Climate change, aging infrastruc­ture and rapid developmen­t fuel Asheville stormwater woes

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.

City Council remembers Isaac Coleman, approves Mills Gap apartments

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.

Asheville City Council approves a stormwater plan and endorses public finance of elections

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.