Madison planning board finalizes biomass facilities recommended changes

MARSHALL - After a nearly 18-month-long moratorium on biomass facilities to allow the county to properly regulate such facilities, the regulation language will be sent to Madison County commissioners for finalization.

The Madison County Planning Board met March 19 and agreed on recommended changes to the Madison County Land Use Ordinance to include regulation of biomass facilities, as well as data processing facilities.

Next, the Madison County Board of Commissioners will decide whether to adopt the Planning Board's recommendations.

In the recommended changes, the draft ordinance defines a biomass facility as a facility that converts biomass sources into energy or wood pellets for public or private use.

"Biomass includes, but is not limited to, wood and wood processing waste, wood pellets, agricultural crops, and waste materials, biogenic materials in municipal solid waste, animal manure, and human sewage," the draft ordinance reads.

As with past drafts, the Planning Board recommends in Chapter 3 of the Land Use Ordinance the county distinguish between large and small biomass facilities.

While both large and small facilities will require a special use permit, large biomass facilities will be relegated to solely Industrial zones, while small or temporary biomass facilities can be approved for a special use in Agricultural-Open Space (AO), Residential Agriculture (RA), Commercial (C) or Retail Business (RB) districts. Each biomass facility will go before the Board of Adjustment for a special use permit, and the Board of Adjustment will consider compatibility, public health and safety, environmental impact, traffic and parking and neighborhood impact in its standards.

Large vs. small

The four criteria that will distinguish between large and small facilities will be annual biomass throughput, energy production, the number of employees and the facility's capital investment threshold.

Large

With the new recommended changes, a large facility will be defined as a facility that meets any one of the following four criteria:

• Annual biomass throughput higher than 5,000 metric tons of biomass per year.

• Energy production: A large biomass facility generates more than 10,000 MWh or more energy annually.

• Number of employees: A large biomass facility has more than 50 employees.

• Investment: A large biomass facility requires an investment of more than $5 million.

Small

• A small biomass facility process under 5,000 metric tons of biomass per year.

• A small biomass facility generates less than 10,000 MWh of energy annually.

• A small biomass facility has under 50 employees.

• A small biomass facility requires an investment of less than $5 million.

Comments from board, residents

A number of residents, including Elaine Robbins, Jim Tibbetts and Barbara Zimmerman, spoke during public comments to offer their feedback.

Mountain True, an Asheville-based organization with a mission to champion resilient forests, clean waters, and healthy communities in the Southern Blue Ridge, also had two representatives on hand at the meeting. Chris Joyell, the healthy communities director, and Josh Kelly, a public lands biologist, offered public comments March 19.

Kelly said he agreed with the board's recommendation to reduce the criteria for a large biomass facility from 100 employees to 50 employees, but said he felt the board should go further in narrowing its scope to "make the ordinance more clear."

"The ordinance should be narrowed, so that it does not inadvertently include sawmills," Kelly said. "The ordinance should not be restricted to facilities that produce energy on site."

Kelly said he felt the ordinance should apply specifically to facilities that produce wood pellets, which are the top form of biomass energy produced in the Southeast.

Additionally, Kelly said noise and dust were two considerations that should be taken into effect for both small and large facilities.

"There could be a facility with 49 employees that might have some pretty big impacts on folks' quality of life if those facilities were nearby," Kelly said.

As such, the latest draft in Section 8.11.15 regulates against dust leaving the property of these facilities.

The board also agreed to change its recommended definition of a biomass facility, as a previous draft defined a biomass facility as "a facility that converts biomass sources into value-added products for public or private use."

In its January meeting, the board decided to move away from the "value-added" component of the definition, as board members and residents felt that was too vague.

"When you all changed the 'value-added product' definition last time, it eliminated all the wood pellet production facilities, all those things are not regulated by this," Development Services Director Brad Guth said. "It's just dealing with energy (-producing facilities).

"The ordinance lists wood, wood-processing waste, wood pellets, agriculture crops and waste materials, biogenic materials and municipal solid waste, animal manure and human sewage," Guth said. "That's basically saying, 'Those are the things that you can put in as an input to that facility to generate energy.'"

The "generation of energy" is crucial to the definition, according to county land use attorney John Noor.

"But only energy. If it's not used to make energy, it's not a biomass facility," Noor said. "It's a facility that converts biomass sources into energy or pellets."

Tibbetts said he agreed with the clarification.

"It would be easy enough to just say, 'A facility that converts biomass sources or wood pellets into energy,' and clarify that, so that it's no doubt when a special use permit application comes in, and people have to interpret this," Tibbetts said.

"The community is counting on the rules that are created by county government to keep them from having to worry about having to worry about something like that happening. I'd like to see some protection out there for these citizens out there that have these beautiful farms and land and places where they've lived for years, to protect them from these rules before they go into effect, and before they have to hire lawyers to interpret them."

Guth told The News-Record the commissioners will visit the recommended changes in an upcoming meeting, but said it was unclear whether the board would discuss the recommendations in its next meeting, on April 9 at 7 p.m.

Johnny Casey has covered Madison County for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel for three years. He earned a first-place award in beat news reporting in the 2023 North Carolina Press Association awards. He can be reached at 828-210-6074 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Planning board finalizes biomass facilities recommended changes