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Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods (CAN)
Meeting Minutes
August 11, 2008
CAN Goals
1. Educate and inform the community about matters that concern Asheville area neighborhoods;
2. Provide a means for Asheville area neighborhood organizations and groups to share information; and
3. Provide technical assistance to neighborhood groups and individuals that are interested in participating in community affairs
RESOLUTIONS:
Parkside Condominiums and Pack Square Park: "CAN endorses that the park land identified in the 2001 agreement (between the City, County, and Pack Square Conservancy) and in the Pack deed be restored to the public area and to public ownership and that the County find a way to make that happen." Passed on a unanimous vote.
Together We Read (TRW): CAN to send representative to meeting with Community Foundation to support TRW funding.
CAN Congress: Motion to authorize CAN to spend up to $900 on T-shirts which should include CAN logo, Building a We City, and nominated Barrett Nicholls as graphic designer and Joe Minicozzi as project coordinator.
Highlights:
New County GIS Slope Calculator http://www.buncombecounty.org/governing/depts/GIS/
Neighborhood Spotlight: WECAN
Together We Read
Parkside Condo Controversy
CAN Congress
Technical Committee Update
Other Announcements and Information
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#
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Allotted
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Topic
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Presenter
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1
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5 min
0
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Meeting started 7:05 pm.
Minutes accepted from June 9.
Treasurer's Report (Income $350; Expenses $0; Balance $4246.46)
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Marianna Bailey
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2
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10-15 min
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Introductions - your name, neighborhood and quickly state any Issue / Success to share or to add to agenda.
Marianna and Bill Bailey (ViewPoint) Association sold property for Greenway to connect the River Rd. Greenway to Rec. Park.
Tom Rightmyer (Crowfields) Dealing with WeirBridge development, loss of another tree
Luella Heetderks (WECAN) National night out last week. Brought beautiful tomatoes. Byron Ballard (WECAN)
Kathryn Kingston (WECAN moving to 5 points)
Jake Quinn (Grove Park) waiting for sidewalk and traffic calming installation. Gratified to see new upgrade Buncombe County GIS website which shows hillside (shows average slope for any lot, maximum elevation etc.)
Joe Minicozzi (Brucemont Circle) starting to organize.
Gordon Smith (Not sure of N’hood, believe it is Riverview) Marsha volunteered to send info to help him contact his active organization.
Norma Baynes (Shiloh) Celebrated…
Abby Wendell (Grove Park) Journalism major working for MAIN
Rebecca Williams (Grovemont in Swannanoa) Land Use Task Force Pride for Swannanoa. NCDENR buried in comments about the Cliffs development.
Rob Newfield (Lakeshore View near Woodfin)
Mike Lewis(Grace)
Deborah Applewhite (Beverly Hills); Bette Jackson (Beverly Hills)
Judy Williamson (Shiloh) Also had big 4th of July event to head off crime. It was successful. Policy community officer was working with event and no arrest of Shiloh youth this year.
Steve Hudzik (Kenilworth) Third of traffic calming completed. Did temporary planting in island and will get native plant later. Have big water main coming up from Tunnel Rd.
Marsha Stickford (N’hood Coordinator) David Hanks has taken job in Florida, in process of initiating replacement for him. Had copies of Telephone Guide to Asheville to pass out
Barber Melton (Haw Creek) Dedication of new sidewalks which worked on for 12 years. New park going forward, n’hood is $20k short of third of $700k+ price with County and City giving other two thirds.
