Short term rental stories take the top spot, COVID stories, BearWise status, municipal election results, fiber contract make up top five
It was another busy year in Highlands.
Here at The Highlander, we broke down this years’ top stories to reflect on the things that happened in Highlands and the surrounding areas.
Below are the top 10 stories of 2021:
10. Dollar General opens its doors between Highlands and Cashiers
On Feb. 18, 2021, the new Dollar General location approximately halfway between Highlands and Cashiers opened its doors.
The new location was the first major retail chain to move into the Highlands retail market.
According to Dollar General representative Angela Petkovic, the store fills a gap between locations in Sapphire and Scaly Mountain.
The store did not have a grand opening due to COVID-19.
9. Festivals in Highlands
The Bear Shadow Music Festival held its first ever festival across three days in late April.
In the beginning of the festival’s inception, it was supposed to be held at Oakleaf Home Farm in Horse Cove, but due to COVID-19 limitations, the festival had to move to a new location at Winfield Farm in Scaly Mountain.
The weekend-long event featured a variety of live musical acts, from bluegrass and blues to folk and soul, including Devon Gilfillian, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, Shelly Colvin, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Robert Ellis and others. The festival was produced by Eleven Events and Highlands Festivals, Inc.
Besides the music, attendees of the festival got to enjoy food and drinks from local eateries like The Ugly Dog Pub, Highlands Burritos, Highlands Smokehouse, Chocolate Heaven and The Crafty Goat food truck.
The Highlands Food and Wine Festival sold out of tickets during the first weekend of them being on sale for another straight year.
One change to the event this year, was requiring documentation of COVID-19, or a negative COVID-19 test to attend the event.
“The health and safety of our patrons, staff and vendors remains our top priorities,” Casey Reid, Highlands Food and Wine Festival Director, said. “We will continue to monitor best practices and guidelines established by state and local health authorities in order to be able to safely bring the community together for our 5th Annual Highlands Food and Wine Festival.”
In September, the Center for Life Enrichment brought the first ever Porchfest to Highlands.
With Highlands’ lack of porches, the CLE decided to modify Porchfest to feature local businesses.
Approximately 26 musicians took over Main Street and several businesses to provide free music to residents and visitors.
8. Highlands unveils first ever comprehensive plan
Representatives from Stewart Inc. and town staff discussed the comprehensive plan at a standing room only meeting in June.
The plan is meant to shape the next 20-25 years of living in Highlands.
Stakeholder meetings preceded an open public forum and a community survey, which drew more than 1,000 responses.
Among the high points of the plan municipal planner with Stewart Inc., Jake Petrosky pointed out were increased walkability via future projects to add sidewalks in high-traffic areas, a crosswalk traversing Main Street halfway between 3rd and 4th Street, and a continued effort to improve and expand the greenway.
Ways to regulate short term rentals was also a much-discussed topic during the meeting. Petrosky noted that 62 percent of the more than 1,000 respondents to the initial comprehensive plan survey marked that they were concerned about the increase in VRBO’s in Highlands. On the flip side, 60 percent of business owners indicated that more VRBO’s and short-term rental properties would be good for their business.
7. Highlands Performing Arts Center breaks ground, begins construction
In August, the Highlands Performing Arts Center broke ground on its $11 million theatre.
PAC director Mary Adair Trumbly said the project management, the construction company, the architects, the designers, the theatrical company have met twice a month for over a year.
There were several little details that were changed within the last month to make sure the center will be at top notch including flooring, rugs, tiling and the connector on the outside of the building.
“Our construction contract has a maximum guaranteed cost of $9.4 million, though we are anticipating some further cost savings, and our total project cost, which includes design, engineering, furnishings, technical equipment, expanded and enhanced parking, and related expenses, is $11 million,” The PAC board said in a statement. “Given the significant inflation that has taken place in the construction industry during the last year, we are extremely pleased to be able to build a first-class facility for the community at this cost. We are, however, continuing to seek important financial support from the community which is needed to bridge the gap between our original budget and the total project cost.”
Construction is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2022.
6. Healthcare improvements on the Plateau
In July, the Blue Ridge Health Highlands-Cashiers clinic opened its doors.
The clinic is located at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital in the Jane Woodruff Clinic Building.
After recognizing an immediate and long-term need, a solution was found in funding a collaboration between Blue Ridge Health and Mountain Area Health Education Center. The plateau’s new health center will serve as a Rural Teaching Practice where UNC School of Medicine students and MAHEC Family Practice Residents will become acquainted with the community while providing quality primary care during their rural rotations.
The clinic welcomed two new doctors, Dr. Ann Davis and Dr. Kristy Fincher and both doctors are now accepting new patients.
Also in July, the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital announced that it would resume surgeries after taking a hiatus for six years.
The hospital opened two new operating rooms that underwent several improvements that CEO Tom Neal said were essential to start operating again.
To go with the operating rooms, the hospital also hired two new surgeons.
