Buncombe County Commission

The past year has been a busy one for the Buncombe County comissioners and county government, marked by a revaluation that saw a substantial jump in property values, a flood of building permits for mountainside development, a controversial zoning plan, wildly increased citizen scrutiny of county planning policy, and the board’s recent unpopular support for a new oil-fired power plant in Woodfin.

Picture you car here: An artist’s rendering of the proposed Coxe Avenue parking deck in Asheville.

Against that backdrop, the commissioners’ annual retreat, held March 13 in the Training Room at 199 College St. in downtown Asheville, was a chance to kick back and consider what they feel are the most urgent issues facing the county—and what can be done about them. Freed from their usual, agenda-driven meeting format and the pressing need to make decisions, the commissioners seemed loose and full of ideas.

During the three-hour session, they worked from a wish list of goals and suggestions submitted in advance to County Manager Wanda Greene. The list ran to nearly 30 items, including calls to:
• Expand parks and greenways;
• Develop a plan for spending at least 1 percent of property-tax revenues on conservation easements, parks and/or greenways;
• Operate the county more efficiently;
• Ease the tax burden on property owners, especially the elderly;
• Increase farmland-preservation efforts;
• Protect steep slopes/ridge tops from overdevelopment;
• Address the school-dropout rate with incentive programs at A-B Tech for middle-schoolers;
• Renovate the courthouse
• Work with local nonprofits to help employers provide health insurance to their employees;
• Extend water-and-sewer lines;
• Plan for expansion of school sites;
• Settle water dispute with city of Asheville;
• Explore the appropriateness of assessment fees for large developers “within the zoning structure, avoiding problems of impact fees”;
• Plan for new animal shelter;
• Help sell local agriculture to local restaurants;
• Continue and expand energy-conservation efforts, emphasizing alternative energy sources.

Stacking the deck: Another county parking deck, planned along College Street in Asheville.

Energy conservation claimed a good amount of attention at the retreat. Referring to the proposed Progress Energy plant, Commissioner David Young said county residents “should control their own destiny” with regard to energy use. “If citizens do a good enough job saving power, then they never have to use that plant,” he said. “We need to give our citizens the incentive so this plant never has to start up.”

Commissioner David Gantt wondered if the county might buy energy-efficient compact-fluorescent bulbs in bulk for resale to residents as a way to promote conservation.

Greene, however, maintained that Buncombe County is already leading the way in energy conservation thanks to a variety of initiatives: moving toward a “paperless system,” upping its use of hybrid and biodiesel vehicles, installing reflective roofs when buildings are renovated, and encouraging energy efficiency in new construction. Greene also cited the county’s ongoing energy audits.

Other options presented at the session were more ambitious. Young asked whether the Health Center and A-B Tech’s sprawling campus could be retrofitted with solar panels.

“I don’t see why not,” said Chairman Nathan Ramsey. “After all, we pay the power bills at A-B Tech.”

Young also wondered about future wind-power generation, asking, “Do we have a policy on windmills on top of mountains? Because Ashe County is dealing with this issue right now.”

Park it

County Planning Director Jon Creighton updated the board on plans to build two parking decks in downtown Asheville—a 650-space structure along the north side of College Street across from the courthouse, and a 700-space deck on Coxe Avenue that would be connected to the Department of Social Services building. The College Street deck will be put out for bid next month, he said, with construction likely to begin in early July. The Coxe Avenue project, part of an expansion of the DSS building, will “be a year process between design and approval,” said Creighton, adding that it isn’t even in the county budget yet.

Gimme shelter

Another key concern was the deteriorating condition of the county animal shelter on Lees Creek Road, which is operated by the Asheville Humane Society.

“I dread this time of year,” said Creighton. “If we got 10 or 12 inches of wet, spring snow, we could lose the building. I mean it.”

The commissioners debated which of two preferred sites would be better for the replacement facility: a three-acre parcel on Pond Road (off Brevard Road) that Deal Motor Cars donated to the Humane Society, or a six-acre property in Swannanoa.

“I’d like to see the shelter go in at Pond Road,” said Commissioner Bill Stanley, questioning whether residents in the western part of the county would be willing to drive to Swannanoa to drop off unwanted and rescued animals.

The retreat wasn’t a decision-making session; rather, commissioners aired their ideas for how the county could better serve residents and address current and future challenges, and heard reports—like Creighton’s on the parking decks progress—from county staff.

“It’s a team-building opportunity,” Gantt said later. “We get in a proactive mode rather than a reactive mode, which is so often the case at the regular commissioners’ meetings. We can find out what a majority of the board wants to get done.”

Over the past year, “there’s been a shift” in the board’s priorities, said Gantt. “The majority of commissioners are very much in favor of planning for the county’s need for more parks, greenways and trails,” he explained. “That wasn’t the case a few years ago. County residents have become sensitized to that need for that, and the commissioners are definitely picking up on it.”