News Item: Macon County Considers Steep Slope Law
(Category: Misc)
Posted by Doug Ingram
Friday 03 June 2011 - 06:25:08


Nearly 530 landslides and debris flows in WNC have killed six people and injured five since 1990, according to a Citizen-Times investigation in 2009. They have destroyed 40 homes and buildings resulting in property damage that has reached at least $13.4 million. Of those deaths, five were from a 2004 debris flow in the Macon community of Peeks Creek, though the disaster was on a natural slope during heavy rain. Neighboring Jackson County has a steep-slope law as do Haywood and Buncombe counties. 

The Macon County Planning board will consider a steep-slope construction ordinance that, if passed, would make Macon at least the fourth county in the region to adopt such standards. Macon's proposed law would require no regulations on grades of 30 percent or less. A 30 percent grade is a 1-foot run to a 3-foot rise.  For midlevel slopes, the Macon law would require the county planning staff to assist with designs. For a very steep or hazardous slope, an engineer would be required.

Read the full article here.



This news item is from Building in WNC
( http://buildinginwnc.com/news.php?extend.9 )