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Commissioners Hold Three Public Hearings in February on Sunday Hunting, HILU & More

The Watauga County Board of Commissioners is holding three public hearings in the month of February. Two of the public hearings take place at next Tuesday’s meeting and a third happens during a special meeting on Feb. 28.

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, the commissioners will allow citizen comment on a proposed resolution requesting the banning of Sunday hunting. The commissioners looked at the draft resolution at a previous meeting and will likely vote on the resolution after hearing from the public.

For more information and to read the proposed resolution, click here.

Also on Tuesday, Feb. 21, the commissioners will hear from the public regarding the submission of a pre-application for a $100,000 grant from the Recreation Trails Program for the Guy Ford Road Watauga River access, also known as the lower gorge access.

The put-in at Guy Ford Road takes experienced boaters down a challenging and classic stretch of rapids and waterfalls. Last year, the Blue Ridge Conservancy secured 2.3 acres of river access on the Watauga River.

The access at Guy Ford Road is located in between the county-owned access at the U.S. 321 Bridge over Watauga River and land off of Tester Road that is owned by American Whitewater, a whitewater conservation nonprofit.

On Tuesday, Feb. 28, a public hearing on proposed amendments to the ordinance regulating high impact land use developments will be held.

Currently, there is a moratorium on high impact land use development in the Town of Boone’s former extraterritorial jurisdiction. The commissioners decided to revisit the ordinance in light of the recent N.C. Supreme Court ruling abolishing the town’s ETJ.

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, the commissioners will hear recommendations from the Watauga County Planning Board. On Feb. 28, the commissioners will hear comments from the public regarding those recommendations.

The commissioners will then have another meeting to make changes, a Tuesday, March 7 meeting, before the moratorium ends on March 10. See the latest timeline released from County Manager Deron Geouque here.

All of the meetings take place at 5:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ boardroom in the Watauga County Administration Building, located at 814 King Street. For more information, contact the county manager’s office at 828-265-8000.