(a) Purpose. The purpose of this provision is to expand the coverage of the Mountain Ridge Protection Act of 1983 (as amended) in the City of Asheville and the extraterritorial planning jurisdiction of the City of Asheville to further regulate the construction of tall buildings or structures on mountain ridges. This expanded regulation will insure that supplying water to, and disposing of sewage from, buildings at high elevations does not infringe on the groundwater rights and endanger the health of those persons living at lower elevations; that adequate fire protection will be available; that such buildings or structures will not be a hazard to air navigation; and that such tall buildings will not detract from the natural beauty of the mountains.
(b) Authority. This provision is adopted pursuant to the authority conferred by N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 113A-208(a), as amended.
(c) Jurisdiction. This provision shall apply to the construction of tall buildings or structures as defined in N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 113A-206(3), on protected mountain ridges as defined hereinafter within the corporate limits of the City of Asheville, North Carolina, and within the extraterritorial planning jurisdiction of the City of Asheville in accordance with N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 113A-208, as amended.
(d) Tall buildings or structures. "Tall buildings or structures" include any building, structure, or unit within a multi-unit building with a vertical height of more than 40 feet measured from the top of the foundation of said building, structure, or unit and the uppermost point of said building, structure, or unit; provided, however, that where such foundation measured from the natural finished grade of the crest or the natural finished grade of the high side of the slope of a ridge exceeds three feet, then such measurement in excess of three feet shall be included in the 40-foot limitation described herein; provided, further, that no such building, structure, or unit shall protrude at its uppermost point above the crest of the ridge by more than 35 feet. For the purposes of this section 7-12-3, "tall buildings or structures" do not include:
· Water, radio, telephone or television towers or any equipment for the transmission of electricity or communications or both;
· Structures of a relatively slender nature and minor vertical projections of a parent building, including chimneys, flagpoles, flues, spires, steeples, belfries, cupolas, antennas, poles, wires, or windmills; or
· Buildings and structures designated as National Historic Sites on the National Archives Registry.
(e) Protected mountain ridges defined. The City of Asheville, North Carolina, in accordance with N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 113A-206(6) as amended, hereby eliminates the 3,000-elevation requirement in defining a protected mountain ridge for the purpose of applying the Mountain Ridge Protection Act in the City of Asheville and its extraterritorial planning jurisdiction. "Protected mountain ridges" are defined, therefore, in the City of Asheville and its extraterritorial planning jurisdiction, as all mountain ridges whose elevation is 500 or more feet above the elevation of an adjacent valley floor.
(f) Protected Mountain Ridge Act compliance. The provisions of N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 113A-209 shall be applicable to protected mountain ridges as defined hereinbefore.
(g) Filing of maps. In accordance with N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 113A-212, a map or maps tentatively identifying the protected mountain crests as defined by this section has been filed by the North Carolina Secretary of Natural Resources and Community Development with the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and the Asheville City Council. A map or maps identifying the protected mountain ridges (and) crests in the City of Asheville, North Carolina, has been filed with the Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
(Ord. No. 2369, § 1, 5-27-97)