Asheville City Council preview: Deficits and annexation

On the agenda for Asheville City Council’s Tuesday, Feb. 23, meeting are a financial report that brings grim tidings and the beginning steps to a series of annexations near Airport Road.

Chief Financial Officer Ben Durant will present the quarterly financial report, which shows the city grappling with a roughly $1 million shortfall this year due to declining sales and property tax revenues. The report predicts the economic woes will continue through the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Council will vote on beginning the annexation process for 12 parcels on or near Airport Road, including an Ingles store. If Council approves the step, the annexations will proceed forward with information meetings in April and a public hearing in May. If all proceeds according to schedule, the parcels will be part of the city in September.

Also on the agenda are appointments to the Civil Service Board, the Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Council, Sustainable Advisory Committee on Energy & the Environment, Asheville-Buncombe Historic Resources Commission, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the the Downtown Commission. Developer Tony Fraga, best known for the once-proposed Haywood Park development, is one of the candidates.

—David Forbes, staff writer

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