City cuts event co-sponsorship costs Mumpower again raises immigration issue A proposed statewide moratorium on forced annexation could postpone a decision on four Asheville annexations that are currently tied up in court, City Attorney Bob Oast reported during City Council’s May 20 work session. The band plays on: The Asheville Holiday Parade was spared cuts […]
Tag: Asheville City Council
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Asheville City Council
Durant proposes balanced budget Digital billboards get green light The Oaks residents to get city water Swannanoa’s push to become an incorporated town met another delay when Asheville City Council members postponed a decision on the controversial proposal during their May 13 formal session. ZIP it: City Council prefers a scaled-back western border for a […]
City Council: Swannanoa incorporation approval delayed
Swannanoa’s march to become an incorporated town will have to wait a little longer after City Council on May 13 postponed its approval of the controversial proposal.
Asheville City Council
The sky isn’t falling, but at the Asheville City Council’s April 15 work session, Council members were told that the city can expect tight budgets and lean times for the next few years—probably moving some Council priorities to the back burner. That includes such items as property-tax relief, various major capital-improvement projects, and assorted environmental […]
Asheville City Council preview: April 16 meeting
A budget preview highlights the City Council’s next work session, but there’s plenty of other relatively high-profile fare on the agenda as well.
State of emergency
Asheville wants to end homelessness, right? That’s a noble cause, and I support the good intentions behind this effort. But if Asheville is ever going to achieve this lofty goal, we need to be honest about a few things first. 1) There’s a segment of Asheville’s homeless population that chooses it as a “lifestyle.” Take […]
Asheville City Council
Asheville City Council member Robin Cape says she wasn’t trying to pour gasoline on the fire when she asked for a Council discussion on the idea of a moratorium on downtown development. She just wanted to hear options from the city attorney and perhaps gauge where her fellow Council members stood on the matter. But […]
Downtown parking: A spot of one’s own
City parking, no matter the city, can often be an iffy proposition, especially in a place as vibrant and popular with tourists as Asheville. But that doesn’t mean there’s not enough spots to go around, Council member Brownie Newman told fellow members before they unanimously accepted a parking study conducted by Cary, N.C., firm Kimley-Horn & Associates at Council’s March 25 meeting.
Asheville City Council
Faced with a host of infrastructure wants and needs, Asheville City Council members were nonetheless reluctant to charge ahead with a proposed bond issue during their inaugural work session on March 18. An uncertain economic future seemed to dampen the prospects for issuing some $10 million worth of general-obligation bonds. Chief Financial Officer Ben Durant […]
Asheville City Council
At its March 11 meeting, the Asheville City Council unanimously approved an 11-story, mixed-used building planned for downtown’s south end. Movin’ on up: The planned 11-story Zona Village North One condos will add more vertical scale to downtown’s southside, joining the 15-story Zona Loft planned nearby. Slated to include condos as well as office and […]
City Council brouhaha: Bellamy dumped from committee chair (updated with video)
Asheville City Council members voted to remove Mayor Terry Bellamy from her lead oversight role in personnel matters at its March 11 meeting. The matter, which was added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, didn’t sit well with Bellamy or Council member Carl Mumpower, who called the maneuver “reprehensible.”
Shock ‘n’ awful
According to Asheville’s Building Safety Department, City Council last year authorized almost double—double—the already astronomical dollar value of development that occurred in 2006! Our progressive Council has left a carbon footprint on our beautiful mountains that would make Halliburton blush with environmental embarrassment. How many oxygen-making trees have been permanently displaced by inert impermeables? Thousands? […]
Asheville City Council: March 11 meeting preview
Recognition of local Nobel laureates from the Asheville-based National Climatic Data Center will kick off Asheville City Council’s March 11 meeting.
Asheville City Council
The Asheville City Council chamber has seen its share of controversy … but helmets? Scores of people wore protective headgear to Council’s Feb. 26 meeting—not because of physical danger, however, but to show support for a new city bicycle plan. On a roll: Helmet-clad cyclists showed up in droves to support Asheville’s bike plan at […]
Asheville City Council
They’re the bane of many city residents: drivers who ignore the posted speed limits on Asheville’s residential streets. But outside of more police enforcement, the methods used to slow speeders down often is too costly and too slow to come about because of a complicated and time-consuming process necessary to erect traffic-calming measures such as […]
Asheville City Council
How much of an impact did the partisan-elections backlash have on Asheville’s City Council? Enough that when Council member Brownie Newman brought the idea of a citizens’ commission on local elections to the table during Council’s Feb. 12 meeting, he got no support from even his staunchest allies. Not even a proposal merely to hold […]
Asheville City Council: Feb. 19 meeting preview
Inking a contract with an outside firm to develop a Downtown Master Plan, a report on regional economic development initiatives, and a Council discussion in preparation for a March 19 public hearing on city annexation, are among the highlights on City Council’s Feb. 19 meeting agenda.
Asheville City Council
As Asheville City Council members convened for a two-day retreat to chart their legislative goals for the year, word came that the city’s financial fortunes appear to be retreating as well. While the situation isn’t dire, Chief Financial Officer Ben Durant told Council members during the Feb. 4-5 planning session, the city may be facing […]
City Council retreat: Budget woes and yearly goals
As City Council members sat down this week for a two-day strategic retreat to chart their legislative goals for the year, word came that the city’s financial fortunes appeared to be retreating as well.
More power to you
Driving out the Leicester Highway from Patton Avenue, it narrows from five lanes to two, and the strip malls and fast-food joints give way to old-school mechanics and busted-up portable signs. Later on, that same highway continues up the mountains and around sharp curves into miles of old farmland that eventually lead up to Sandy […]
Asheville City Council
Despite numerous alleged incidents of serious police misconduct over the past couple of years, Asheville City Council members voted Jan. 15 against creating an official citizen-oversight board. Conceding that it is a “bit of a complex topic,” police Chief William Hogan nonetheless lobbied against the idea, citing several existing layers of police oversight and reiterating […]