Commentary­: Highest and best use? Or absolutely the worst use?

Editor’s note: The issues of density, zoning, Smart Growth and quality of life in the city of Asheville continue to generate interest and concern among Mountain Xpress readers. Recent letters to the editor on the topics have generated multiple comments and new letters, along with a lively thread on the Facebook group Asheville Politics, which […]

Let us, the people, support a new park

Please have a park next to the Basilica of St. Lawrence. They have offered money for the lot. Let us, the people, support them even with our money, even with a small donation. We have enough hotels downtown. What we need is more green space with trees. — Harry and Genelda Woggon Asheville

Human nature

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the woods I grew up in. I mean, I didn’t actually grow up in dem woods, but I might as well have. Nestled in the burbs outside Philly, I was lucky enough to have a big stream and a wooded strip of land that ran behind my house […]

Squeezing in more open space

A proposed retooling of the open-space requirements in Asheville’s Unified Development Ordinance could lead to more parks, more greenways, maybe even more sidewalk cafes surrounding denser housing and commercial developments in the city. That’s the hoped-for result of a proposal Planning and Development Director Scott Shuford presented to a wary audience of local developers at […]