“Our 1990 ordinance simply has not kept up with current sign technology.” City Attorney Bob Oast They pop up overnight like weeds, their big, bright letters practically screaming their messages at passing traffic. And until now, there was little to be done about the temporary signs planted in city rights of way that advertise everything […]

“The way our area has been gerrymandered is very unique and very unrealistic.” — Council member Brownie Newman On the eve of a deadline to submit priority requests for federal funding, the Asheville City Council approved its entire shopping list at its Feb. 28 formal session. On the majority of those items, Council member Carl […]

The local homeless population got a Valentine’s Day present when the Asheville City Council approved startup funding for a 10-year plan to end homelessness. The program is part of a larger federal initiative that both the city and county endorsed in principle in a January 2005 joint resolution. But on Feb. 14, Council members moved […]

How soon they grow up. Over the last decade, the Mountain Area Information Network has transformed itself from a handful of media activists meeting at the local library into a technological and political entity with regional and even national reach. On Feb. 22, MAIN will celebrate 10 years of Internet activity and activism, including the […]

A Jan. 12 public-input session gave Asheville staffers more than they’d bargained for when some 275 people turned up at the Randolph Learning Center on Montford Avenue — enough to cause a line outside the front door. The meeting, announced only a week earlier, invited city residents to share their concerns with City Council in […]

A regional economic initiative presented at the Asheville City Council’s Jan. 10 formal session drew cautious interest from Council members. But they also weighed in with misgivings about the project’s goals, structure — and yet-to-be-determined cost. The Hub Project, promoted by the nonprofit Institute at Biltmore, is intended to stimulate economic development in the region. […]

The first formal session for Asheville’s new City Council was also their last one of 2005. But despite what looked like a cut-and-dried agenda, the Dec. 13 meeting played out before a Council chamber crowded with people waiting to speak on a controversial rezoning request that stood between City Council members and a holiday break. […]

A new program to fight street drugs in Asheville is offering cold cash to folks who finger local drug dealers, but some salient details on the inner workings of the program remain vague. “We’re providing money up front,” proclaimed Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower, the driving force behind both the recently formed Asheville-Buncombe Drug […]

The hopes of many in the crowded Council chamber seemed to be summed up in these words: “This city will never be the same again. We move progressively forward.” That was part of the invocation given by the Rev. Ann Hardman of the River of Life International church, earning a collective nod of approval from […]

A jam-packed agenda ensured that the last Council meeting for outgoing Mayor Charles Worley and Council member Joe Dunn was no mere formality. The ceremony would have to wait until Dec. 6, when the new Council will be sworn in; in the meantime, it was all business. The five-and-a-half-hour Nov. 22 formal session touched on […]

Rain has been in short supply this fall; since September, the Asheville area has had about 6 inches less rainfall than average, according to the National Weather Service. Interesting, then, that on the very night a light rain finally fell on Asheville, City Council waded into a flood of water-related issues. Consider these agenda items […]

The jousting and jockeying by developers hoping to build a retirement village atop Beaucatcher Mountain — and the return volleys by neighborhood opponents — have been reported twice before in these pages (see Aug. 31 and Oct. 5 Xpress). But the Asheville City Council’s Nov. 9 formal session was marked by the most intense legal […]

Despite a large turnout and vocal opposition, Mardell Circle residents did not get to weigh in on a new daycare center proposed for their West Asheville neighborhood. And though the developers say they’re hoping the delay will enable them to work out a compromise, project opponents remain skeptical. Council members, meanwhile, once again devoted a […]

Development and land-use issues tend to generate some of the Asheville City Council’s most convoluted discussions and often result in controversial decisions. Not infrequently, those decisions expose Council members’ conflicting positions on seemingly unrelated matters such as crime and jobs — hot-button topics that can determine whether an individual petitioner gets his or her property […]

On the heels of last month’s postponement, the Asheville City Council once again voted to hold off on a rezoning decision that could allow construction of a large retirement village atop Beaucatcher Mountain. At the Sept. 27 formal session, attorney Craig Justus, representing Brownlyn Associates (which now owns and is seeking to develop the property), […]

Price increases are a fact of life. And for cab companies, that means paying more for their vehicles as well as for repairs, tires, insurance — and, of course, fuel. But unlike most businesses, cabbies can’t simply jack up the amount they charge their customers. In North Carolina, cities have the option of regulating the […]

The Asheville Civic Center has been dissected, debated and dissed for years, yet a decision on what to do with it remains elusive. A Sept. 8 public forum, co-sponsored by the Civic Center Commission, the League of Women Voters and Mountain Xpress, aimed to take the public’s pulse on this divisive issue. Following a tour […]

A major retirement complex proposed for a site atop Beaucatcher Mountain has stirred skepticism on the part of city staff and mobilized neighborhood opposition. Kenilworth residents filled the chamber for the Asheville City Council’s Aug. 23 formal session, spilling over into a separate viewing room. The turnout seemed to promise a lengthy public-comment session, but […]

It was one of the most contentious issues to confront the Asheville City Council in recent memory. It took two days to get through it, and all the city’s public viewing facilities were jammed with concerned citizens who couldn’t get into the overflowing Council chamber. There were sign-up sheets to handle the crowd of people […]