Parking on downtown Asheville’s southside could become much easier in the near future. While County Commissioners were approving plans for a 650-space parking deck on county-owned land along Coxe Avenue at their Sept. 16 meeting, City Council members gave an informal OK to a proposed mixed-use development on Biltmore Avenue that would add an additional 437 hourly and monthly spaces.
The city of Asheville has announced it will appeal its challenge of the Sullivan Acts to the N.C. Supreme Court by Sept. 23. But it is not entirely clear that the court will hear the case. “City Council feels obligated to proceed with an appeal to the Supreme Court, but we are still committed to […]
Asheville water supply still OK City offices may move to Innsbruck Mall Despite earlier reports that an alternative bridge design produced by a local volunteer group was on track for consideration by the N.C. Department of Transportation, it’s actually still a step or two behind the other options, a DOT engineer told Asheville City Council […]
Highlights from the August 19 work session.
An analysis by the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry has found no evidence of cancer clusters in the immediate area surrounding the former CTS of Asheville site. But the small sample size places sharp limits on the reliability of the conclusions, researchers caution. And other types of studies being undertaken now may yield a more […]
When the mercury hit 90 in June, my green tin roof popped and pinged. The sound sent me reaching for a glass of ice-cold tea, though if I were more Southern belle and less teetotaler, I might have called for a fan and a mint julep. If I were more hip, I’d demand a mojito, […]
CTS contamination spreads New storm-water rules approved The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners sold a piece of parkland to developer Stewart Coleman; now they want it back. But they’re asking the city of Asheville to make it happen. At their June 24 meeting, the commissioners unanimously approved a resolution encouraging the city to agree to […]
You don’t have to be a dam expert to realize that the new Bee Tree Reservoir holds a whole lot of water (more than 520 million gallons, actually). Dormant for nearly 10 years before its April 25, 2008, reopening, Bee Tree was the city’s primary drinking-water source for more than a quarter-century. After that it […]
“Water is a living thing; it is life itself. In it life began. And everything that lives in water requires oxygen. It is also a moving thing. A burden bearer, water can carry off great loads of humanity’s leavings—but … as the oxygen in water is used up by waste … the living creatures in […]
In a presentation to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners yesterday, county staff confirmed that small amounts of TCE, an industrial chemical that can cause cancer, liver and brain damage, had been found in a third well near the site of the former CTS plant on Mills Gap Road.
On a sunny afternoon last month, French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson of RiverLink took a detour during a canoe trip down the Swannanoa River. With this reporter and a photographer in tow, Carson stopped the boat where Sweeten Creek flows into the Swannanoa, near Biltmore Village. Pulling on waders, we slogged down Sweeten Creek to […]
A half-dozen environmental groups say the state has mismanaged a fund established to ensure safe drinking water for residents using wells. Last August, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources allocated $300,000 from the Bernard Allen Emergency Drinking Water Fund—the entire initial allotment for the fund—for a two-mile water-line extension that benefited just four […]
Two weeks after a state Superior Court dismissed the city of Asheville’s lawsuit challenging legislation by the General Assembly, City Council has decided in closed session to appeal the decision to the N.C. Supreme Court.
It’s not every day that a former chairman of the UNC Board of Governors (and a man with a distinguished professorship named after him) takes a complaint to the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson. But that’s what Philip Carson found himself doing at the Authority’s Nov. 16 meeting, when frustration and even […]
A rare double-header played out in City Hall on Sept. 28, as the Asheville City Council convened 90 minutes before the scheduled start of its 5 p.m. formal session to tackle items left unaddressed at the previous week’s work session. But unlike when the Tourists play two at McCormick Field, scant few showed up to […]
At its Aug. 17 meeting, the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson heard a few brief updates from consultants and city staff. At one point amid these reports, they voted unanimously, and without much ado, to join the city in funding larger lines for a low-pressure area of West Asheville. And then, just […]
“What would be the ultimate cost of not having a regional approach?” — Nelda Holder, president,Asheville-Buncombe League of Women Voters Just get everything out on the table, and maybe everyone involved will feel obligated to address the stated problems. So says Gary Semlak, a former board member of the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe […]
