When it rains on the campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, stormwater pours off its plethora of parking lots into the neighborhoods, forest and French Broad River below, taking pollutants with it. Now, the community college, which sits at the headwaters of one of three primary tributaries in the Central Asheville Watershed, is working to reduce the volume of rainwater that flows from its campus.
On heels of a 2021 study that showed the power of the French Broad River as an economic driver, the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce convened a panel to discuss the importance of keeping that engine clean.
A changing climate, aging infrastructure and rapid rates of development are contributing to a rising tide of stormwater problems in Asheville. But responsibility for stormwater infrastructure often rests with private property owners, complicating the process of planning and paying for fixes.
Council’s agenda looks light for its formal meeting of March 14. Ahead of the 5 p.m. session, Council members will hold a budget work session for the 2017-18 fiscal year at 3 p.m. on the first floor of City Hall.
Asheville City Council will meet at 5 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 8, but the gathering is likely to be a brief one. Council will consider items on its consent agenda and hear public comment.
City Council approved four rezoning requests at its regular meeting on June 28, including a 272-unit apartment complex on Mills Gap Road that generated considerable public opposition when it was first proposed. Developer Rusty Pulliam appeared to have won over many members of the community by adding traffic mitigation measures at the intersection of Mills Gap and Sweeten Creek roads, delaying construction until 2018 and by committing 15 percent of the units as affordable housing for 15 years.
On Tuesday, March 22, Asheville City Council approved fee increases that will have some impact on just about every resident’s budget, from fees for trash collection to automobile registration.
It was a relatively short meeting for Asheville City Council tonight, but they managed to consider issues ranging from the role of rising rents in homelessness to landslides to a different location for Brewgrass.
A long-standing problem at the intersection of Roberts Street and Clingman Avenue in the River Arts District may need more work.
An impossibly-steep slope in West Asheville Park has been transformed from tall waving grass to fruit and nut trees and bushes thanks to the work of volunteers — now the volunteers want to harness the run-off to keep the garden going
(Photos by Bill Rhodes)
At it’s June 8 meeting, Asheville City Council:
• endorsed a state bill that would allow the option of public financing of elections and
• approved enforcement rules and penalties for its new stormwater-plan, voting to require undisturbed 30-foot stream buffers while not approving the requirement of larger buffers.
Four Council members may have violated North Carolina’s open meetings law when they met at Pack’s Tavern after the Council session. State law considers any gathering of a quorum of elected officials to be an official meeting. Council member Esther Mannheimer said that the gathering was purely social and therefore would not be a violation of that law.
On the agenda for tomorrow’s Asheville City Council meeting: a proposal to back publicly financed elections, tinkering with development rules and a plethora of reports.