Terry Bellamy (Mayor of Asheville)
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Round the Table
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3
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10-15 min
End 7:37
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Neighborhood Spotlight: WECAN (West End Clingman Avenue)
See story below
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Byron Ballard and Luella Heetderks
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4
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5-15 min
End 7:52
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Together We Read: Rob (local history writer at AC-T) and Rebecca (oral history project coordinator) discussed the Together We Read season for "Boone" which runs from July through December, with about 25 programs already planned and about just as many still to be planned in 21 counties. Community centers might be interested particularly in the Narrative Book Discussion and the Literature and Communities oral history program. See websites at http://TheReadOnWNC.ning.com/ and http://www.togetherweread.org/ . This years book is “Boone” (i.e. Daniel) a biography by Robert Morgan from Henderson County. The book will be enhanced by an oral history component allowing communities to consider some of the themes, get together with book groups, and discuss how we got settled and how our settlement is progressing. Daniel Boone has long been a great American symbol of one who loves wilderness and also the one who led the developers into the wilderness. Dave Wagner at Community Foundation to look at issue between Development and Neighborhood wilderness. TRW is also partnering with Diane Rujero (Asheville Arts Superintendent) who has run a similar program and wants to combine literature with all of the other arts.
Rebecca talked further about what a possible oral history project would be. Tentative title to relate to Boone would be ‘Places in the Face of Development”. Can be about both how it came to be and maybe for newcomers about what drew them there in the first place. Some of the oral history components include:
§ audio interviews with digital recorder
§ establish an archive system in the community as well as at a central location.
§ setup story circles where swap memories, recollections and stories. Cool thing is when you hear someone else’s story, it percolates the mind about your own stories.
§ Provide oral history training (about 2 hour workshop) to get ball rolling. This will give the community some tools in case they would like to provide more of the organization themselves.
§ photo project where people bring in photos and they are immediately scanned and returned to the owner.
§ working with a class of students at Warren Wilson College who will do a lot of the event and organizing work.
§ Rob is also planning to further strengthen the oral histories by creating stories.
§ Hoping to bring TRW events into the community centers.
§ Can see on the website what Rebecca did with the prior New Immigrant story.
Also, check out the feature on Oakley and the forum for communities at http://thereadonwnc.ning.com
Together We Read (TWR) will be meeting with the Community Foundation to ask for money to get program going. TRW asked for volunteer from CAN to attend meeting with Dave Wagner (Friday 2 pm) at the Community Foundation (Marsha Stickford attended).
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Rebecca Williams
Rob Neufeld
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5
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10-15 min
End 8:25
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Parkside Condo Controversy The scrootinyhooligans.us blogger, Gordon Smith, provided a short history of the project:
§ A 2000 or 2001 agreement was signed between Pack Square Conservancy, City and County as to the park boundaries. (Part of the land sold to Mr. Coleman by the County in 2006 was within the agreed upon park boundary.)
§ On Nov 21 2006, Commissioners sold the parcel to Mr. Coleman after having been put on the agenda by Nathan Ramsey in the first 15 seconds of the County Commissioner’s meeting. Referred to as old jailhouse. Parcel had been advertised with parcel number as upset bid. Mr. Coleman made offer on parcel (if anyone wanted to bid more they could do that. David Gantt famously said we screwed up.
§ 4-5 months later it came to light that this parcel was park land. Pack descendants said Pack had given the land to the city in 1901 so that it may forever be public land. Pack heirs brought lawsuit to be heard on Aug 25 in Superior Court.
§ Some people are upset about sale of land or about tree or about building (lowest price for condos is $900k). There was a lot of concern between conservancy about their guidelines and resulted in back and forth.
§ It became clear to Mr. Coleman that there wasn’t city council support for eleven story building therefore reduced to 9 stories and 99,700 sq ft which was 300 ft^2 below what was needed for City Council to review.
§ Mr. Coleman wanted straight swap for Marjorie Street and County requested that city entertain. City believes that bids for Marjorie Street property should be through normal RFQ process and not be offered only to Mr. Coleman.
§ Park boundary can be visualized as a line between Fire house and corner of Municipal building.
§ Terry Bellamy (who was present) wanted to clarify that City Council during closed door sessions only discussed RFP process and never looked at the Parkside plans. City Council is uncomfortable in invoking eminent domain by themselves due to the uncertain financial impact on the city taxpayers.
