After more than two years of planning and public presentations the Town of Waynesville’s new comprehensive land use plan is ready for a vote by aldermen, but not before a final pair of public hearings.

Not far from the historic homes nestled along Waynesville’s Church Street sits a small plot of land that’s home to a typical Haywood County family — Ronnie Hicks, his girlfriend Sassy and their dog. 

The Town of Waynesville dropped the ball on a minor procedural change to how some zoning decisions are made, but at least taxpayers won’t be left holding the bag. 

For a great example of just how important the Town of Waynesville’s comprehensive plan is, one needn’t look any further than the proposed multi-family development located off Plott Creek Road. 

A controversial video gaming parlor that opened on Dellwood City Road last summer will cease operations and remove all signage by March 9, according to a consent agreement between the town of Waynesville and Nudge City owner Tami Nicholson. 

Local business owner Tami Nicholson was indicted Jan. 8 for illegally operating video gaming machines after police raided her Waynesville Plaza business last April, but it hasn’t stopped her from continuing a similar operation in a different location.

When the Nudge City video gaming parlor popped up in an old auto dealer’s lot on Dellwood City Road earlier this year, it quickly caught Elizabeth Teague’s eye.

Grandview Circle residents concerned about property values and crime turned up at the Waynesville Board of Aldermen meeting to get way out in front of an annexation that they suspect soon will become a trailer park.

As the $11.6 million Howell Mill Road project was winding down in late 2015, the Waynesville Planning Board began to take a look at zoning within the burgeoning corridor; what the board found was commercial development encroaching on formerly rural areas and disagreements between neighbors on the future of their community.

There wasn’t an empty seat in the house when the Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen met for its public budget hearing on June 13, but it was a zoning issue that took up 90 percent of the three-plus hour meeting.