City of Asheville Staff Emails: Occupy Asheville

From: Jeff Richardson

Subject: Occupy Asheville update

Date: 2011-10-13 17:03:34

To:

Dear Council:



Since Tuesday evening, at the direction of city council, staff has
reviewed city owned public spaces in an effort to provide potential
public space options for Occupy Asheville to occupy for an indefinite
period of time. We just finished a meeting with representatives from
that group and covered in detail three public spaces that city staff has
analyzed and are prepared to work with through the normal permitting
process. Those parcels are:



1. Bottom of Lexington Avenue under the I-240 Overpass
(specifically the public metered parking area) in that area. This area
can be offered on a 24-7 basis and there are no permitted events there
for the remainder of the calendar year.
2. City employee lot nearest adjacent to Marjorie Street and corner
of Valley Street. (Gated currently). This lot can be permitted for their
use from 7pm-7am daily.
3. City street level public parking lot on Rankin Street (two
options), across and beside the Rankin Avenue Parking garage. 7pm to 7am
daily.



City staff answered questions regarding each of these options, and
explained the expedited steps to quickly permit any of these locations,
at their request.



Next Steps:



The group is going back and discussing these options today and tomorrow.
I have a follow up meeting with the group tomorrow at 3pm to discuss
this issue further.



Note:



There was considerable interest in occupying a public park in downtown,
within eye sight and sound proximity to government buildings and banks.
Staff explained that we do not have administrative authority to allow
occupying of the parks past 10pm daily. I will apprise you of any
further developments tomorrow.



Let me know if you have questions. Mark Barrett from the ACT was there
for the last part of the meeting, and interviewed group members, and
several city staff.



Jeff Richardson

Assistant City Manager

P.O. Box 7148

City of Asheville, NC 28802

828-259-5602



Our Quality of Service, Your Quality of Life

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