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The Battle for Swannanoa Residents divided over incorporation
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Different views: Dueling billboards show two very different visions of the effects of Swannanoa’s possible incorporation. The debate over the topic has sometimes become heated, as the Nov. 3 referendum approaches. photos by Jonathan welch
by David Forbes In June, state Sen. Martin Nesbitt (DBuncombe) had something to say to his colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee. “This is about the town of Swannanoa, and I know you don’t want to know anything about it, but I’m going to tell you anyhow,” he said, introducing legislation to put the General Assembly’s stamp of approval on incorporating the town and to set a referendum for Nov. 3. “This will be the site of the first Tiger Woods golf course in North America,” he continued (incorrectly, since most of Woods’ Cliffs at High Carolina Course will be in Fairview). “For those of you who’ve been through it, I don’t know why Swannanoa isn’t bigger than the city of Asheville. It’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen. It’s got Interstate 40, it’s got sewer and water.” Sen. Jerry Tillman (R-Montgomery) seconded Nesbitt’s motion, and the finance committee approved the bill. The whole process, including the time senators spent laughing about the town’s name and Tiger’s golf course, took less than three minutes. But to area residents on both sides of the sometimes-heated debate, the issue of incorporation is no laughing matter. The looming referendum is the last step in a three-year process. If approved, roughly 8,500 people will become citizens of the town of Swannanoa. If the referendum fails, the area will remain an unincorporated part of eastern Buncombe County. There are strong feelings about both options. “The No. 1 issue here is self-determination,” Dave Alexander told Xpress. “The Buncombe commissioners do a good job, but with the entire
18 OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 3, 2009 • mountainx.com
county to look after, Swannanoa will never be priority No. 1. Because of what Swannanoa needs to be, because of all the development at our doorstep, incorporation is what works.” Alexander, who retired to Swannanoa in 2002, heads up the Swannanoa Incorporation Task Force. Typically, a board made up of those who have worked on incorporation governs a town until elections can be held. If the referendum passes, Alexander will serve as chair of the town’s interim town council until elections in May of next year. But there’s more than one opinion on incorporation, and over the last three years, a sizable opposition has arisen, led by the group Swannanoa Truth. “This will add another layer of taxation,” says real-estate attorney Doug Thigpen, who’s on Swannanoa Truth’s steering committee. “It will add another layer of government. The other side says, ‘Well, yeah, but it’s our government.’ But we still feel it’s an unnecessary step. We’ve got our own fire department. We have police protection through the Buncombe County sheriff. This isn’t going to give us anything we don’t already have, and I doubt they’ll be able to run a town on the [five cents per $100] new property tax they’re asking for. It’s going to go up.” Leading up to the election, disputes have sometimes grown fierce, with both sides accusing the other of stealing their signs. On Oct. 2, incorporation treasurer Ron Hillibrand pressed simple assault charges against another man after a physical confrontation erupted when Hillibrand tried to remove anti-incorporation signs from a property (at the owner’s request,
he says). On Oct. 9 the window of a pharmacy owned by Incorporation Task Force Vice Chair Mike Tolley was shattered by a cinderblock, though investigators have not definitively linked that vandalism to the incorporation battle. Still, both Alexander and Thigpen say things have remained “mostly civil” as both sides put out signs, buy ads and try to get their supporters out to the polls on Election Day.
Service for all? Contrary to anti-incorporation claims, Alexander asserts, Swannanoa residents will get four new services that state law requires new municipalities to provide. The town of Swannanoa will, he claims, provide road maintenance and repair, increased fire protection, street lighting and better law enforcement. The increased law enforcement presence will initially be handled through a sheriff’s substation and additional deputies specifically detailed to provide protection to the new town. “We’ll have a contract with the Buncombe sheriff’s office,” Alexander says. “Right now they’ve got two deputies at any given time to respond to calls in East Buncombe. Under our agreement, there will be a substation [with one full-time deputy for the town] in Swannanoa. That will cut down response times significantly.” He says that he believes property taxes can remain at the 5-cent rate — or even lower after incorporation — since about 60 percent of the town’s revenues will come from sales tax money distributed by the state, franchise fees