City of Asheville
The public will be able to provide input on two plan reviews, two zoning map amendments and two zoning text amendments at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 3, which will be in person at City Hall’s first-floor North Conference Room at 70 Court Plaza. A meeting of the same body to review the agenda, which is open to the public but does not allow public comment, will be at 4:30 p.m. in the fifth-floor Large Conference Room.
The Design Review Committee will meet virtually at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, May 18, with an agenda review at 12:15 p.m. the same day. The agenda for that meeting was not available as of press time.
Planning and Zoning Commission
Residents can submit comments over email and voicemail until 24 hours before the meeting or provide in-person comment during the meeting itself. Instructions on how to attend and comment, as well as the full meeting agenda, are available at avl.mx/8b6.
Level II site plan reviews
Carter Street Mixed Use and Tribute Hotel (68 Carter St., 28801)
The commission will review a Level II site plan for an eight-story, mixed-use building on 1.25 acres. The plan calls for 24 residential units over 36,709 square feet, 16,072 square feet of retail and restaurant space and a hotel with 115 guest rooms over 93,997 square feet. There also will be two parking levels. The property owner is Milan CN Holdings LLC and the developer is WSP USA, based in Montreal. No estimated project cost was listed.
Project documents are available at avl.mx/cmz.
Create 72 Broadway (72 Broadway, 28801)
The commission will review a Level II site plan for a nine-story, mixed-use building on 0.27 acres on Broadway. As proposed, the 99,427-square-foot space will include 18 condominium units, 22 hotel rooms and 2,002 square feet of retail space. The estimated project cost is $15 million. The owner is BPR Asheville, and the developer is Asheville-based Civil Design Concepts.
A previous plan for this site, which included 137 hotel rooms and 37 residential units, was unanimously denied by the City Council in September 2019. More coverage can be found in the July 2022 development roundup in Xpress at avl.mx/bu4.
Project documents can be accessed at avl.mx/cn0.
As Level II projects, neither of these site plans will require City Council approval if approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Instead, they will go back to the Technical Review Committee for a final review.
Zoning map amendments
Unnamed Project (319 Biltmore Ave., 28801)
The city of Asheville requests rezoning 4.95 acres on Biltmore Avenue from Regional Business to Residential Expansion — Conditional Zoning. The project will include one four-story and one five-story building comprising 221 housing units as well as retail space. Forty-three units will be available at 60% of the area median income or below, of which half will accept vouchers. An additional 22 units will be available at 80% of AMI or below. In 2022, 60% of AMI is $33,750 for a one-person unit, $38,550 for a two-person and $48,188 for a four-person household. Eighty percent of AMI is $45,000 for a one-person, $51,400 for a two-person and $64,250 for a four-person household.
This site is adjacent to Maple Crest Apartments, formerly Lee Walker Heights. The proposed project cost is $61.3 million.
The city acquired this property, formerly part of a Ford automotive dealership, from Duke Energy. In a process outlined on the City Council website, the city selected Mount Pleasant and Greenville, S.C.- based developer Homes Urban to develop the site in spring 2021.
Project documents can be accessed at avl.mx/cmy.
Grandview Parking Lot (99999 Grandview Plaza, 28805)
Owner Nicholas Papanostansiou and Pegasus Holdings LLC request rezoning 0.27 acres from Residential Single-Family High Density (RS-8) to Community Business I to use the site as a parking lot. Papanostansiou owns the adjacent restaurant East Village Grill.
Project documents can be accessed at avl.mx/cn1.
Zoning text amendments
The first zoning text amendment concerns updating Chapter 7 of the Unified Development Ordinance regarding neighborhood meeting requirements for Level II projects, major subdivisions and conditional zonings. This amendment was initially proposed by Chris Collins, principal planner with the city’s Planning & Urban Design Department, in March (see avl.mx/cn7). The commission questioned whether the expanded notification radius outside the Central Business District from 200 feet to 400 feet also should apply to zoning variance applications, notices after action on Level II approvals and major subdivision plats, and notices for legislative and quasi-judicial hearings.
According to city spokesperson Kim Miller, the staff has researched this question and will present its findings at the May meeting.
Change to allowed-use tables
According to Miller, this amendment will propose consolidating all of the disparate allowed uses and land impact tables into one centralized table in the UDO for easier access to all of the regulations. No changes to the content of the tables themselves are proposed, just a consolidation.
Buncombe County
Three projects requiring special use permits and two zoning variances are on the agenda at the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment meeting at noon Wednesday, May 10. The in-person meeting will be at the Board of Commissioners Chambers, 200 College St.
Information on how to attend and apply for comment can be found at avl.mx/anq. No email or voicemail comments will be accepted.
Special use permits
Wilmington-based owner Riverstone Land Holdings LLC requests a revision to a special use permit approved by the Board of Adjustment on May 11, 2016. Phase III of this project originally called for 118 residential units over five buildings on 10.42 acres; the revision reduces the number of buildings to two. This change will result in a different traffic circulation around the buildings.
Project documents can be accessed at avl.mx/cn8.
SLC Warehouse Expansion SUP (115 Vista Blvd., Arden, 28704)
Italian-owned Systems Logistics Corp. requests a special use permit to build a 70,000-square-foot warehouse on 13.1 acres. The building will join an existing manufacturing facility for automatic food and beverage storage and retrieval systems, such as case-picking systems. When completed, the new warehouse will be used for assembly, shipping and receiving.
Project documents are available at avl.mx/cn9.
Wilderness Ridge SUP (99999 Reeves Cove Road, Candler, 28715)
Asheville-based Wilderness Ridge LLC requests a special use permit to build a Level I Planned Urban Development on 60.66 acres. The development will consist of 74 condominium units over 35 structures. Each unit will be approximately 2,850 square feet over three levels, including a two-car garage. The 5.75 acres of heavily wooded common space will be maintained by a homeowners association.
Project documents can be found at avl.mx/cna.
Zoning variances
Ruiz Variance (10 Sylvanella Lane, Swannanoa 28778)
Property owner Joseph Ruiz requests a variance changing the required rear setback from 15 feet to 12.8 feet on 0.26 acres. The owner submitted a plan for four single-family homes, two in front and two in back. The two front homes were approved for construction, but the two rear ones were built instead by mistake, according to Ruiz. As a result, the original variance requested for a side setback is now changed to a rear setback.
Project documents are available at avl.mx/cnb.
Vehaun Retaining Wall Variance (2 Evergreen Drive, Black Mountain, 28711)
Property owners David and Kim Vehaun request a variance from the requirement that any retaining wall higher than 20 feet be terraced. The current wall, built by Arden-based Garner Engineering, is 29 feet 3 inches but not terraced. The property owners maintain that they were not aware that the wall violated county code until after the wall was completed.
They claim that the wall as built does not provide enough room for the construction equipment needed to fix the issue by adding 9 feet 3 inches of infill. Moreover, they claim that accessing the wall could result in damage to the house and removal of eight-10 trees.
Project documents can be viewed at avl.mx/cnc.
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