Everyone’s keeping mum about this one: A new zoning classification proposed for a nine-lot parcel on Montford Avenue would clear the way for a new Chamber of Commerce facility that could be up to 45,000 square feet in size. But before Council heard staff’s presentation on the proposal at its Oct. 5 work session, City […]

Tradition demands that Asheville City Council members’ annual retreat start on a Friday, just after lunch, and run through Sunday afternoon. But the new millennium may bring a change: At Council’s Oct. 5 work session, Vice Mayor Ed Hay led the charge for a shorter retreat. “How important is [meeting on] Friday?” he asked city […]

Even before Mountain Xpress received distress calls from readers about city crews cutting down two trees on Patton Avenue, the city’s Tree Response Committee was on the scene. What they found were two sweet gums that were wounded beyond saving: In trying to remove one ailing tree — whose bark had been severely scarred in […]

Influential appointments to Asheville’s boards and commissions have always been political, a fact that Asheville City Council made perfectly clear, twice, on Sept 28. In a surprise move, Council defrocked Regional Water Authority Chairman Charles Worley, denying him what had seemed a guaranteed reappointment. Worley’s politics may have been his undoing: A two-time Council member, […]

At its Sept. 28 session, City Council approved new standards for signs located in public rights-of-way. Generally, signs in rights-of-way are prohibited, city staff reminded Council, with some exceptions (directional signs and community-identification signs, like the new ones for Pack Place and in Haw Creek — see “Just the Facts”). Political signs, yard-sale signs and […]

Some day, visitors to Beaucatcher Mountain may be able to savor a spectacular view of downtown Asheville, while enjoying a grassy field, a smattering of picnic tables, mountainside trails and a special exhibit honoring Asheville’s Sister Cities. They may never suspect that tons of old asphalt and other road-construction debris lie buried just beneath their […]

When you see people standing in the street, gawking at something, there’s usually a wreck or a fight. This time, it was art (and it wasn’t the Pack Square sign or the Federal Building sculpture). On a breezy Tuesday, Aug. 31, Black Mountain Iron Works owners Dan Howachyn and Tekla were temporarily erecting their latest […]

“Would anyone here object to making more money?” That’s a question David Kolzow often poses when he’s making presentations on economic development. On this occasion, Kolzow used it to break the ice at an April 29 Council of Independent Business Owners luncheon. It worked, eliciting laughter from the assembled group members, who advocate for what […]

Asheville City Council members have taken the plunge: They’ve identified six outlying areas as their first targets for involuntary annexation in the new millennium and directed staff to launch the nearly two-year process of annexing those areas, which total more than 1,700 acres. “You’ve got a strategy here that closes up service inequities,” consultant Richard […]

A mere 2.6 percent of city expenditures for supplies, construction projects, professional services, equipment and other goods and services went to minority-certified businesses during the last fiscal year, Asheville Council members learned at their Aug. 17 work session. And only 1 percent of corresponding Buncombe County expenditures were paid to minority firms. “That seems like […]

In our modern-day search for convenience, visitors to the Asheville Mall appear to have won out over Kenilworth Forest residents: Asheville City Traffic Engineer Michael Moule recommended that City Council members leave Brackettown Road open as a two-way side entrance to the mall. “All three options for restricting [Brackettown Road access] would increase [traffic] congestion […]

Asheville City Council members whisked through their Aug. 10 formal session in record time: two-and-a-half hours (almost half the average length of their meetings). Mayor Leni Sitnick launched the evening with a nod to the tragedy of our times: the latest shooting incident, this one in Los Angeles. Giving the invocation, Sitnick urged that we […]

“You can carry a gun in this state, but pull out a deck of tarot cards and give a reading, and you’ll get arrested,” says Sorcha Pixie Moon, speaking about a relatively obscure North Carolina law that has recently been invoked in Haywood and Buncombe counties. Moon argues that the law violates her freedom of […]

Hold onto your channel lineups, Asheville: Charter Communications (owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen) will be taking over InterMedia’s cable-television system in the city this fall. The change will put all of Buncombe County under Charter’s purview, according to local Charter representatives. “Are they going to leave the channels in the same place?” asked Asheville […]

“The intrusion stops here,” declared Asheville Vice Mayor Ed Hay, at the end of a four-hour-long July 27 public hearing about the proposed expansion of the Asheville Mall. At issue were what requirements City Council would impose on the property owners — CBL and Associates of Chattanooga, Tenn. — to buffer Kenilworth Forest from noise, […]

How should federal housing and community-development funds be spent in the area over the next five years? It’s Charlotte Caplan‘s job to come up with a recommendation that Asheville City Council can adopt. But Caplan, the city’s Community Development director, wants the people most affected by the spending plan to craft its policies and goals. […]

At 10 p.m. on a long Tuesday night, Asheville City Council members were dreaming about sidewalks. The Unified Development Ordinance requires developers to build them for new projects. And Council had two big ones to consider the night of July 27: The Asheville Mall expansion and the redevelopment of the existing Lowe’s facility by Dreamland […]

Like many a downtown business center, The Block once thronged with people shopping, going to the library, working in offices, and meeting with friends. But over the years it has fallen into disuse, its buildings lapsing into disrepair, and its reputation slipping. “We’ve seen [the rest of] downtown recover, but not The Block,” Asheville Community […]

Wherever you go, there you are, say the Buddhists among us. City Council members seemed to be applying that rule on July 20, when they debated their policy for postponing public hearings. At issue was how to avoid inconveniencing people, when one or more disputing parties ask, at the last minute, for a continuance. Council […]

Old news sometimes comes back to bite you. Several years ago, Asheville City Council members agreed to give Henderson County 139 acres of Bent Creek property, valued at $1 million. According to Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick, it was a “way to sweeten the deal” — the city got Henderson County property on the Mills River, […]

Some trash, you just can’t seem to get rid of: that old bottle of Bug-B-Gon with the broken spray nozzle, or a bag of Sevin dust that’s so old you can’t read the label. What’s more, some old pesticides are so hazardous that you’ve got to get a special permit just to haul them on […]