Asheville City Council: Nov. 27 meeting preview

An update on a conditional-zoning application aimed at ameliorating the controversy surrounding Greenlife Grocery and adjacent Maxwell Street residents, and a host of other items, highlight a packed agenda for Council’s Nov. 27 meeting.

The city and Greenlife are in consultation on a couple of ideas to ease traffic and noise problems at the site, including either traffic-calming devices on Maxwell or a reconfiguration of the popular store’s loading dock and parking lot, as well as relocating the store’s Maxwell Street entrance. Maxwell Street residents have complained since the store’s opening that large delivery trucks, semi-trailers, garbage trucks and heavy car traffic have made life unbearable at times along the narrow residential street.

Council also will hold two public hearings, one for a conditional rezoning at 55 Piney Mountain Dr. to allow the development of a retirement residence facility in an area currently zoned for low-density, single-family residential; the other is a request from Ingles to amend its already-approved signage plan to allow for a Starbucks sign on a store nearing completion at 85 Tunnel Road.

As part of its consent agenda, the Council is being asked to adopt a resolution put forth by the Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts supporting the design of a center somewhere in the city. The approved resolution would not require the city to commit to any funding, but it is the final condition the AACPA must meet by Dec. 31 if it is to secure a $1 million grant from the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, the group’s attorney reports.

Under new business, the Council also will consider: A resolution authorizing acquisition of property in Haw Creek for park purposes and a greenway link to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mountains-to-the-Sea Trail; approval for the city to act as lead agent on a grant for sidewalk improvements in Emma; a resolution to partner with Public Interests Projects on a parking garage on Biltmore Avenue; a resolution to dispose of the city’s interest in 7.19 acres of real property at Brotherton and Virginia Avenues; and a proposal by the Asheville Merchants Corporation for the city to accept management and operation of the Asheville Holiday Parade.

The meeting will be held at 5 p.m. in Council chambers on the second floor of City Hall. Those wishing to speak at the public hearing should arrive earlier to sign up. The meeting can also be viewed live on Charter Cable channel 11.

— Hal L. Millard, staff writer

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6 thoughts on “Asheville City Council: Nov. 27 meeting preview

  1. Dr. Mumpower plans to make a 10-minute presentation on the Reid Center as a member of the public during tonight’s council meeting.

  2. Gordon Smith

    Thanks, Tim. I can’t wait to see what happens.

    Maybe you can help me understand part of this…

    Why doesn’t Mumpower just do the presentation or provide the information from his seat as a Councilman. Why all the theater of getting up and going to the podium when he’s already got a perfectly relevant position from which to share the facts?

  3. “Why doesn’t Mumpower just do the presentation or provide the information from his seat as a Councilman. Why all the theater of getting up and going to the podium when he’s already got a perfectly relevant position from which to share the facts?”

    I don’t know. I suggested that he use the formal deliberations to make his case. I guess he felt constrained in his ability to do so by the mayor and oped to make his full presentation as a member of the public, which perhaps gave him more latitude.

    You may have noticed several irregularities in Tuesday’s meeting: violations of Robert’s Rules of Order, taking a vote on a presentation, taking public comment on a presentation (prohibited in the printed rules for the agenda) < http://snipr.com/1ubqw>, Joe Minicozzi’s presentation did not appear on TV while Shannon Tuch’s did, and Mumpower’s Powerpoint slides were disallawed (not authorized in state statute).

  4. Gordon Smith

    O.K., so Mumpower was simply grandstanding. No one is limiting his speech, as he so often claims. He could deliver the same information from his seat, but he’d rather ‘stand with the people’…

    Yuck.

  5. Rob Close

    could he have? in their emails, bellamy ok’d the idea that he “provide council any handouts you feel are necessary to support your point.”, but then followed that up with “I am not supportive of you making a seperate presentation.”

    he was asking to make a powerpoint presentation, not give handouts. and if robert’s rules are being violated, and state statute’s broken – that’s ugly.

    and in those emails, why does brownie care so much to stop mumpower? he doesn’t think the guy should be allowed to take up 10 minutes of council’s time unless it is formally on the agenda ahead of time? well mumpower’s email’s indicate that he tried to get it on the agenda, and so failing that, he was doing the next-best thing.

    partisan-politics plays like this are why i don’t trust brownie an iota. stop objecting to every little detail, and stand up for the people where it matters already!

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