Asheville City Council relaxed development rules on nearly 41 acres of the Asheville Mall at its Tuesday meeting.
Overriding the recommendations of both city staff and Asheville’s Planning and Zoning Commission, Council members voted 4-2 to rezone the mall as Regional Business. The move strips “Urban Place” requirements for housing and walkable design that the city had imposed for any redevelopment of the property in 2021.
City planner Vaidila Satvika told Council that the rezoning would be inconsistent with Asheville’s desires for denser, mixed-use development along transit corridors. Although the mall’s owners did not have to disclose their development plans as part of the rezoning, he said that the change could lead to more car-oriented businesses like gas stations and car washes.
“Tonight, you’re being asked by an out-of-area landlord with a $90 million property to grant rezoning to a less restrictive district that allows uses that conflict with our long-range plan for this area,” Satvika said. “We strongly recommend denial.”
But Jesse Swords, an attorney representing the mall’s owners, claimed that the city’s requirements were “unworkable” and effectively prevented any changes to “an unbroken sea of asphalt.” To comply with the Urban Place rules, he argued, would essentially require the mall to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, an approach its owner would not consider.
Given current issues with homelessness and crime along Tunnel Road, Swords continued, the mall needed flexibility to bring new business to the area. “I personally do not want to see Tunnel Road ‘Beyond Thunderdome’ before we realize the vision of Urban Place,” he said, referencing the 1985 sequel to Mad Max.
Mayor Esther Manheimer agreed, albeit in less post-apocalyptic terms, with Swords’ argument. She called Urban Place “aspirational zoning” and said Asheville might wait decades for a private developer with sufficient interest and capital to redevelop the mall in line with the city’s goals.
“In the meantime, we do have an issue on Tunnel Road that requires us to do what we can to try to activate it,” Manheimer concluded.
Members Kim Roney and Sage Turner opposed the rezoning, with Turner suggesting that the city should instead tweak its Urban Place rules. Council member Maggie Ullman was absent from the meeting.
Transit proposal draws community critique
Public commenters raised major concerns over a draft plan to reimagine Asheville’s bus system.
As presented by Jessica Morriss, the city’s assistant director of transportation, the proposal aims to provide more frequent service on core bus routes. Given the limits of Asheville’s transit funding, she explained, achieving that goal would require cutting service to destinations such as the Omni Grove Park Inn and the Tanger Outlets.
A recently completed survey of over 1,300 Asheville residents, however, found that a majority disagreed that the plan would be an improvement. “They don’t like that we’re cutting anything. The survey responses are that nobody likes the draft network,” Morriss said.
In an unusual procedural move, Manheimer allowed public comment on the plan immediately after Morriss’s presentation. However, commenters had to wait until after a tornado warning forced BPR, meeting attendees and Council alike to seek shelter in the basement of City Hall.
Most of those who spoke echoed issues that had been raised by the survey. Resident Gino Perez, for example, argued that the city’s focus on frequency was misguided and failed to protect vulnerable, transit-dependent riders.
“You value a theoretical gain in job access over the people who depend on you to survive. Please reconsider this plan,” Perez said. “Build a transit system whose core value is love for our people.”
Although Council members acknowledged the community’s concerns, they did not provide clear direction to city staff about if or how they should revise the draft plan. “I think we’re going to have to figure something out,” Manheimer told City Manager DK Wesley at the end of the discussion.
Council is currently slated to vote on the transit changes Tuesday, Aug. 25.
Other tidbits
- Council passed a formal anti-displacement ordinance, directing staff to identify and protect “areas within the city which are particularly sensitive to displacement and loss of neighborhood identity.” As previously reported by BPR, the city’s anti-displacement work is particularly focused on “legacy” communities with historically large Black populations.
- The city adopted a policy for home repair programs and allocated $3 million toward that work. The new guidelines state that recipients of aid must have lived in their home for at least five years and not own any other residential property. Initial funding will come from the affordable housing bonds that Asheville voters approved in 2024.
- A proposed 130-unit affordable housing project on Sweeten Creek Road received conditional zoning approval. All units would be offered at rents affordable to residents making 80% of the area median income ($57,350 for an individual or $81,900 for a family of four). Its developers, the Dallas-based Atlantic Housing Foundation, secured minor deviations from city rules on sidewalk width and street tree placement.
- Council approved the addition of “nuisance motor vehicles” to its existing litter ordinance. As presented at an earlier work session by Jes Foster, Asheville’s sanitation division manager, the change gives city employees a more efficient way to handle problems. Foster emphasized that “our goal is compliance” and that owners would be given multiple warnings before receiving fines for derelict vehicles on their property.
- Asheville sold a portion of city property at 55 Hunt Hill Place to KL Training Solutions for $1. According to a city staff report, the nonprofit will place a modular classroom on the site to expand youth mentoring programs such as My Daddy Taught Me That. KL Training Solutions had previously received a half-acre of city land at adjacent 3 Hunt Hill Place in 2023.
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. However, Council will take the second week of August off; its next regular meeting will take place Tuesday, Aug. 25. See the full recording and documents from the July 28 meeting.
