If you want to postpone a public hearing, you’d better have a darn good reason: Asheville City Council members don’t like having to apologize to residents and property owners who sometimes wait for hours to speak on zoning issues, only to learn that someone has requested a last-minute postponement. “We’re sending notice: It’ll be more […]

Sayonara, Rule of Three Twenty-seven years ago, leaders of Asheville’s minority community urged City Council to do away with the Rule of Three. They argued that it impeded the recruitment, hiring and promotion of minorities in city government. As part of the city’s 1953 civil-service law, the Rule of Three mandates that city administrators hire […]

What are better parks worth to you? $30 a year? That’s what proponents say the city’s proposed $18 million in parks, recreation and greenway bonds would add to the average city resident’s property taxes. Voters will determine the bonds’ fate in a referendum on Tuesday, May 11. But bond opponents note that several other bond […]

Can parking lots and greenways coexist? Residents who live near a city-owned grassy lot on Asheland Avenue asked City Council members at their formal session on April 27 to reconsider a plan to sell the property to Rex Ballard, who plans to turn a portion of it into a parking lot serving his adjacent office […]

You’ve seen it happen: One homeowner fixes up his old house, then his neighbor does likewise, and before you know it, the whole neighborhood is reborn. That’s the simple process behind historic preservation, says Maggie O’Connor, director of the city’s Historic Resources Department and staff liaison to the Historic Resources Commission, which is celebrating its […]

Of Asheville’s 878 full-time city employees, a mere 114 are minorities. Nearly two-thirds of those (70) are African-American males, most of whom work in service and maintenance. The major obstacle to the hiring and advancement of minority employees, according to Council member O.T. Tomes, is the Rule of Three — a hiring process implemented in […]

Sometimes one man’s blessing proves to be another’s curse: On April 13, by a narrow 4-3 vote, Asheville City Council members approved a hotly contested expansion project at Trinity Baptist Church in West Asheville. The very next day, Council member Barbara Field received numerous blessings — by fax — from church members who said they […]

It’s a politician’s dream: Without dipping deep into the city coffers, Asheville City Council members get to save a 91-year-old stone bridge that could become a scenic link in a future ridgeline park. At their April 6 work session, Council members agreed to hire Carolina Mountain Construction Company of Pisgah Forest to stabilize the crumbling […]

The city, it seems, may be going to the WRATTs: Asheville City Council members expressed an interest in getting waste-cutting help from a group of retired engineers called the Waste Reduction And Technology Transfer program. “They’ll do it for free,” noted Council member Chuck Cloninger, speaking at Council’s April 6 work session. He suggested inviting […]

On a warm April afternoon, anticipation becomes pure sound. You can hear it in the rumble of drivers testing their engines. You can hear it in the announcer’s “Check: testing, one, two …” crackling over the loudspeakers. You can hear it in the quiet watchfulness of fans who gather to watch the Wednesday practice runs. […]

“This is your opportunity to tell it like it is,” Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick prompted east Ashevilleans on March 30. It was City Council’s first community meeting of the year, held at the East Asheville Library. And residents wasted no time getting to the hot topics: the Interstate 26 connector, Trinity Baptist Church, litter, traffic […]

Who ever said democracy was simple? And if Bill Clinton can be president without collecting the majority of the votes, why shouldn’t the city of Asheville be able to win a case the same way? In an eight-hour-long legal tango on March 17, city staff defeated two out of three attempts by billboard companies to […]

“At some point, you have to have faith,” declared Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick during City Council’s March 23 formal session. Council members were on the brink of rezoning a tract along South French Broad Avenue, Choctaw Street and Livingston Street from a low-density Office to a higher-density Office II classification. They were caught between concerned […]

Mark Combs hates it when people park cars and trucks on city sidewalks. As Asheville’s Public Works director, he knows firsthand that sidewalks can’t take the weight, and that the bad habit ends up costing city taxpayers money. “The life of a sidewalk is significantly diminished when vehicles park on it,” says Combs. “A sidewalk […]

Vote for parks! How do you convince Asheville voters to approve an $18 million bond issue? Form a committee to spread the word: “We’re asking all Asheville voters to vote yes on May 11 for the Parks, Recreation and Greenways Bond Referendum,” urged former Asheville Mayor Russ Martin, the front man for the Safe Parks, […]

Asheville’s scenic beauty isn’t purely a question of pretty trees — but they’re a fair start. “We are a Tree City USA, but one would hardly know that, at the rate we’re cutting [trees] down,” remarked Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick at City Council’s March 16 work session. Council members had just viewed a slide presentation […]

“All kids are at risk,” Butch Kisiah told Asheville City Council members during their March 16 work session. As the city’s superintendent of recreation, Kisiah was urging Council to endorse a new At-Risk Youth Initiative. The program, he explained, targets teens from low-income families and single-parent homes; “latchkey kids” who come home to an empty […]

A community of learning All three PEG channels in Asheville should be seen “as a whole, for community learning,” Buncombe County resident John Fobes told City Council members at their March 9 formal session. That’s PEG, as in Public-access, Education and Government — three new cable channels in InterMedia’s lineup, dedicated to those uses and […]

“Sustainable economic development” has become something of a buzzword, these days. But, like many such catch phrases, this one may mean different things to different people. The Sustainable Communities Network, a national partnership of governmental and advocacy organizations, defines it this way: “The goal of community sustainability is to establish local economies that are economically […]