The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners may partner with a conservation nonprofit to acquire 342 acres on Deaverview Mountain for a county park at its regular meeting Tuesday, April 18.
The land was purchased in March for about $7.3 million by Deaverview Mountain LLC, a Raleigh-based legal entity. According to presentation materials from Allison Dains, Buncombe’s parks and recreation director, the “conservation-minded” owner has given the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy a three-year option to buy the property, at which point they would donate it to the county.
The total cost of the land acquisition is estimated at nearly $8.9 million. SAHC has applied for roughly $4.4 million in federal grant funding, which if approved would leave about $4.5 million to find from other funding sources.
The resolution commissioners will consider does not commit any county funds to the project. Instead, it directs staff to partner with SAHC to seek state and federal funding to complete the purchase, as well as conduct due diligence on the property’s use as a park.
If the county does acquire the land, according to Dains, there would be opportunities to build a parking lot, restrooms, educational kiosks and multimodal trails. Construction could start as early as 2027.
In other news
The Buncombe board will receive an update on the progress of the Community Reparations Commission from Assistant County Manager D.K. Wesley.
On Monday, April 17, the reparations commission is slated to release its request for proposals for a third-party auditor to review city and county processes. The audit will look at whether local governments are complying with “federal and state laws, regulatory bodies, codes of conduct, court orders and consent degrees,” with a focus on damage caused to the Black community by noncompliance, according to a January presentation by Commission Chair Dwight Mullen and Vice Chair Dewana Little.
Interested auditors must apply by Thursday, June 15, according to Wesley’s presentation. She will also update the Buncombe board on the progress of the CRC’s communications and public engagement plan.
Consent agenda
The consent agenda for the meeting contains five items, which will be approved as a package unless singled out for separate discussion. Highlights include the following:
- A budget amendment to increase anticipated expenditures and revenues for Parking Services by $200,000. The increases are expected to offset each other.
- Approval of an interlocal agreement between Buncombe County and the city of Asheville to issue a new request for proposals to manage the Blue Horizons Project. The BHP, currently run by the nonprofit Green Built Alliance, includes a community advisory council and programs designed to cut the community’s overall energy consumption. The new contract would begin in July.
The full agenda and supporting documents for the regular meeting can be found at this link. Prior to that meeting, the commissioners will hold a 3 p.m. briefing to discuss progress on aspects of the county’s Strategic Plan 2025.
In-person public comment will be taken at the start of the regular meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. in room 326 at 200 College St., Asheville; no voicemail or email comments will be permitted. Both the briefing and the regular meeting will be livestreamed on the county’s Facebook page and will subsequently be available via YouTube.
Don’t we have enough park land already ? ? ? Who’s money is behind Deaverview Mountain, LLC ? Brownie should know…