Public Hearing C. Public hearing to conditionally zone 1 Oak Street from Central Business District to Central Business Expansion/Conditional Zone for the purpose of approving a conceptual master plan for the development of several multi-story buildings consisting of residential, hotel, retail and office uses. (Staff memo, presentation)

This public hearing has been rescheduled twice. City Council is being asked to approve a rezoning request for a 10.5 acre parcel containing three properties. The long term plan is to build five buildings: a six-story building with residential and retail spaces, a second six-story building with office and commercial spaces, a third six-story building with residential and commercial spaces, a nineteen-story building with residential and commercial spaces, and a twenty-story hotel.

We continue to have many of the same concerns raised in our August 21st GAP Report and September 11th GAP Report. We’re glad to see that the latest summary of conditions for the project includes the requirement that “the developer shall maintain an ongoing dialogue and collaboration with the surrounding community throughout the development process,” an assurance to honor the concerns of the East End/Valley Street neighborhood, Asheville’s oldest historical Black community.

However, the biggest concern voiced by that community – the height of two of the buildings – remains completely unaddressed. At the last City Council Meeting, Council Member Antanette Mosley asked if the developers would consider several shorter structures instead of the proposed nineteen and twenty-story buildings. (If built, the latter would become the tallest building in the City.) The developers responded that such a change would make it impossible for them to offer 20% of the residential units as “affordable housing,” among other project goals. They were not willing to consider it and offered no additional explanation.

We wonder: What value is there in an agreement by the developers to collaborate with the East End community throughout the development process, if they are refusing to consider that community’s top concern before the process has even begun? Is it really necessary to build the tallest building in Asheville in order to offer a small number of minimally “affordable” housing units? We stand with the residents of East End and encourage the Asheville City Council to vote no on this rezoning request unless it is amended to include a condition that no building exceed fifteen stories.

New Business A. Resolution to adopt the Pack Square Plaza Vision Plan. (Staff Memo)

Asheville and Buncombe County contracted with the McAdams Company in 2022 to develop a vision for the future of Pack Square. In June of 2023, the City was awarded a $3,000,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project to “perform the following activities identified through the Pack Square Plaza Vision planning process:

• design and engineering that advances the vision for a more inclusive Pack Square;
• community organizing, community design, and construction that promotes the unique narrative of The Block; and
• county-wide programming and education efforts that deepen storytelling and oral and video history efforts in our community.”

We appreciate many elements of this plan, in particular the emphasis on “(redesigning) S. Market Street as an active cultural corridor to improve connections to The Block (and improving) wayfinding to The Block from Biltmore Avenue.” This plan would both honor and uplift The Block, Asheville’s original Black business district in the heart of East End, which was all but wiped out by so-called Urban Renewal. We hope you will join us in encouraging the Asheville City Council to pass this resolution.