Neal said in July that over the last year, $7.2 million has gone into HCH, with $6.8 going into infrastructure. Out of the $6.8 million used on infrastructure, $3.5 million went into upgrading the electrical power system, $2.3 million went into upgrading air handlers and boilers, $425,000 went into replacing medical air and vacuum, $400,000 went into grease trap replacement, $100,000 went into modernizing the elevators, $55,000 went into upgrading the alarm panels and $50,000 went into replacing the chill water pump.
In June, the hospital unveiled its new 3D mammography machine. The machine was installed in April of this year.
“We wanted to bring the best technology to the patients of this area,” Regional manager for imaging Lori Smith, MBA, RT (R) RDMS, RDCS, RVT, said. “So far, the patients have all loved it. We are bringing something to this area that the patients have not had before. We have routine mammograms, but now we are bringing a new level of care.”
For more information, contact the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital Radiology Department at 828-526-1467.
To schedule an appointment, call 828-883-5021.
5. Highlands inks fiber contract deal with Hotwire
The Highlands Town Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to sign the contract with Hotwire at their regularly scheduled board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 21.
According to Hotwire’s proposal during the town’s recruitment process, the company will begin connecting customers within three months of the upstream bandwidth connection being operational and would continue to build out underground within three years of customer commitment.
Services offered include internet up to 10 gigabytes per second for residential customers along with voice, television, home automation and home security. As part of Hotwire’s proposal they anticipated remitting $10.2 million over the next 25 years to the Town of Highlands.
4. Mayor Patrick Taylor keeps his seat as mayor, Patterson, Pierson elected to Board of Commissioners
With 490 votes tallied in the Nov. 4, municipal elections, the incumbent mayor Patrick Taylor was reelected, incumbent commissioner Amy Patterson was reelected and former commissioner Eric Pierson was elected to serve on the Highlands Board of Commissioners once again.
In the mayoral race, Taylor ended the night with 343 votes, 70 percent. His competitor, current commissioner Marc Hehn ended with 145, 29.59 percent. There were two write in votes.
In the race for commissioners, which had two spots open, Patterson came in first with 261 votes, 29.06 percent and Pierson came in second with 238 votes, 26.50 percent.
“The negativity that was projected about this town has been rebuked,” Taylor said. “We need to move forward. Yes, we have challenges, but we can work together, and this vote has proved that we can work together and move forward as a community.”
3. Town of Highlands becomes first town in N.C. to become BearWise certified
In October, representatives from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission presented town officials and the BEAR task force with official signs and pins confirming the town’s BearWise certification.
The Town of Highlands and the BEAR task force has worked for several years to become the first BearWise Community in North Carolina.
The town incorporated several BearWise measures including passing an ordinance on bear proof trash cans.
2. COVID and its variants linger in Highlands
Over the past year, Highlands still saw remnants of COVID-19, but were now equipped with the new vaccines.
The Highlands-Cashiers Plateau Vaccine Initiative held several vaccine clinics and the town had to reinstate its mask mandates several months.
In August, a new variant of COVID-19, the Delta variant, caused a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Highlands-Cashiers CEO Tom Neal reached out to HCA Healthcare chief medical officer Dr. Bill Hathaway so they could have a question-and-answer panel at a special called board meeting of the Highlands Town Board of Commissioners.
In October, the town did away with their mask mandate because of lower COVID-19 numbers.
1. Short-term rentals become the talk of the town
Everyone had their opinion on short term rentals this past year. Whether it was keeping them around or banning them all together, the Highlands Town Board of Commissioners made several decisions that would make both sides upset.
In August, after hearing several complaints from neighborhood homeowners and having meetings over two days, the board of commissioners decided to ban all STRs in R-1 residential zoning.
During the time that followed, a group of citizens in favor of STRs rallied together, raised money and hired an attorney group to sue the Town of Highlands for the quick decision.
After two months of deliberating and meetings with attorneys, the board of commissioners voted unanimously to enter a Stay of Proceedings, which delayed the enforcement of the short-term rental ban scheduled for Jan. 3, until Feb. 1, 2022.
Mayor Patrick Taylor appointed Commissioner Amy Patterson and Commissioner Brian Steihler to an advisory information group to meet with attorneys and engage in conversation as the attorneys gather information about short term rentals.
On Monday, Nov. 22, the Highlands Town Board of Commissioners held a workshop with the planning board to go over a proposed draft of changes to the unified development ordinance.
The draft, prepared by a working group of town attorney Jay Coward, attorney Craig Justice, commissioner Amy Patterson and commissioner Brian Stiehler contains changes to definitions in the UDO, adds the wording for a transient dwelling unit and whole house short term rental, amends use tables to classify overnight accommodations, and adds a subsection regarding commercial uses of whole house short term rentals that allows vesting or grandfathering of existing short-term rentals in R-1.
On Dec. 13, the planning board met and dissected the draft, eventually voting to recommend to not allow transient dwelling units in R-1 zoning and allowing tourist homes in R-1 with limited use.
- By Christopher Lugo