Why Franklin Just Sent a $70,000 Message to Every Business Owner in Macon County

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  June 29, 2026

A local developer paid the Town of Franklin $70,000 for water service to a building that never got built. Then the town gave it back.

The Franklin town council made that decision this spring, and it has been quietly making the rounds among business owners across Macon County. And for good reason. The town had no policy requiring a refund. It could have kept the money and pointed to the absence of any rule as justification. Instead, the council chose to do the harder, fairer thing.

It is a small story on the surface. But it says a great deal about how Franklin treats the people who choose to invest here. In a region where so much of the economy runs on small businesses, family ventures, and people betting on their own ideas, a move like this lands harder than its dollar figure suggests.

A Project That Made Sense Until It Didn't

The story starts the way a lot of ambitious projects do. A local businessman, one who has asked to stay out of the spotlight, was moving full speed ahead on expanding his business. He had his eye on a property off Highway 441, the main corridor that carries traffic and commerce through Franklin, and he was preparing to develop it.

He did his homework. His cost projections were liberal, meaning he padded them generously and braced for the project to be expensive. He went in expecting a big number.

What he got was bigger. The price of clearing and preparing the land, then building a new facility on top of it, climbed past anything he had imagined. Construction costs in the mountains have a way of doing that. Terrain, access, materials, and labor all add up faster here than they do on flat ground, and they have been climbing steadily for years.

At some point the math stopped working. The costs became prohibitive, and he faced the decision every business owner dreads. He could push forward and over-extend himself and his company, or he could pull back before the project dragged everything down with it.

He made the smart call. He cut bait.

That is not a failure. That is discipline. Knowing when to walk away from a deal that has turned against you is one of the hardest skills in business, and it is one that protects employees, families, and the long-term health of a company. He chose to stay solvent rather than chase a project into the ground.

But walking away left one loose end. Along the way, he had already paid the town that $70,000 in tap fees.

What a Tap Fee Actually Is

If you have never developed a property, the term might be unfamiliar. Tap fees are what the Town of Franklin charges a developer to connect a new building to the municipal water supply. Every developer who expects to tie into town water pays them. They are a normal, expected part of any project that needs water service, which is to say almost any project at all.

The fees are not arbitrary. They are meant to cover the real costs of extending and maintaining the water system, including equipment, labor, and the infrastructure that makes turning on a faucet possible. When you are planning a large facility, $70,000 in tap fees is simply part of the budget you accept going in.

So when the expansion got scrapped, the developer had paid a significant sum for a service he would never use. He hoped to recoup the money, but he had no guarantee. There was no clear precedent for what happens when a project dies after the fees are paid but before the work is done.

This is the kind of gray area where a lot of towns simply keep the money. The town had the money. The policy, or lack of one, did not require giving it back. Most people would have shrugged and moved on. The fact that Franklin did not is what makes this worth writing about.

Uncharted Territory and an Extra Month

When the request to refund the fees came before the council, the members did not rubber-stamp it in either direction. They did something more careful. They asked town attorney John Henning Jr. to research the issue.

This was genuinely new ground. The town had no policy for refunding tap fees, which meant there was no playbook to follow and no obvious answer. Henning had to dig into the legal and procedural questions to figure out whether a refund was even appropriate, and on what basis.

The council also took an extra month to consider the matter rather than rushing to a vote. That patience matters. It would have been easy to decide quickly, either by keeping the money or by handing it back without examining the details. Instead they slowed down and got the facts straight.

Here is what those facts showed. The town had done no material water work on the property. It had made some equipment purchases, but it never used that equipment, and it remains available for a future project. In other words, the town was not out the labor or the infrastructure that tap fees are meant to cover. The town had collected the money for work that never happened.

That distinction is the whole case. A refund was not the town giving away something it had earned. It was the town returning money for a service it never had to provide. Once the council had that clarity, the right answer was clear.

Towns rarely stumble into found money, and when they do, the temptation to hold onto it is real. Franklin had every easy excuse available. The absence of a policy alone would have been enough cover for most.

The Vote and the People Behind It

The council voted to refund the money. Vice Mayor Mike Lewis and council members Jeff Berry, Joe Collins, Travis Higdon, and Rita Salain weighed in on the decision. Councilman Robbie Tompa recused himself, which is its own quiet sign of a body that takes ethics seriously and steps aside when it should.

These are not distant bureaucrats. They are neighbors who serve on a council in a mountain town of a few thousand people, making decisions that touch the lives of folks they see at the grocery store and the ball field. When they got this one right, they deserved to be named for it.

