Letter: A village, not a mall, on Charlotte Street

Graphic by Lori Deaton

The Charlotte Street neighborhood is an active, community-minded, blended, diverse, historic and neighborly area. A village, not a commercial mall.

The partners, Killian and RCG, appeal to us as preservationists on the basis of the long-departed Dr. Killian’s work and awards. No. That was his legacy. It will not be theirs. This proposal involves destruction of 13 homes and up side streets of Baird and Chestnut, a bad idea chipping away in the whole city.

The gargantuan design is pretentious in the cottage area. Increased traffic, dangerously absurd. Total disregard for historic treasures, even worse. All 13 homes contribute to the National Register Historic District designation. Now they say the buildings are too run-down. … The bones are good, as those who have improved our homes can attest.

Increased traffic from 183 residential units on a neighborhood street is in direct opposition to the only recently completed, decades coming “road diet” for an already severely traffic-stressed street. The overwhelming majority opinion was: 1.) the safety of pedestrians and 2.) conserve the historic character and design of the area. Will the city ignore this objective?

Mercenary developers called Charleston’s Rainbow Row and New Orleans’ shotgun homes a blight. They are now major attractions with rich economic benefits. They said, “This is how we do it.” Wise city councils came back with, “This is not how we do it here!” And made it official policy. I urge our city: Accept only enlightened developers, such as [those who] designed for the “Pit of Despair.” Do the right thing to protect all in our unique, historic city as you were elected to do.

— Kieta Osteen-Cochrane
Asheville

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Letters
We want to hear from you! Send your letters and commentary to letters@mountainx.com

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

5 thoughts on “Letter: A village, not a mall, on Charlotte Street

  1. KW

    Enlightened developers? Like that team from the Bluffs who called Town of Woodfin folks ‘a bunch of scumbags’ while under oath at the P&Z hearing on 4/5/21 just because they (Woodfin board) were doing their duty and voted to hear more evidence? Woodfin agreed to hear expert testimony related to the health and public safety of locals, but the developer and his attorney keep badgering them not to listen.

    If you can’t find in on YouTube, please visit the FB page of volunteers trying to save Richmond Hill and the French Broad River. Watch from about 1:30-1:37 for most of the drama. While you’re at it, please sign petitions to stop all this nonsense. Enough is enough!

    http://www.facebook.com/groups/richmondhillriverrescue/

  2. Stop Spamming

    Your spamming of every topic about The Bluffs development is getting old and not winning you support as you might hope.

  3. Mike R.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
    Money talks.
    That is all you need to know.

  4. Alex

    Rich white people put up a huge fuss every time someone wants to build an apartment complex or anything other than a single-family home in Asheville. They always point to traffic and neighborhood character (the same argument used in racist community charters for decades), but it’s just NIMBYism and fear that housing for anyone other than the wealthy is going to ruin their “nice” (read “rich” and “white”) neighborhood. Are developers just out to make a buck? Sure they are – but you never see people fighting this hard against developers building single-family spec homes… I wonder why? We’re never going to have affordable housing in Asheville if we pretend like to type of housing that is affordable is inherently worse than expensive houses.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.