Peer 30 years into Asheville’s future, and all the numbers get bigger: More people, more cars, more homes, more stores, more jobs, more growth — and more traffic. “I guess we all have to accept, at some point, that the face of Asheville is changing,” conceded Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick during a Sept. 1 meeting […]

Good will between Honda Hoot organizers and city officials could be as simple as a dozen doughnuts and a parking decal. “It’s a matter of give and take [and] a ‘can-do’ team attitude,” American Honda representative Charles Keller told Asheville City Council members during their Nov. 17 work session. To Keller’s way of thinking, that […]

The odds against SBA Incorporated were almost as high as the telecommunications tower they proposed building on Merrimon Avenue. The first strike against them was the fact that the Asheville City Council is on the verge of revising the city’s telecommunications-tower ordinance (and the Buncombe County commissioners won’t be far behind with one of their […]

How much control do Asheville City Council members want over the three public channels they squeezed out of the new franchise agreement with InterMedia? That depends on which channel you’re talking about (there’s one for public access, one for educational use, and one exclusively for governmental programming). The city will administer the government channel — […]

Make downtown parking flow, and everyone will park happily ever after. First, double Asheville’s parking-meter rates to 50 cents per hour — and make them even higher (perhaps $1?) near the parking decks. Then, offer some free one-hour parking in the decks to encourage downtown visitors to park there and not on the street. And […]

“Asheville needs to double its single-family-home production, and one-third of those need to be [sold for less than] $100,000,” Charlotte Caplan told City Council members on Oct. 13. As Asheville’s community development director, Caplan urged adoption of the city’s new Housing Action Plan — which recommends nearly 40 strategies for supporting affordable-housing projects in the […]

No one debated whether CP&L had asked David “Badger” Erickson to leave its property, which he had turned into an elaborate rock garden, as reported by Mountain Xpress July 29. No one debated whether Badger’s garden and curious array of reclaimed junk was “art”: “I’m not an art critic, and I don’t think you are, […]

Are you willing to shell out three more cents on your tax rate for better parks-and-recreation facilities in Asheville? City Council members hope you are. City staff and a citizens’ committee presented them with an $18.2 million parks plan on Oct. 6, that hinges on voters’ passing a bond referendum to provide the cold, hard […]

Admit it: You’ve heard the rumors that Asheville City Council meetings are longer than they used to be. Well, it’s true — and has been for years, since long before Mayor Leni Sitnick took office last December. In the ’70s and ’80s, meetings rarely ran more than two hours. In fact, many were routine affairs […]

Buncombe residents might as well have come bearing the banner “Don’t Tread on Me.” Outnumbering the half-dozen city residents who attended Asheville Council members’ Sept. 29 community meeting in Skyland, county residents made their position clear. “I’m bitterly opposed to any annexation without a vote of the people being annexed,” declared Arden resident Gene Cline. […]

Asheville City Council members might want to have one hand on the U.S. Constitition and the other on the Bible when they start playing around with the city’s definition of “church.” The definition in the city’s Unified Development Ordinance limits churches to one sanctuary and one additional building — explicitly excluding daycare, educational and recreational […]

How do riders like the city’s $1 million bus station? During a recent Mountain Xpress on-the-spot survey one Friday afternoon, the answer seemed to depend on whether the rider’s bus was running on time. “Phhht!” exclaimed Margaret Bishop with displeasure, when asked what she thought of the new station. The station — relocated this past […]

You would have thought Asheville City Council members were rushing home on Sept. 8 just to catch Cardinals first-baseman Mark McGuire hitting home run number 62 (a new major-league, single-season record) that evening. Whatever the reason, though, Council members wrapped up their formal session in less than 30 minutes (even most work sessions this year […]

Everybody’s got rights. But do you know yours — as a landlord or a tenant? Say you woke up to find your landlord standing at the door to your bedroom, staring at you. Or you’re taking a shower and realize your landlord has entered your apartment, without knocking — supposedly to let the exterminator in. […]

If we can’t stop it — can we at least make it pretty? That seemed to be the best angle Asheville City Council members could come up with at their Sept. 1 work session, after hearing from state officials about the planned eight-lane widening of Interstate 240 through west Asheville. The project will extend I-26 […]

“Bring in their heads, and you’ll get a reward,” joked one Asheville man who attended Mayor Leni Sitnick‘s Aug. 20 roundtable on litter. He wasn’t alone in his frustration and disgust about litter in the city. At least 100 people showed up for Sitnick’s meeting and brainstormed on ways to nip litter problems. The diverse […]

What constitutes a modern-day church — and do its members have an inherent right to expand its facilities? This was the thorny issue Asheville City Council members faced on Aug. 25, in a marathon three-hour public hearing embedded in Council’s regular formal session. At times, the hearing took on hints of a holy war: Trinity […]

Asheville City Council members don’t have a problem listening — they just don’t want to do it all night long. And Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick would appreciate fellow Council members confronting her directly when they object to the way she runs meetings. “If you’ve got a problem, speak to me about it,” she declared during […]

To many city residents, Bele Chere is one big party. But for downtown business owners, the city’s midsummer bash can be one big hassle: Regular customers can’t find parking — and that’s assuming they even manage to negotiate blocked or crowded streets. Deliveries can’t be made. Festival booths nearly block storefronts. And, with the press […]