Mayor Stacy Guffey, who holds a non-voting role, presides over the council. Town Manager Amie Owens runs the day-to-day operations, and John Henning Jr. serves as town attorney and did the legwork that made an informed vote possible. Former town planner Justin Setser was part of the broader effort as well. Plenty of other town employees contribute to decisions like this without ever getting their names in print.

Notice how local this all is. There is no committee in a faraway capital deciding whether a Franklin business owner gets treated fairly. The decision sits with people who live here, know the area, and understand that a business owner cutting bait on a project is not a stranger but a member of the same community they are.

Why a Refund Sends a Bigger Message

A single $70,000 refund will not show up in any economic forecast. But the message it sends to the business community is worth far more than the dollar amount.

No jurisdiction handles every business process perfectly. Permitting, zoning, fees, and inspections create friction everywhere, and Franklin is no exception. What separates a business-friendly town from an indifferent one is how it behaves when something falls outside the rulebook. Franklin showed that when the rulebook is silent, it leans toward fairness rather than toward keeping whatever it can.

That matters to anyone considering an investment here. A developer weighing a project wants to know that the town across the table will deal honestly, that a setback will not be compounded by a government holding onto money it never earned. This decision is exactly the kind of track record that makes that case without a single word of marketing.

Word travels fast in a place this size. Every business owner who heard about the refund now carries a little more confidence that Franklin is a town that wants them to succeed. That confidence is what real growth is built on, and it compounds over time as one good experience becomes a story told to the next person thinking about putting down roots.

None of this happens by accident. It takes leaders who understand that economic health is built on trust, not just incentives, and who are willing to do the unglamorous work of researching a novel question and getting it right.

What This Says About Franklin's Future

Step back and the refund fits a larger pattern. Franklin's leaders have been taking steps aimed at real growth for all residents, not just headline projects or favored players. A town that returns money it could have kept is a town thinking about the long game.

That long game is the one that matters most to the people who live here and the people who are thinking about joining them. Macon County, with Franklin at its center, has been doing real work for the community's economic health, and the county itself deserves its own recognition another day. For now, the county seat earns the credit.

Franklin sits in a beautiful corner of Western North Carolina, surrounded by the Nantahala National Forest and threaded by the Little Tennessee River, an hour and a half from Asheville and a short drive from Highlands. It has the scenery and the small-town character that draw people to the mountains in the first place. What this story adds is the sense that the people running the town are as thoughtful as the setting is pretty.

That combination, natural beauty plus competent and fair leadership, is exactly what turns a place people visit into a place people stay. A town that treats a struggling developer fairly is a town that will treat a new restaurant owner, a retiring couple, or a young family the same way.

If you have ever found yourself wondering what it would actually be like to plant something of your own in a place like Franklin, the way this town handled one quiet decision tells you more than any brochure could.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What are water tap fees in Franklin, NC?

Water tap fees are charges that the Town of Franklin collects from developers and property owners who connect a new building to the town water supply. Every developer expecting to tie into the municipal system pays them, and they help cover the cost of the equipment, labor, and infrastructure needed to extend service to a property. In the recent case that drew attention, a developer paid Franklin $70,000 in tap fees for water service to a planned facility off Highway 441. When the project was canceled before any material water work was done, the council voted to return the money.

Who serves on the Franklin town council?

The Franklin town council includes Vice Mayor Mike Lewis and council members Jeff Berry, Joe Collins, Travis Higdon, Rita Salain, and Robbie Tompa. Stacy Guffey serves as mayor in a non-voting role. Supporting the council are Town Manager Amie Owens and Town Attorney John Henning Jr. In the tap fee refund decision, the council members vetted and voted on the issue, while Robbie Tompa recused himself. Henning researched whether a refund was even possible, since the town had no existing policy covering the situation, and the council took an extra month to weigh the matter before voting.

Why is Franklin considered good for business?

Franklin has earned a reputation as a business-friendly town because its leaders take proactive steps to support owners and developers rather than simply collecting fees and moving on. The $70,000 tap fee refund is a clear example. The town had no policy requiring a refund and could have kept the money, but the council chose to return it because no material water work had been done on the property. That kind of fairness sends a signal to anyone considering investment in Franklin that the town values its business community and treats people honestly when projects do not go as planned.

Where is Franklin, North Carolina located?

Franklin is the county seat of Macon County in far Western North Carolina, tucked into the southern Appalachian Mountains near the Nantahala National Forest. It sits along the Little Tennessee River and serves as a commercial and government hub for the surrounding area, with Highway 441 running through town as a primary corridor for development and traffic. Franklin is roughly an hour and a half southwest of Asheville and draws retirees, second-home buyers, and outdoor enthusiasts thanks to its mountain setting, gem-mining heritage, and small-town character. It anchors a region that includes nearby communities like Highlands, Murphy, and Sylva.