Saving UNCA forest calls for big-picture thinking

BY KERRY GRAHAM-WALTER

Around mid-March, UNC Asheville campus police began patrolling the southern entrance to the 45-acre urban forest the university owns in Five Points — denying visitors access to one of the largest wooded areas in the city. Unannounced heavy-equipment incursions had begun back in January, and in March Chancellor Kimberly van Noort confirmed the university’s intention to develop the property, which is bounded by Broadway and W.T. Weaver Boulevard and is adjacent to the Southern Research Station.

This was a painful blow to a community that has already lost so much to Tropical Storm Helene, and it sparked fierce outcry. The police presence followed placement of “Not designated for public use” signs — notably absent from UNCA’s also heavily forested Chestnut Ridge property at the north end of the campus. The sequence of events made it difficult not to conclude that it was in retaliation for the growing opposition to the forest’s development (as of this writing, more than 11,000 petition signatures and counting).

After 10 weeks of lobbying for a meeting, our organizers finally got our first chance to sit down with the chancellor, who said the police presence was due to “miscommunication” and that community access to the forest would continue for the time being. Nonetheless, it was almost another week before the campus police finally stopped harassing visitors to the woods, either preventing them from entering or telling them to leave.

Follow the money

Two key factors seem to be at work here. First, UNCA is dealing with a budget deficit and badly needs new sources of revenue. Second, the 45-acre forest is part of 210 acres of university property, spread across various discontiguous parcels, that has been designated the Millennial Campus. This exempts the areas in question from the North Carolina law that bars state-owned entities from competing with private businesses, enabling universities to enter public-private partnerships in order to fund development that seeks to turn a profit. The designation also expands the university’s mission beyond research, education and service to require that it also “enhance the economic development of the region served by the institution.”

This kind of mission drift merits healthy skepticism, as the promised regional economic benefits are rarely supported by empirical evidence. For example, East Carolina University’s Millennial Campus, now called the Research and Innovation Campus, comprises a sprawling 536 acres of properties. In 2023, it brought in a paltry $118,000 in annual revenue after expenses. And under state law, such revenues can only be used to fund development of the millennial campus that generated them rather than helping address that institution’s other needs.

Simply put, most universities are just not that good at stimulating economic development, and UNCA’s urban forest may be the next victim of this unproven, taxpayer-subsidized model.

Although the school has yet to reveal its plan for the urban forest, it’s important to note that millennial campuses come with few restrictions, as long as an argument can be made that the development will stimulate regional economic growth. The annual statewide Millennial Campus Report issued by the university system lists a considerable variety of businesses on these taxpayer-owned parcels, including a couple of restaurants, a nail salon and a Verizon office. In addition, a couple of hotels have been built on current or former millennial campus land, and in at least one instance, the millennial campus mechanism was what enabled the project to go forward. It’s rumored that UNCA may also be looking to erect a hotel on the property in question, alongside its other plans for the parcel.

The regional economic impact of these kinds of leases is debatable at best. But what isn’t debatable is the property tax revenue that’s lost when such businesses rent from a nonprofit entity rather than from private property owners. Thus, besides being a questionable model for regional economic growth, UNCA’s Millennial Campus could end up causing local governments here to lose much-needed revenue.

Back to the future

The chancellor and members of the board of trustees claim that they have no proposals for the urban forest at this point. Yet during our group’s March 25 meeting with Mayor Esther Manheimer, she very strongly implied, based on her recent conversations with the chancellor, that they do have a specific use in mind, which the mayor called “very exciting,” adding that she can’t wait for the university to announce it.

At the end of our meeting, the mayor strongly implied that it would be an athletic facility requiring a flat area much larger than the other nearby Millennial Campus properties could accommodate. Such a project would require clear-cutting and grading a significant portion of the forest. In the wake of the devastating tree loss during Helene, does acquiring another sports venue really justify the destruction of one of the last remaining forests in the city?

As Asheville has shown so many times in the past, our collective voice can help shape this community’s future. Back in the ’80s, concerned residents stopped City Council from razing much of downtown to build a mall. In the ’90s, my parents and their neighbors prevented Broadway from becoming just another Patton Avenue and won approval from the city for what eventually became the Reed Creek Greenway. In 2007, Progress Energy tried to build a fossil fuel power plant in the French Broad River flood plain. Imagine how much worse off our city would be today if we hadn’t fought those battles and won.

Public input produces better outcomes for our community. In our meeting with the chancellor, she said she’s thinking about what UNCA will be like 100 years from now, and I couldn’t agree more. Once the forest is clear-cut, it’s gone forever: Its value to the university, the city and a resilient future for our community can’t be measured solely in dollars. Let’s help UNCA find a solution that leaves this urban forest intact.

Longtime Five Points resident Kerry Graham-Walter is a UNCA alumnus and a Save the Woods campaign organizer. To learn more or to sign the petition, visit saveuncawoods.org. This piece has been updated from the print version.