§ County has already offered first two types of eminent domain and Coleman rejected. The third type of eminent domain is what people are more familiar with and results in a third party deciding proper compensation.
§ Opposition includes DARN,Democratic Party, Tree commission to save tree, and many, many more groups. MVA has gotten over 7000 signatures to use eminent domain.
CAN passed the following resolution: "CAN endorses that the park land identified in the 2001 agreement (between the City, County, and Pack Square Conservancy) and in the Pack deed be restored to the public area and to public ownership and that the County find a way to make that happen." Passed on a unanimous vote.
The following links provide more information:
§ Eminent Domain Primer: http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=5867
=§ Parkside Category at Scrutiny Hooligans: http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?cat=190
§ Stopparkside.org - a page with lots of links to lots of resources
§ Asheville On The Ground - A diary of the Magnolia Watch vigil http://ashevilleontheground.blogspot.com/
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Gordon Smith
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6
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< 5 min
End 8:30
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CAN Congress: Saturday, October 4th: The Asheville Neighborhood Congress, organized by the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods, will be held on October 4th at Jubilee on Wall Street. The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. with coffee and refreshments and conclude at 1:00 p.m. Mitchell Silver, the Director of City Planning and Urban Design Center for the City of Raleigh, will be the keynote speaker for the event. The theme of the Congress is "Building Neighborhoods for the 21st Century. . . working toward a "We City" that includes everyone." Look for more information on the Congress and how to register in the coming weeks.
Tom Rightmyer is working on T-shirts (white for $7 and color for $9). Motion to authorize CAN to spend up to $900 on T-shirts which should include CAN logo, Building a We City, and nominated Barrett Nicholls as graphic designer and Joe Minicozzi as project coordinator.
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Mike Lewis
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7
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5 min
Start 8:42
End 8:44
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Salute to Barber Melton (Roast) Fundraiser – It was a grand old time!
Judy Daniel Reception – Report. Good attendance by CAN and others at reception.
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Bill Bailey
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8
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5-15 min
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Technical Committee Update
§ Debbie Applewhite and Joe Minicozzi had a successful meeting with the Mountain Council of Accountable Development (realtors and developers) and discussed Conditional Zoning, UDO format improvements, etc. Discovered that we share many concerns and hopes. Sounds like the start of a beautiful relationship.
§ Discussed Downtown Master Plan with Business Improvement Model (make own district and making tax on yourself). May be tool for n’hoods as well. Metropolitan Service District (same thing, different name) exist in Charlotte and Chimney Rock.
§ Joe Minicozzi spoke with Judy Daniel last Friday and she was very receptive to Joe’s ideas concerning graphically improving the UDO format such as incorporating land use tables.
§ The long hard trail of seeking to improve the Board of Adjustment process for administrative appeals has resulted in support from the BOA to increase the time to file an appeal from 30 to 60 days. This decision must now be brought to City Council for their vote to change the UDO.
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Joe Minicozzi
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9
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Other Announcements and Information
§ Mayor Bellamy invited everyone to come to City Council’s work session on Aug 19 at 3 pm to show support for DOT and Master Plan.
§ Project Connect and VA Stand Down: For Project Connect, need volunteers on Friday Sept 12 8-12 at First Baptist Church to work with homeless by registering people, watching valuables and serving food. Contact email ASawyer@AshevilleNC.gov. For VA Stand Down veterans should contact Tom Rightmyer to volunteer for event for homeless veterans on Friday Sept 12 at Stephens-Lee Center in Asheville. For more info on either see volunteer.www.projectconnect-vastanddown.blogspot.com
§ The Haywood Towers project is proposing to give 1.5% of sale price of condos (minimum 3 million) to Ebelyn Foundation. Foundation has no plans to increase quantity of affordable housing but will spend money on utility and rent assistance. The Affordable Housing Working Group - the continuation of the Mayor's Task Force on Affordable Housing (on which Barber and I serve) prefers such payments-in-lieu or payments made as conditions in large projects be put in a new construction affordable housing fund available as loans to developers.
