“The cost of housing in Asheville … is an embarrassment for our community.” — County-City Housing Task Force report Three measures designed to bring federal funds to Asheville are included in an $820 billion omnibus bill that has passed the House and Senate and is now awaiting President Bush’s signature. Attorney Sean Dalton of the […]

“The new economy will be made by the new creative worker.” — RiverLink Executive Director Karen Cragnolin With new members on board and 2004 just begun, the Asheville City Council’s Jan. 6 work session came out of the gate with an eye on the future. Fresh from their holiday break, Council members seemed ready to […]

“Without the risk factor, I would absolutely postpone this for another month.” — Vice Mayor Carl Mumpower on the South Pack Square Redevelopment In the wake of the November election, it may have seemed like “deja vu all over again.” The agenda for the Asheville City Council’s Dec. 9 work session featured a smorgasbord of […]

“I expect you’ll be hearing from me soon.” — outgoing Council member Brian Peterson Outgoing Council member Brian Peterson had a message for his soon-to-be ex-colleagues: Expect to see him during future public-comment sessions. “I love this city, and I love democracy,” Peterson proclaimed after newly elected Council members Jan Davis and Brownie Newman had […]

“Either we open the box and finish the job, or we put the box back under the tree.” — outgoing Council member Brian Peterson For want of some answers, a project was postponed. After years of preparations, a redevelopment plan for downtown Asheville’s Eagle Street neighborhood seemed poised to move forward. But at City Council’s […]

“This is not a ‘rain tax.’” — City Engineer Cathy Ball Under pressure from both state and federal authorities, the city is being forced to take a hard look at ways to keep polluted storm runoff from flowing into local waterways — and how to pay for such efforts. Federal and state environmental agencies are […]

Seven months after halting student tours of city water-treatment facilities, the Asheville City Council reaffirmed that decision. At their Oct. 21 work session, Council members briefly revisited the issue, once again concurring with interim Water Resources Director David Hanks‘ recommendation to continue barring access to the water system due to security concerns. In both cases, […]

“There’s a lot of good opportunity for negotiation.” — Planning and Development Director Scott Shuford Imagine neighborhood residents and developers routinely sitting down together in good faith to try to work out their differences. It might sound like fantasy in light of the increasingly contentious battles among the city, developers and neighborhoods, but a proposal […]

Apparently, it keeps happening. After parking in seemingly available downtown lots, Asheville residents and visitors alike have returned to find their cars gone — towed by companies hired by the lot owners to keep unauthorized vehicles off their property. And when the owner of an offending vehicle catches the tow-truck driver in the act of […]

“The devil’s in the details, and we’re just starting to see them — but the public isn’t.” — Asheville resident Mike McCurry For three straight weeks, Asheville City Council meetings have been dominated by discussion of the potential (and some say impending) sale of public land to the Grove Park Inn as a site for […]

Even though the Battle House has long stood silent, the 1928 home – purchased by the Grove Park Inn in 2000 — continues to make noise in the adjacent residential neighborhood. The city’s Historic Resources Commission has recommended the grand stone structure, long home to WLOS-TV, for historic-landmark designation. All that’s needed is for Council […]

The housing code “may be too strict in some things and too lax in others.” — Asheville Mayor Charles Worley Revamping the city’s minimum housing code — a massive document covering everything from enforcement techniques to window screens — is a complex and tedious task that has kept a citizen task force, city staff and […]

“On this piece of paper somewhere is the future housing code.” — Building Safety Director Terry Summey It’s been just over a year since the Asheville City Council appointed a 21-member citizen task force — in response to complaints that the rules were too strict — to determine what, if any, changes should be made […]

“We are going to walk out of here with nothing … because we have done nothing.” — Council member Holly Jones on the budget talks It was supposed to be a one-hour discussion before the June 17 regular Council work session, but the budget talk dragged on more than twice that long, and in the […]

An empty chair at an Asheville City Council meeting doesn’t typically spark heated discussion — especially during work sessions, where votes aren’t generally taken. But a notable absence by Council member Brian Peterson created a stir at the June 4 meeting, which had a controversial housing issue on the agenda. A proposed change in the […]

When City Council was considering restricting solicitation (asking for money) on streets in certain areas of Asheville last fall, some city leaders expressed last-minute alarm that a ban on panhandling would also apply to street performers and charitable fund raising. In the end, Council passed the ordinance anyway, instructing City Attorney Bob Oast to find […]

Asheville’s 2025 Plan, which envisions how the city will grow and develop over the next 22 years and what to do about it, landed in front of Council members at their April 15 work session — and at 300 pages, the 2-inch-thick document made quite a thud. Two years in the making, the hefty plan […]

They said they would do it, and they did … well, sort of. After inheriting the perennial Civic Center problem on assuming office, the current city leadership made this year’s annual planning retreat the deadline for determining the future of Asheville’s crumbling auditorium/sports facility. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the current economic climate, that decision took […]

“Houses don’t cause fires — people do. And inspectors don’t inspect people.” — Bonnie Bailey, Asheville Apartment Association And the answer is … keep waiting. Nine months ago, the Asheville City Council appointed a 21-member task force to consider the issue of mandatory vs. complaint-based inspections of homes in the city. The group was supposed […]

To the average city resident, Council members might seem to hold a lot of power. Under state law, however, there are certain things municipalities can’t do without special permission from the state legislature. Before Council can levy a new 1 cent prepared-food-and-beverage tax to pay for upgrading the Civic Center, for example, city leaders must […]