Earlier this year, it looked like Monarch Ventures, a Charlotte-based company that’s been trying for years to build a high-density 500-bed student housing complex in Cullowhee, could be history.

Discussion about a new industrial development ordinance is just getting going in the Jackson County Planning Board, but the board didn’t waste any time in taking a unanimous vote asserting that fracking — a controversial form of fossil fuel extraction recently legalized in North Carolina — falls under county regulations for mining.

With the six-month process of getting a nuisance noise ordinance passed behind them, members of the Macon County Planning Board now have some new assignments.

Maggie Valley is attempting — for the third time — to put together a plan to improve the town’s image, aesthetics and economy.

With a slate of issues including steep slope development, cell phone tower construction and zoning rules for fracking facing the county, Sarah Thompson — formerly Sarah Graham — will be taking the helm as chair of the Jackson County Planning Board.

A land-use plan to guide growth in Cullowhee will take a detour past the planning board en route to Jackson County commissioners this spring.

There was some uncertainty over what trajectory the land-use plan would take once the Cullowhee planning task force finished it. A unanimous consensus at last week’s commissioner’s meeting was that the planning board should take a crack at it next.

Macon County Planning Board members are still hashing out the details of a proposed noise ordinance. 

The board held two meetings in January to figure out what language could be used to help address complaints about nuisance neighbors intentionally making noise to bother others without hindering property owners’ right to do what they wish on their land.

It’s been one-and-a-half years since the Jackson County Commissioners first OK’d a committee to look into doing some zoning in Cullowhee, and while Cullowhee is still without development standards, a proposal is on its way to commissioners’ desks. 

Approval could come as early as Jan. 29, though it could also drag out a good deal longer. 

A final public hearing to solicit public input on a draft set of standards to guide development in Cullowhee will take place on Jan. 13

After that, the draft standards will go to the planning board and then to the Jackson County Commissioners. 

Cell phone towers will now be allowed on Jackson County ridgetops — at least according a draft ordinance that’s on its way to commissioners after meeting planning board approval last week. 

The final vote on the draft ordinance was unanimous, but the votes and discussion leading up to that final show of hands — especially the ridgetop-oriented part of the discussion — were not.