Committee recommends expanding Lakeshore advisory panel to nine members

The General Committee of Hendersonville voted Feb. 11 to recommend expanding the Lakeshore community advisory group from five to nine members, sending an amendment to the ordinance that established the committee on to the next governing body for consideration.

The change would increase the panel’s membership to nine, with five members to be approved by VOMA and four to be mayoral appointments, according to the committee’s sponsor. The amendment would modify the earlier ordinance establishing the Lakeshore committee (ordinance 2024-21).

Vice Chair (name not specified), vice chair of the General Committee, described the proposal as a response to greater-than-expected public interest in serving on the committee. “I will say that we in the first or the draft of the first ordinance, we amended it to take it down from 12, committee members to 6, I think. And, after I looked at the number of people signed up interested in the committee, I realized that we have a lot of interest,” the vice chair said. The sponsor moved that the committee send the amendment with a positive recommendation; the motion was seconded and passed.

A committee member raised a concern about geographic concentration of appointments, noting that the ordinance text would not require representation by ward: “I would like to note that, and that's good. But I want to note for you your benefit that it they all can come from Ward 4. They all can come from Ward 2. And there's no, Ward assignment,” the member said.

Committee members also noted two public information meetings with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had drawn high turnout, a point cited in support of increasing the panel’s size to accommodate community interest. The committee’s positive recommendation will be forwarded to the appropriate next step on the city's agenda for final consideration.

The committee recorded no formal roll-call vote totals in the meeting transcript; the chair announced the motion passed.