Asheville will ink a nearly $55 million contract to operate city transit over the next four years. City Council approved the new agreement with RATP Dev, which is also the current contractor for the Asheville Rides Transit bus system, at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The contract’s first-year cost is roughly $12.7 million, $800,000 more than this fiscal year’s contract. Although bus routes and hours will remain the same, Jessica Morriss, Asheville’s assistant transportation director, said the agreement did secure several key operational improvements.
RATP Dev will now pay penalties when its buses don’t arrive on schedule at least 80% of the time in any given month, up from a previous target of 72%. Morriss said the company will give city staff access to software for automatically enforcing that performance standard. It will also hire three new employees, including a crisis counselor “to assist riders and de-escalate situations” at the downtown bus station.
However, Council was split on approving the agreement, with Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley, Sheneika Smith, and Sage Turner all opposed. Turner shared her frustration that years of transit cost increases hadn’t come with greater bus coverage or ridership numbers.
“To consistently raise taxes on everyone to support transit, transit needs to be supporting more residents,” Turner said. “It’s getting a little out of balance for me.”
Even those who supported the contract expressed dissatisfaction over the current state of the system. “The nicest word I can think of to use is ‘disdain,’” said Council member Kim Roney, regarding what she’d heard from bus riders about RATP Dev and its unreliability.
Morriss said that Asheville had put the transit contract out for public bids, but of the four potential vendors, only RATP Dev had met the city’s technical requirements. The city had not fulfilled a BPR public records request for those bids, submitted March 17, as of press time.
While the new contract terms were enough to earn her support, Roney said that the city should begin exploring a transit authority model that would collaborate more closely with Buncombe County. Council member Maggie Ullman suggested that Asheville look into passing a dedicated sales tax to support transit.
Council approves “Parkside” land hold
A 2.43-acre property just south of Asheville City Hall and Pack Square Park is now earmarked for a new performing arts center. Council unanimously approved reserving the city-owned land for two years while staff, community stakeholders, and British production company ATG Entertainment hash out further details.
Early proposals for the “Parkside” site include a 2,500-seat performance hall that would host the Asheville Symphony, a 300-space parking garage, rehearsal and education spaces, and a new fire station. Chris Corl, Asheville’s community and regional entertainment facilities director, said the land hold will help the city obtain federal grant funding for preconstruction work like site surveys and geotechnical reports.
A dozen speakers during public comment expressed concerns about the project’s potential impact on East End/Valley Street and the Block, two historically Black areas of the city. Representatives of the nonprofit Government Accountability Project of Asheville noted that the property had been home to Black families for decades before Asheville acquired it, at least partly through eminent domain.
“The history of this land is intertwined with a broader history of racial control, unequal power, and displacement,” said GAP representative Tiffany DeBellott. “That context matters, especially when we talk about what should happen here and now.”
In response, Council members noted that the land hold resolution requires the city to partner with the Block and East End — a change from its original language, which called for “meaningful and robust public engagement” — as it develops site plans. Vice Mayor Mosley clarified that those relationships could be financial, with neighborhood groups potentially investing capital and receiving a share of the facility’s revenue.
“Being a partner at the table and just being a design partner, a development partner, educational partner, that’s a lot different from being a partner who has ownership,” added Council member Smith. “And I think that’s what the community is due: ownership.”
Other tidbits
- At a budget work session prior to the formal meeting, Council heard proposals to tweak Asheville’s public parking. Transportation staffer Morriss floated a number of “high impact” moves, such as extending meter enforcement to 8 p.m., reducing free parking in garages from an hour to 15 minutes, and expanding parking meters to the South Slope. Council members voiced little excitement about any of those changes and seemed particularly skeptical about eliminating the “first hour free” policy.
- D. Tyrell McGirt, Asheville’s parks and recreation director, updated Council about efforts to redesign the city’s storm-damaged parks. For Azalea Park, consultant OLIN developed two concepts that would either rebuild facilities with greater flood protection or elevate them to higher ground on the landscape. Design firm Sasaki laid out three alternatives for the French Broad riverfront, respectively focused on ecology, recreation, and community-building. The city’s Infrastructure Recovery Board will discuss the plans further at a July meeting.
- City staff shared details of a new “Anti-Displacement and Affordable Housing Project” during Council’s March 19 briefing. According to City Manager DK Wesley, the effort aims to boost housing options while protecting “the character and the stability of our historic neighborhoods and the people who have built them over generations.” Work will take place through the end of the year and will include improvements to the city’s development notifications, tweaks to “missing middle” housing regulations, and a tool to assess the displacement risks of large development projects.
- Council will hold a special meeting at the Arcade Ballroom on the third floor of the Cambria Hotel Downtown Asheville, 15 Page Ave., at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 26. Members will discuss potential changes to the city’s Unified Development Ordinance with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Circle. The city does not plan to record or live-stream the event, and members of the public must register in advance to attend. Ashley Fox, a lawyer who consults for the North Carolina Press Association, said the meeting’s advance registration requirement does not comply with state law.
Asheville City Council regularly meets every second and fourth Tuesday at the Council Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, 70 Court Plaza, beginning at 5 p.m. The next regular meeting will take place Tuesday, April 14. See the full recording and documents from the March 24 meeting.
