ASHEVILLE — A city board on Monday unanimously turned down three appeals challenging zoning decisions by the city Planning Department, ruling in one case that the appeal was moot and in two others that appellants did not have proper standing.

The appeals challenged decisions to allow the signs on the Prudential Lifestyle Realty building near Beaucatcher Tunnel, several aspects of the Staples office supply store on Merrimon Avenue and the configuration of the Walgreens drug store under construction on Merrimon.

Members of the Board of Adjustment said city residents in the Prudential and Staples cases either waited too long to appeal, failed to show they had been unusually damaged by the decisions or both. In the Walgreens case, the board found that the fact that the city has already revoked permits for the project that the appeal challenged means that there was no significant issue to come before the board.

The Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods sponsored the appeals in hopes of encouraging the Planning Department to enforce the city’s Unified Development Ordinance more strictly. About 50 people attended Monday’s meeting.

CAN President Chris Pelly said afterward that he hopes City Council will look at the zoning enforcement issues the appeals were designed to raise. It is too early to say whether CAN will appeal the board decisions in court, he said.

City government is asking an expert from the state Institute of Government to look at staff’s handling of the Prudential and Staples cases and another involving the loading dock at the Greenlife Grocery store on Merrimon Avenue.

The appeals say the Prudential signs are too large, that the Staples store is too close to Merrimon Avenue and that its signs are too large and tall, among other issues.

“If somebody doesn’t stand up and do something, we’re just going to get this all up and down Merrimon Avenue and all over the city,” said Heather Rayburn, who brought the Staples appeal.

City rules say an appeal of a Planning Department decision must be brought within 30 days. Under state law, the appeal period begins either when someone receives a formal notice of a decision or when construction of a building indicates that a permit has been granted, said Ron Sneed, an attorney who advises the board.

Someone challenging a ruling must also show that it negatively affects them in a way different from most city residents or property owners, Sneed said.

Assistant City Attorney Curtis Euler argued that appellants knew or should have known about the Staples and Prudential projects more than 30 days before the appeals were filed Feb. 2. Both buildings were completed in 2005. The Prudential signs went up in October and the Staples signs in early December.

Appellants’ attorney Greg Beckwith said the appeal period didn’t start until January. That’s when city Planning Director Scott Shuford explained to Rayburn and Kimberly Hodges, who challenged the Prudential signs, why the projects were approved.

City government revoked a permit for the Walgreens building, saying demolition of the old Citizens Ace Hardware store meant the project is new construction. It approved a new permit March 10 — not the subject of the appeal considered Monday — based on revised plans.