Who ever said democracy was simple? And if Bill Clinton can be president without collecting the majority of the votes, why shouldn’t the city of Asheville be able to win a case the same way? In an eight-hour-long legal tango on March 17, city staff defeated two out of three attempts by billboard companies to […]

Mark Combs hates it when people park cars and trucks on city sidewalks. As Asheville’s Public Works director, he knows firsthand that sidewalks can’t take the weight, and that the bad habit ends up costing city taxpayers money. “The life of a sidewalk is significantly diminished when vehicles park on it,” says Combs. “A sidewalk […]

Preserving historic Buncombe Score another victory for The Preservation Society, for rescuing yet another historic home from the wrecking ball. Earlier this year, the Brigman-Chambers house in Reems Creek was scheduled to be demolished, to make way for Hawks Landing, a new residential subdivision being developed on a 235 acre farm in the Beech community, […]

“All kids are at risk,” Butch Kisiah told Asheville City Council members during their March 16 work session. As the city’s superintendent of recreation, Kisiah was urging Council to endorse a new At-Risk Youth Initiative. The program, he explained, targets teens from low-income families and single-parent homes; “latchkey kids” who come home to an empty […]

After more than a year of intensive effort and heated public involvement, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, opening the door to tighter regulation of growth and development in the county. The plan, developed after 12 communitywide hearings, is intended to provide a basis for future policy decisions. […]

Deadbeat parents, beware In the old days — say, the 1980s — being a deadbeat parent was easy. All you had to do was move to a new town, keep a low profile, make a few good excuses, and you were home free. Not anymore, though: As of March 3, the Buncombe County Child Support […]

Hate at home One of the scariest things the U.S. faces in the coming millennium is the prospect of domestic terrorism. Apart from a few high-profile cases, such as the Oklahoma bombing, most of this century’s terrorist activity has taken place beyond our borders. In late March, however, the Asheville Police Department and Western Carolina […]

The Buncombe County commissioners unanimously passed a moratorium on new telecommunications towers in the county, at their Feb. 2 meeting. The second reading of the resolution — which was approved 4-1 at the commissioners’ Jan. 26 meeting — was delayed by the late arrival of the Baptist preacher who was to give the invocation. In […]

Last year, Asheville City Council members didn’t have enough money to award the New Hope Community Health Center a portion of the federal Community Development Block Grant funds the city parcels out annually. Now they do. Asheville Community Development Director Charlotte Caplan told City Council members on Jan. 26 that New Hope representatives had been […]

It wasn’t a free lunch, but county commissioners were offered breakfast, free of charge, courtesy of the American Egg Board — and the staff of the county Finance Department, who won the meals in a KISS-FM contest. The breakfast invitation was delivered during the commissioners’ Jan. 26 agenda-review meeting. (Bill Stanley was the only commissioner […]

One man’s version of hell might be to end up serving, forever and ever, on a big committee. Disappointed by the mixed results achieved by a “Church Committee” directed to resolve zoning-classification issues for churches in the city, Asheville Council members asked the group to meet again and report to the Planning and Zoning Commission […]

Death race 2000 Next time you cross Patton Avenue, make sure you look left, right, then left again; then repeat the process: “Mean Streets 1998,” a report released recently by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, ranks North Carolina as the seventh-most-dangerous state for child pedestrians, based on data covering 1992-96. The report pegs the state’s […]

The magic number is 100 feet. That’s the new cap Asheville City Council set for the height of telecommunications towers — half of what the old ordinance allowed. Council members voted unanimously to revise the city’s tower ordinance on Jan. 12, despite pleas from industry representatives that they compromise on several issues — particularly the […]

Just below the surface of west Asheville’s worn exterior lies a rich vein of history that a group of determined community leaders wants to revive. Stroll down Haywood Road and you’ll see turn-of-the-century architecture, like the whimsical white arches and big white circles set in red brick at the old west Asheville fire station (which […]

Hallelujah It’s official: The historic Hopkins Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church on the edge of downtown Asheville won’t be torn down. Thanks to a major grant from the Janirve Foundation, the old church will soon be looking, if not as good as new, then at least pretty nice. After 80 years of serving as the primary […]

So you wanna be a lawmaker? It’s no secret that politics is a complicated, often messy business — which probably discourages many capable community residents from seeking public office. But for anyone who’s interested in getting more politically involved, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Political Institute, which will focus on local government […]

Council adopts parking plan Before Asheville City Council OKs the construction of a new parking deck near the Grove Arcade, they might do well to consider the parking shortages in and around Pack Place. “Our problem exists now: It’s not three years away,” said Asheville Art Museum Director Pam Myers. The Grove Arcade has yet […]