing attorneys and others, to review the many fine candidates for the position. I gave the committee the difficult task of recommending just a few names for consideration; following interview, I selected Mr. Ray for appointment. As a judge, I have had the chance to observe Mr. Ray both in and out of the courtroom for many years, and I recognize that his professionalism, work ethic, and experience will serve him well in his responsibilities as Clerk of Superior Court.” Mr. Ray will assume the duties of Clerk beginning this Monday, May 6. Assistant Clerk of Superior Court Christina Goodson has served as the interim Clerk during the last month, pending appointment to fill the vacancy.