The draft of Asheville’s Downtown Master Plan is now available in The Xpress Files. This long-awaited document lays out various strategies for preserving downtown’s character and promoting its growth, including shifting the day-to-day running of downtown to an independent entity known as the Asheville Development District.
Developed by Massachusetts-based consulting firm Goody Clancy, the plan has been controversial throughout its development. Originally due to be released in October, rifts in the Downtown Master Plan Advisory Committee forced the city to bring in a mediator and push back its roll-out four months.
This plan will be officially unveiled on Jan. 12 at a meeting of the advisory committee. Asheville City Council will vote on the plan in March.
An appendix, also available in The Xpress Files, details the reference materials, public feedback and multiple maps that went along with the plan’s development.
— David Forbes, staff writer
Thanks for making this available.
I remember hearing a similar “master plan” for downtown presented in the 1980s, dividing the downtown into zones, etc. It wasn’t implemented – which perhaps goes without saying. Perhaps Mountain Express could do a short history of downtown master plans developed, paid for, and never implemented to help us keep this new one in perspective.