Wal-Mart challenged by N.C. tax authoritie­s

The Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has used a complicated property-ownership scheme to duck taxes in 25 states, including North Carolina. A story in the Feb. 1 issue of the Journal says that “North Carolina tax authorities are challenging Wal-Mart, saying its REIT strategy was intended to ‘distort [the company’s] true net income,’ according to its filings in the case in Superior Court in Raleigh, N.C.”

Overlooked violations­?

When the city goofs: Newly planted trees fill in for a mature woods that once screened the Campus Crest development from nearby residences — woods that were cut down because, as Planning Director Scott Shuford put it, he didn’t do “a very good job of communicating that.” photo by Cecil Bothwell. In a sense, Asheville’s […]

Asheville City Council

After getting their feet wet with one formal session and a community meeting, it was back-to-school time at the Asheville City Council’s Jan. 17 work session, as Council members scrambled to prepare for their upcoming retreat and several looming hot-button issues. To that end, it was a long night of reports designed to get the […]

Asheville City Council

What a difference a couple of years makes. In 2002, concerns about traffic congestion threatened to derail a massive, highly controversial east Asheville development project. Toward the end of a 14-hour public hearing and Council debate that played out before a standing-room-only crowd that overflowed into three adjacent rooms, however, the developer volunteered to scale […]

Calling a spade a spade

“T-M has made a big boo-boo by grading in the river-resource yard, and I’m not sure they aren’t also taking down some trees along the river that are part of our park.” — City Planning and Development Director Scott Shuford Just before the Asheville City Council voted to approve a Super Wal-Mart for the Sayles-Biltmore […]