At a Downtown Commission meeting July 14, Assistant City Manager Rachel Wood said that portions of the 60-day downtown safety and cleanliness pilot have transitioned into ongoing services.

At a Downtown Commission meeting July 14, Assistant City Manager Rachel Wood said that portions of the 60-day downtown safety and cleanliness pilot have transitioned into ongoing services.
“Many activists, citizens, eco-groups, the Urban Forestry Commission and the Neighborhood Advisory Committee are justly appalled by and formally opposed to PUDD’s machination.”
“The name of the proposal is the ‘open space amendment,’ and the goal is to dramatically slash, and in some cases, eliminate, the open space that developers are now required to provide with larger construction projects.”
Although the exact footprint of the building is still under consideration, existing plans call for a first floor of businesses (16,000 square feet in total) topped by 26 efficiency, 93 one-bedroom and 61 two-bedroom apartments. A total of 327 parking spaces, some underground, would service the complex.
Through two discussion sessions and a survey on its online public input platform, the city of Asheville is soliciting feedback on strategies to increase housing density and, it hopes, ease the city’s housing crisis.
The city asked for input on downtown development review standards and, if turnout can be considered an indication, it certainly got it. At least 124 members of the community signed in for an open house-style meeting about development issues in downtown Asheville on March 23.