At its meeting tomorrow night, Asheville City Council will take up a rezoning in Kenilworth in the area of the rejected Caledonia Apartments project and a possible increase in recycling fees. Also, the annual city budget finally wends its way to a public hearing.
The proposed rezoning would change property around the Kenilworth Inn from institutional to residential zoning. Specifically, a sloping part of the land would change to a level of residential zoning that allows multi-family uses like duplexes or cottage developments, but not larger apartment complexes. Last October, developer Frank Howington proposed the 100-unit Caledonia Apartments on the site, but the project was unanimously rejected by Council. The developer then broke the project into two separate 50-unit buildings, avoiding a hearing before Council. Council then passed a change to the city’s development rules to prevent such slightly modified projects from returning after they rejected them. The matter is currently the subject of a legal dispute.
The zoning change, endorsed by People Advocating Real Conservancy, the neighborhood activist group that opposed the original project, would further curtail the possibility of large development on the site, if the city wins the legal fight.
Council will also consider two options for an increased recycling fee, which would help pay for larger recycling bins under one option, and bins along with a recycling rewards under the other.
Also on the agenda is a public hearing on the city’s proposed 2011-12 budget, presented at the last Council meeting. Council will vote on the budget May 24.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m., May 10 in Council’s chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
— David Forbes, senior news reporter
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