How can public land be sold to a private developer without any citizen input of any kind? This land is part of the George Pack legacy that clearly stipulated that this space would be held in the public trust as a park in perpetuity.
I urge City Council to reject the Parkside condo proposal. It is the wrong building in the wrong location. How can we, in good conscience, create what would become a huge barrier between the public, civic center and our African-American community? The rear of this proposed condo would be directly across the street from the historic Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, fully exposed to service vehicles including regular garbage pickup. In addition to this racial divide, this high-rise would powerfully encroach upon our exquisite City Hall, the crown jewel of our civic-center area.
I feel that this land sale by the county to Stewart Coleman was not only a gross error in judgment, but was also done as a backroom deal, behind the backs of county voters and residents who were denied a voice in deciding this action.
— Max Poppers
Asheville
Mr Poppers,
Have you, or anyone else gone down to that street and looked at what is there, across from the Church,
now?
A series of run down buildings that used to be part of the police station, and now house the probation department of the Buncombe County Court system.
But, wait, even that is not DIRECTLY across the street from the Church. If one goes to Google Maps and does a search, it reveals that in fact, there is a City/County parking lot across the street form the location, and in no rendering I’ve seen does it illustrate that the new Parkside Building will abut to the street opposite this Church.
So what is the reality here?
Again Express, lets do some reporting on the exact lay of the land in this issue.