Pending advisory board vacancies vastly outnumber applications

Black Mountain struggles to find citizens for key roles

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
June 1, 2022

Black Mountain Town Clerk Savannah Parrish has received five applications to fill 15 pending vacancies on the town’s advisory boards, ahead of the June 6 deadline. Photo by Fred McCormick

Every summer, a varying number of civic-minded residents of Black Mountain volunteer to serve as a voice for their community. Each of them commit to at least three years of regular meetings, where they consider and discuss potential recommendations to be passed along to the town’s governing body. 

The volunteer positions they fill on local advisory boards play a vital role in town governance, but as the Monday, June 6 deadline for applicants approaches, the number of interested citizens falls well short of filling the pending vacancies. 

Fifteen seats and alternate positions will open on the Town of Black Mountain’s six advisory boards, July 1, with five applicants seeking spots on four of them. The waning interest in serving on the boards has been a trend in the town in recent years, according to Town Clerk Savannah Parrish, who receives and reviews the applications. 

“It’s hard to identify a specific cause,” she said. “I do know we’re not the only town experiencing this issue, but it has been a struggle this year.”

With multiple terms set to expire on the planning board, zoning board of adjustment and historic preservation commission, the town has received fewer applicants than it did in 2021. 

“These three are the most concerning to me, because in order to keep a downtown historic district, we have to have a historic preservation commission,” the town clerk said. “ The responsibilities of the planning and zoning boards are actually laid out in state law, so all three of these bodies serve an important function for us.”

Three of the seven seats on the planning board, which meets monthly to review and offer insight on matters related to land use to the Black Mountain Town Council, will open on the last day of June. Parrish has received one application for the board. 

“The planning board advises on so much stuff,” she said. “Land use planning is a huge part of what they do, and they advise on zoning. They consider other ordinances, like the recently passed mobile food truck vendor ordinance. They’re currently working on a Unified Development Ordinance, which is a huge undertaking that requires a lot of input from them.”

Unlike the other committees, which serve in an advisory capacity, the zoning board of adjustment functions as a quasi-judicial administrative body that operates between town officials and the court system. It is also responsible for issuing special use permits. Two terms on the five-member board will expire in the coming weeks, while three alternate positions have remained vacant for months.

While both the planning board and ZBA require appointees to reside within town limits, neither require prior training or experience.

“Our planning department staff and the board members who have served a while make it a point to give people an overview of their duties, and help them understand what they’ll be doing,” Parrish said. “The ZBA’s focus is very narrow, so once you know what you are and are not able to do, it makes the decision-making pretty easy, because something is either allowable, or it isn’t.”

Receiving one application for multiple spots on the planning and zoning boards is unusual, according to Parrish, but filling all five seats on the historic preservation commission has been a challenge for at least a year. The terms of two of its current four members are set to expire in less than four weeks.

Established in 2001, the HPC dedicated its early efforts to adding downtown Black Mountain to the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district that resulted is protected by a zoning overlay intended to maintain the character of the area.

The HPC’s duties include reviewing developments, renovations and signs in the district to determine their appropriateness, and developing recommendations regarding regulations within the district that are passed along to the town council.

"A lot of people don’t understand the function of the HPC,” Parrish said. “They really are charged with preserving the historic look and feel of downtown.”

One application has been submitted to fill an upcoming vacancy on the active mobility commission, which advises the town council on greenway development and management. Members of the board, former the greenways commission, must live in the Town of Black Mountain or the East Buncombe Fire District. Two people have submitted forms expressing interest in a pair of expiring terms on the recreation commission, while one application has been received for an upcoming opening on the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Board.

Following the upcoming deadline, the town clerk will review the applications and submit all qualified applicants to the town council for consideration. The town council will appoint new members in the coming weeks.

“Of course we would always like to see more applications,” Parrish said. “It’s important that people know if they have applied in the past and the were not appointed, they are encouraged to keep applying. The opportunity to volunteer for these roles will always be there.”

For more information on local citizen advisory boards, visit the Citizen Involvement page on the Town of Black Mountain website.