§ Marianna: Search for space did not come through due to longevity. Will stay at Oakley Community Center.
§ Abigail Wendle – in Asheville for a year doing a 2nd Americorp project for community technology centers after serving for a year as a teacher. Her project will focus on community participatory journalism while trying to build conversational aspect of communities. All of Americorp projects attempts to reduce poverty in America. She is working through MAIN our community information network which is well known for projects encouraging WiFi to increase access to the internet. Abigail is hoping in the future to develop a presentation to give a better picture as well as recruiting volunteers to participate in creating journalism with help from WPVM at 103.5.
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Open to All
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1:45
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TOTAL minutes
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Neighborhood Spotlight
West End Clingman Avenue Neighborhood (WECAN)
This article is based on a presentation at the August 13, 2008 CAN meeting by Byron Ballard and Luella Heetderks
The West End/Clingman Avenue (WECAN) area is one of the oldest residential areas in the City of Asheville. Parts of the neighborhood were originally established as housing for workers at the Asheville Cotton Mill, Earle-Chesterfield Mill and the railroad. We now think of the WECAN area as one neighborhood, but it was originally two - one a predominately African-American neighborhood and the other a neighborhood of lower income white residents. Historically, there have been a lot of pressures on this neighborhood, both internal and external. One was the cultural antagonism between the two original neighborhoods. Others are the result of the location of those neighborhoods in an area surrounded and landlocked by the river and the railroad and, in time, I- 240. Residents who have traditionally lived in this neighborhood and those who have chosen it as home are a very diverse group who have seasoned the changing conditions and found ways to work together to address these pressures. One significant accomplishment has been their success in overcoming the long-standing distrust between the two original neighborhoods by creating a community that honors all residents and their active participation. The area is now a neighborhood in the true sense of the word. People know one another and each others' children, and feel the connection that comes about when folks are watching out for one another.
In addition to building community in informal ways, the neighborhood elected to create a formal association. The WECAN Association was formed over 12 years ago in response to the internal and external pressures when a small group of neighbors came together out of concern for the future development of their neighborhood. They wanted to make sure residents had a strong voice in decisions about how the issues related to the changing nature of their neighborhood would be addressed. The Association became a 501(c)(3) and has an active board that meets the 1st Thursday of every month in the offices of Mountain Housing Opportunity at the corner of Clingman and Hilliard Avenues.
The Association has a long list of successful projects to its credit. All of these projects have been aimed at creating a better quality of life for residents and building stronger relationships among neighbors. Several of the projects have honored the history of the area and its residents. A community-created exhibit of historic photos, entitled "Places of the Heart", was shown at the Front Gallery in Pack Place. The Association also conducted an oral history project with the support of Handmade in America that resulted in the production of a movie, which can be accessed through Board members.
Another focus for Association projects has been the beautification of their neighborhood. With funding from a grant, neighbors designed and planted new landscaping for their front yards. Neighbors worked on their own yards and helped each other to develop attractive front yards with the help of Quality Forward. Working with both consultants and city planners, the neighborhood worked together to create a WECAN neighborhood plan that was approved by City Council and included in the 2025 plan. The neighborhood continues to grow and change, with new infill housing and plans for more.
The impact of the WECAN Association is felt outside its boundaries through their collaboration with other neighborhoods. The recent improvements in the Hot Spot at the corner of McDowell and Hilliard and the very successful National Night Out Event are two examples of their partnership with the newly formed South French Broad Neighborhood Association. On National Night Out, the luminaries they set out on Hilliard and South French Broad were a reflection of their creative way of addressing issues while building partnerships and collaboration that lead to stronger community.
Meetings are 2nd Monday of the Month
Check Out www.AshevilleCAN.org
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