In a mere four years, Jackson County Planner Gerald Green has wrestled with just about every controversial land-use issue you could possibly come across in the mountains.

Cullowhee residents crowded the basketball court at the Cullowhee Recreation Center last week for a chance to sound off during the last public hearing before Jackson County Commissioners take a final vote on whether to adopt the Cullowhee Community Planning Standards.

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.