Press release from City of Asheville:
The community is invited follow-up meetings to the Charlotte Street Road Diet on Wednesday, May 1. The meetings will be held at the Jewish Community Center, 236 Charlotte St. A morning session will be held from 8:30 to 10 a.m., with an evening session set for 5:30 to 7 p.m.
These are drop-in style public meetings to follow up on the plan for the road diet and spot safety improvements. During the second Charlotte Street Road Diet and Safety Improvements meeting, the team will present the Charlotte Street Road Diet corridor plan. The corridor plan was developed with consideration of public comments received at the February 19 public input session.
Meeting attendees will be able to walk through each section of the corridor plan with design team members who will explain design decisions and answer questions. Attendees will also have an opportunity to provide feedback on the design.
Road diet and spot safety improvements
The Capital Improvement Project will include milling and repaving Charlotte Street as well as a 4-to-3 lane conversion from approximately Chestnut Street to Edwin Place. Other components of the project include bike access improvements and spot sidewalk safety improvements. This project does not include place making or utility improvements. Council has allocated $1.25 million for the design and construction of this project. The scope of the road diet project and zoning analysis have been directed by the City Council.
The design team will finalize the construction drawings for the road diet project and it will go to bid late summer 2019. Construction is scheduled to begin in fall 2019 for the road diet project. The City will communicate further construction management plans once the contractor is on board and the schedule determined.
Zoning overlay evaluation next steps
The City is currently evaluating and may potentially adjust the existing zoning and overlay district along the Charlotte Street corridor to help guide future growth in a way that builds on the neighborhoods identity and aligns with the community’s plans and City goals.
The City is continuing to collect data and community input in regards to the Charlotte Street corridor. This information will be compiled and analyzed to guide the next steps of the zoning evaluation project to help determine if zoning adjustments / rezoning is appropriate and if so what the details of the zoning adjustments might look like.
Online survey: The City of Asheville values the opinions of our residents and encourages everyone to take a new online survey. The survey can be found Open City Hall Asheville. It will remain open through May.
It is anticipated a zoning strategy will be determined in late spring / early summer of 2019 and will be presented to the public along with next steps if applicable.
Important parking notice
While the meetings are being held at the Jewish Community Center, people are asked not to park in their back parking lot as it will be used for their normal programming. Parking for the morning session will be available at Allegra Asheville, 191 Charlotte St., and in the JCC parking lot by the pool on Clyde Street. Parking for the evening session will be available at Allegra Asheville, 191 Charlotte St., and Envision Eyecare, 181 Charlotte St., and HomeSource Design, 172 Charlotte St.
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