The stunning mountain vistas that define Western North Carolina come at a price. Home construction on steep slopes provides great views but can expose homeowners to landslide hazards.

A 2004 landslide at the Peaks Creek community in Macon County claimed five lives and destroyed 16 homes. The tragic loss of life at Peaks Creek was widely publicized, but it’s only one of many landslides that have occurred in the area in recent years. The U.S. Geological Survey has determined that much of WNC is at high risk for landslides.

The insurance industry also recognizes the risks of building in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The industry has inserted language into all North Carolina home insurance policies that denies coverage for damage caused by landslides and other slope failures. The result is that homeowners and their lenders are left holding the bag when slopes fail. In the Hunters Crossing community in Haywood County, for example, a slow-moving landslide has pushed homes off their foundations, and homeowners are forced to make mortgage payments on condemned houses.

We cannot afford to dismiss these hazards. Slope failures and landslides are a natural and recurring part of our mountain landscape. The North Carolina Geological Survey has identified more than 2,000 historic landslides and 1,600 debris flow tracks in Watauga County alone. Significantly, 15 areas where slopes failed in Watauga County during the hurricanes of 1940 slid again in the hurricanes of 2004. Few builders or homeowners expect a house to last less than the 60 years it took these landslides to recur. If we’re going to build for the long term, then we must plan for long-term risks.

Our exposure to the long-term risk of landslides increases every year. The pace of mountainside development is increasing rapidly in Western North Carolina and beyond. The rate of steep slope construction in Haywood County has more than doubled since the early 1990s. In Watauga County, steep slope construction increased from 10 percent of new homes built in the 1970s to 50 percent of new homes in the 1990s.

As a result, more and more families are exposed to landslide risks, including those who buy and live in the steep slope development and those living down slope. Between 2001 and 2005, an average of 27 homes were constructed each year in parts of Macon County that now are known to be at high risk for landslides based on landslide hazard maps for the county recently completed by the North Carolina Geological Survey. In Watauga County, the NC Geological Survey identified 136 structures and 521 roads that have been built on the tracks of landslides caused by a 1940 hurricane.

Every homeowner in our area and other mountain communities deserves the confidence that their house was built carefully, with respect for the limits of the land. We need state action to ensure that homebuyers are safe. Here are four areas that need to be addressed and that we can all do something about:

First, homeowners need to be told when a house is in an area mapped by the NC Geological Survey as at risk for landslide hazards. Without a required disclosure, home sellers have little incentive to inform buyers of these risks, and out-of-state home buyers, in particular, may not know enough about landslide hazards to ask the question. Buyers need this information to evaluate their purchase and also to ensure that storm drains, retaining walls and other structures that stabilize slopes are well maintained.

Second, there is no substitute for the input of a qualified engineer who has conducted a site-specific analysis. Many factors contribute to landslide risks on mountainside properties, including slope, geology, soil type, construction techniques and the intensity of development. Developers building in landslide hazard areas and on the steepest slopes must consult with a qualified engineering professional before proceeding.

Third, minimum standards are needed to ensure that construction in potentially hazardous areas employ best practices. Artificial slope construction must be engineered to meet minimum standards for safety and stability. Like building codes designed to minimize fire and other risks, the state should set standards to minimize the risks of landslide hazards and other slope failures.

Fourth, requirements are needed to ensure that construction on the steepest slopes and in known hazard areas minimizes removal of trees and replants trees wherever possible. Trees are critically important to slope stability, as their roots stabilize soil and remove moisture that contributes to slope instability.

A recent bill introduced in the North Carolina legislature would address many, but not all, of these needs. The proposed Safe Artificial Slope Construction Act, sponsored by Representatives Ray Rapp, Phillip Haire and Susan Fisher, would help protect mountain families by requiring a responsible plan prepared by a professional engineer before development occurs in steep slope and known hazard areas.

All of our state legislators need to hear from you that Western North Carolina must have state support for planning in order to help us grow without undermining the mountain environment that we all cherish and to ensure that every homebuyer is safe from the threat of landslide hazards.

More fundamentally, we need to devote resources to planning in the mountains. Good planning considers hazardous areas as well as sensitive natural resources and steers new growth to places where development makes sense. We all love our mountains, but we must also respect them.

DJ Gerken is a native of Asheville, NC, a planner by training, and an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (www.southernenvironment.org), where his work includes land use and planning advocacy as well as protection of public lands and water quality.

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