Dave Curphey’s story is a dime a dozen. Fed up with the urban sprawl that ruined his small town in Florida, devouring a landscape once dominated with orchards in just 10 short years, he packed his bags and moved to the mountains of Western North Carolina. His favorite line to locals: “You should have shot me at the border when you still had the chance.”

More than 300 people attended a public hearing on Land For Tomorrow in Asheville last week, overwhelming the expectations of those conducting the hearing. Some people drove for nearly two hours to come voice their support for the initiative.

Land For Tomorrow is a statewide initiative launched last year to set aside $1 billion for land conservation over the next five years.

Creation of a one-half cent local option sales tax to support building needs at Haywood Community College and tax relief from spiraling property values are among the issues Haywood County commissioners are urging legislators to address when the North Carolina General Assembly convenes in January 2007.

The current falling out between Haywood Regional Medical Center and the ER doctors is a symptom of a larger problem afoot, according to physicians who appealed to the hospital board on behalf of the medical community last week.

A new initiative is now underway to encourage landowners to keep the Upper Pigeon River Valley in the Bethel community of Haywood County rural.

Here’s the main problem with the slope development ordinance passed last week by Haywood County commissioners: it wasn’t the ordinance the public had a chance to discuss and debate at the public hearing held just over a month ago.

The tax on overnight lodging in Haywood County could be increased next year pending approval by the state legislature.

Haywood County Commissioners made several changes to the slope development ordinance before passing it. The ordinance kicks in when a cut-and-fill slope exceeds a certain threshold. That threshold is what commissioners altered. Here’s the net effect of the changes:

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for any cut-and-fill slope taller than 10 feet.

• Change: This measure was eliminated.

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for any earth moving activity on natural slope cuts that exceeds 40 percent.

• Change: This measure was eliminated.

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for a cut slope that exceeds a 1 to 1 ratio of run to rise.

• Change: Applies only to slope cuts that exceed 15 feet in height.

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for a fill slope that exceeds a 1.5 to 1 ratio of run to rise.

• Change: Applies only to slopes that exceed 15 feet in height.

Haywood County commissioners made significant changes to a slope development ordinance created by the county planning board before passing it unanimously Monday night (Nov. 20), watering down some of the key safety measures.