A month after contentiously approving the 2015 budget, the Buncombe Board of Commissioners’ Tuesday, Aug. 5, meeting is shaping up to resemble nothing if not a game of Monopoly.
Most of the new business before the board concerns various ins-and-outs of real estate. First, commissioners will be considering three rezoning requests. Two of these are from private citizens, while the third comes from the Zoning Administration asking to rezone the Asheville Regional Airport from a Public Service District to an Airport Industry District.
Also, a final zoning consideration will temporarily waive the rezoning application for citizens inside the Weaverville Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, in response to a new June 24 law from the North Carolina General Assembly that “removed the authority of the Town of Weaverville to exercise land use regulation within an Extraterritorial Jurisdiction area.”
Next, the commissioners will consider a proposal from the Library, Recreation and Cultural Department to allow the erection of a monument to the Charters of Freedom (i.e. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights) outside the Buncombe County Courthouse. The funds for the monument have been donated entirely by a local citizen, and, if approved, will be a replica of the original monument at the National Archives Rotunda in Washington D.C.
Commissioners will also be hearing an update on the state of Asheville Regional Airport, as well as voting on a resolution to donate a parcel of land at 40 Johnson Drive in Asheville to Habitat for Humanity.
In addition, the commissioners will be voting on a resolution to solicit bids for the sale of two parcels of property at 225 E. Chestnut, following up on a July 8 motion made by Commissioner Mike Fryar to sell the property. The combined tax value of the properties is $887,600, and if the resolution passes the commissioners will entertain bids that meet or exceed that value.
In a final bit of real estate news, the Board will consider two resolutions regarding the City Centre/Hilton Garden Inn project that has been planned at the location of the former Tripps restaurant on College Street in downtown Asheville. The plans for the project encompass county property. The first resolution will allow a land swap between the county and Pulliam Spake, LLC, the project’s developers. The second will create a 10-foot easement on county property, allowing the project’s planned parking deck to encroach on county property for that distance.
In other business, commissioners will likely approve a host of board appointments: one for the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, one for the Mountain Workforce Development Board, four for the Historic Resources Commission, one for Health and Human Services, and one for the Nursing Home Community Advisory Committee.
They will also be giving or withholding consent for a public hearing on the closing of Oak Street and four requested changes to projects from the 2014-2015 budget.
The meeting will be held at 200 College Street in Room 326 at 4:30 p.m. For the full agenda, click here.
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