Asheville City Council will hold a special closed session meeting on Tuesday. June 3, to discuss developments in the Parkside proposal. Council has met before to discuss aspects of the development, adjacent to City/County Plaza, but another was called since the redesigned building will now avoid the need for Council’s approval.
Closed sessions are held to discuss legal matters with the city attorney that are protected by attorney-client privilege.
The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in room 209 of City Hall. According to an announcement from the city clerk’s office, Council will most likely go directly into a closed session, which the public is not permitted to attend.
In related news, Parkside’s appearance before the Technical Review Committee will not take place in June as was initially expected. Because of the new design, the city wants an updated affidavit from Buncombe County that allows construction staging from county property. That process will require a review by county commissioners, so the TRC appearance will be scheduled no sooner than July.
— Brian Postelle, staff writer
It looks like County Manager Wanda Greene, who could just sign off on the affadavit, will kick it up to County Commission.
David Gantt has said, ” I will support allocating money and energy to try and buy back the land, as well as Hayes and Hobson building. I believe the County has an obligation to try to fix the ongoing issues here.”
Will Carol Peterson and Bill Stanley support Commissioner (and candidate for Chair) Gantt’s position, or will they line up behind his opponent, Nathan Ramsey, who’s said that there’s nothing left for the County to influence the deal?
Should be interesting.
Lots more info on this at Scrutiny Hooligans:
http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us
The County Commissioners are getting set to vote on whether to take away City Council’s right to review a gigantic development right on their own doorstep, inside the boundaries of the park. I hope the City takes legal action to derail this act of piracy.
Of course, the real game is this: the County and Coleman are using this end-run to pressure the City to give up the valuable City-owned Marjorie Street lot in exchange for Coleman not building in the park. That’s right, it’s blackmail. They have taken park land hostage and are threatening the City in order to get the richest land in WNC, land that no above-board developer even has a shot at bidding on. This is Coleman’s plan from the beginning, in his own words, on tape, at the Conservancy last fall. Of course, it’s all in friendly terms like a “square foot for square foot land swap” but the threat is clear: he secretly bought this sensitive piece of park land, and will reap his profit wherever he has to. Unfortunately, City Council refused his “swap” when they heard about it last July, and the past year has all been about positioning Coleman to force this “solution” on them: “Just give up the land, or you’ll never see your park alive again.”
I travel a lot for my business. People around the state are following this, and they’re laughing at us. Call or email the County Commissioners to end this spectacle and buy back the land that they should never have sold in the first place.
Gordon said: “Will Carol Peterson and Bill Stanley support Commissioner (and candidate for Chair) Gantt’s position, or will they line up behind his opponent, Nathan Ramsey, who’s said that there’s nothing left for the County to influence the deal?”
Isn’t it ironic, Gordon, that the two people who sold us out are democrats? And if I’m not mistaken, Carol Peterson is the one who wanted to change the zoning so no one could put a singlewide trailer on their land. The working poor who are natives here need a place to live. Otherwise they have to move to South Carolina or Tennessee. Bill Stanley should be ashamed to be such a pivotal part of this sale of city land to an evil developer. I for one will make sure I DO NOT vote for ewither of these two in the general election.