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Topic

Presenter

1

Opened meeting at 7:10 pm. Closed meeting at 8:35 pm.

Introductions – the following were in attendance where a star * indicates representatives for member organizations. Quorum met for majority votes.

Robert Zieber (Biltmore Park)
Grace Curry * (Grove Park / Sunset Mtn)
Mike Lewis * (Grace)
Debbie Applewhite * (Beverly Hills)
Tom Rightmyer * (Crowfields)
Susan Sampson (Crowfields)
James Judd (Chunns Cove)
Barber Melton * (Haw Creek)
Stephen Hudzik * (Kenilworth)
Christine Longoria (Norwood Park)

Quorum Met - 6 of 12 member organizations in good standing had appointed representatives present thereby exceeding the one third quorum requirement for majority votes.

Round the Table

2

P&Z flushes "Storm-Water and Erosion Control" work of Citizen Advisory Body and Staff
& City Council remands to Planning and Economic Development (PED) Sub Committee

City Council (at their meeting the following night) were scheduled to discuss the storm water ordinance but decided to continue it for review by the City Council sub committee for Planning and Economic Development (PED) which consists of Jan Davis, Esther Manheimer, and Gordon Smith.

The following provides a summary of the storm water issue including a CAN motion reprimanded P&Z’s conduct all of which were emailed following the meeting to list@AshevilleCAN.org.

The Watershed Policy Committee (WPC) which consists of community members (including 3 CAN members) have been working extremely hard for over 6 months (2 years?) to learn about the science and impact of storm water and to craft an Asheville ordinance. Unfortunately, the Planning and Zoning board has decided to completely ignore both staff's and the WPC's recommendations in what appears to be a violation of open meeting law as well as certainly bad public policy. Tonight, City Council will hear staff's report, P&Z's recommendation, take public comment, and possibly vote. Please consider writing your council members and / or attending the hearing to either speak or donate your time to allow a group to have a 10 minute presentation.

In November, CAN passed the motion below regarding P&Z's conduct which was highly disturbing. In summary, having the P&Z chair, Cindy Weeks, distribute a two page typed document from the dais which had never been seen by the staff or public and was then approved with minimal discussion is terrible public process and gives the appearance of the board violating the open meeting law.

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Motion: Regarding the P&Z recommendation to City Council concerning the Storm Water Ordinance, CAN directs their representative, Barber Melton, to present to Council the following CAN concerns:

· P&Z ignored staff recommendations without providing substantial evidence to support P&Z ‘s recommended position;

· P&Z ignored the appointed Water Shed Advisory Committee recommendation without providing substantial evidence to support P&Z’s recommended position.

· Are concerned that the sitting P&Z chair delivered prepared text of a 2 page policy to other members from the dais;

· Are concerned that there is the appearance that the board violated open meeting law based upon the distribution of the aforementioned prepared text and the lack of discussion regarding the text prior to approving the text in whole.

The motion was passed unanimously by a vote of the CAN neighborhood representatives from the neighborhood organizations: Beverly Hills, Crowfields, Grace, Grove Park / Sunset Mountain, Haw Creek, Kenilworth, Redwood Forest.
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While CAN has not taken an official position on the issues of stream buffers, the CAN representatives to the Watershed Policy Committee all support a 50' buffer with exemptions similar to those in the current ordinance. Under current ordinance in effect since August 2007, there have only been 12 exemptions requested and none have been denied.

The following is a brief synopsis of P&Z actions. The staff report for City Council ( http://ashevillenc.gov/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=19884) provides significant additional information.

The Planning and Zoning board (P&Z) in October 2009 voted 5 to 1 (Tom Byers voted no) to severely weaken the current storm water ordinance by changing it from 30' minimum buffers on any parcel to 30' minimum buffer on parcels less than 1 acre. In addition, to the surprise of staff, P&Z added requirements for "Sustainable Development Practices" and "Greenways" both of which staff believes to be completely unenforceable.

P&Z's ordinance would remove over 100 miles of protection on streams. Staff strongly believes that the miles of stream afforded some level of buffer protection is the most important factor related to control of stream bank erosion, stream degradation through incision, and overall biological integrity of our waterways. These are the factors that most often lead to declaration of "impaired waters," and increase the City's and resident's long-term liability under the Clean Water Act.

Barber Melton

Robert Zieber

3

Flood Ordinance Working Group – working with RENCI to get modeling for decision makers. Looking into Greenways between Black Mountain and Swannanoa eventually connecting to Wilma Dykeman Greenway. Working with regional groups. While there is significant interaction between storm water, flood, and steep slope, the legislation has been separated because each is so complicated individually.

Barber Melton

4

James Judd

5

Energy Initiative – City Council (at their meeting the following night) discussed a model that lets people voluntarily accept loans for specific energy retrofits that lower their energy costs below the repayment cost, and attaches repayment as a special assessment on the tax bill for a set number of years. When a new owner buys the house, the assessment goes along. Debbie Applewhite was concerned based upon her real estate background that tax or fee liens on property would adversely affect the resale values of the home.

James Judd

6

City Council Retreat and Partnership Opportunities with City – Joe Minicozzi attended the retreat but was unavailable to report at the CAN meeting, therefore there was minimal information to review. There was concern that for a second year in a row the City Council Objectives did not include anything concerning Building Strong Neighborhoods. Group generally felt that CAN needs to be more involved in promoting the benefits of strong neighborhoods at the city government level.

Regarding partnerships with the city, there was interest in re-formalizing CAN’s role as a voice for neighborhoods and as a conduit for information sharing and consensus building. James Judd is to obtain clarification on the partnering process from Marsha Stickford, City Neighborhood Coordinator,

James Judd