Please stop insisting that McKibbon must build a hotel and parking! It sure feels like you are in collusion. The new plain and cheap-exterior Broadway Hotel, if built near the Basilica, would be a huge failure — for the builder, City Council and the people of Asheville.
Please listen. Quality of life for the downtown area means so much. Hotels in the core may destroy what we have. They really should be on the edges of town with transportation and walking to the center. More congestion isn’t good for pedestrians, bikes or car traffic.
Let’s preserve the Basilica. This does not mean that all buildings should look the same or “old,” but they should be in scale and enhance the older buildings nearby. You know that you can reissue the request for proposals in an effort to have a use for the site that respects the integrity of the Basilica, provides for some public space and complements all of the surrounding properties.
A reasonable assumption is that the Basilica would develop the land wisely with great architecture and wonderful green space. The Basilica having no authority now and “working with” McKibbon is not enough. We need to see their proposal on a new RFP and evaluate it based upon site integrity and scale.
Let’s continue enhancing Asheville. The Basilica plan may not maximize all profits and may not even be a hotel and parking, but they built a wonderful basilica and I trust them to have a great solution. It is unusual to have an option available which fits the situation so well.
City Council: You are in control of this. You really do know the right decision. This is a special opportunity for Asheville.
— Jerry Hinz
Asheville
How will further density in the most densely-built section of the city destroy the quality of life that was created by that very density?
Hotels on the outskirts with “transportation and walking” to the center in actuality means hotels on the outskirts and people driving in, creating the very congestion that isn’t good for pedestrians, bikes, or car traffic. Tourists aren’t going to take a bus. Furthermore, any hotel on the outskirts of downtown would engender just as much hostility as a hotel in the very center of downtown. The real issue here is that NIMBY’s don’t want anything built anywhere near downtown.
Lastly, what kind of “scale” are we talking about when there’s a 9-story building across the street and a 14-story building within sight of the site?
More dense is more- add 120 rooms or so–with daily changing of people staying-and car traffic.
The downtown is a mix of a few stories high- with some higher- seems all proposals for downtown want high density and multi-story. Lets not take every spot that is available and build up high – There is great architecture in this area. I will agree that you CAN have higher and great architectue– maybe the Basilica can do that.. but McKibben isn’t – The latest new hotels have been cheap exteriors and lack architecture complimenting the area..it can be done right– The city can’t seem to control the “look”. Hotels a couple blocks out of the core would encourage cars to stay there- and people to walk.. Never meant “outskirts” of town.
Downtowns exist in order to create the density required to support a broad range of goods and services. They also allow the development of a sustainable public transportation system. Any commenters ever been to Manhattan? The same people who oppose sprawl, love public transportation AND resist downtown development truly don’t get it.