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Topic

Presenter

1

Approved July minutes (no meeting in August).

Treasurer's Report: no income / no expenses / balance ~ $4750

T-shirt sales

Bill Bailey

Carl Nyberg

James Judd

2

Introductions - your name, neighborhood and quickly state any Issue / Success to share or to add to agenda.

Joe Masters (Montford) neighbors have been working with the Historic Resource Commision (HRC) to revise guidelines in the Montford historic district.  The neighborhood has worked hard to make it a full neighborhood process including going door to door to invite people to neighborhood meetings at which there have been 50-80 people per meeting.   Some neighbors have been concerned with a lack of consistency with the HRC’s interaction with Montford and they believe that a Montford representative on the HRC would be appropriate especially since the Montford Historic District is a large portion of HRC’s area of oversight.

James Judd (Chunns Cove)

Heath Moody (“Chestnut Hill” / “Claxton” in between Charlotte / Merrimon / Hillside / Chestnut ) having concerns with density of neighborhood due to at least 5 family care 12 step homes in a quarter block area.  (See FCH issue and letter from Heath to City Council at end of minutes.)

Yuri Koslen (Transit Project Coordinator, WECAN n’hood)

Shannon Tuch (Assistant Planning Director, Grace)

Judy Daniel (Planning Director, Grace)

Grace Curry (GrovePark / Sunset Mountain) concern about vacation rentals occurring in neighborhood.  Trying to get a better definition of what constitutes short term rentals.  She was also aware that a review of traffic calming measures is being prepared for city council.  Marsha Stickford believed that the report was going to Gary Jackson first and then be in a later Council meeting.  Some commented that more editorials on the benefits of traffic calming would be worthwhile especially in light of recent editorials opposing traffic calming (ex. Jerry Sternberg which in usual style was factually challenged)

Steve Hudzik (Kenilworth) the rash of break-ins is hoped to be over due to apprehension of a burglar thanks to the neighborhood watch and Asheville police.

Mike Lewis (Grace) neighbors are hosting a rummage sale this weekend (9/19 or 9/20) to support Partners with Paws.  Go dogs!

Robert Zeiber (Biltmore Park) Continue to have construction activity including new school and new occupants in the Town center development.

Marsha Stickford (City N’hood Coordinator) working on a new edition of the City E-News.   She reported that the City and police are attempting to get city buses to drive slower by monitoring more closely and catching up with them at the end of their route.  Suggestion was to add garbage trucks.  The city is working on a citizen guideline for code enforcement.

Debbie Applewhite (Beverly Hills.  Recently had an annual n’hood picnic which was great for socializing, planning for the next year, and collecting dues.  Working on improving website.

Betty Jackson (Beverly Hills) enjoyed the annual party

Stephanie OConnor (Oakley) expecting a new baby…soon.

Josh OConnor (Oakley) organizing a potluck on National Night Out (Oct  16) as well as bringing the community closer and sharing information through the n’hood website and Facebook.  (editorial comment: we should all take note of the great efforts of this n’hood and its leadership toward building community)

Barber Melton (Haw Creek) another n’hood with a rash of car break-ins.  Noted that the Falconhurst development on Cisco Road has not sold any lots and now erosion is again becoming a problem.

Round the Table

3

Asheville Planning Department Presents

Changes to Family Care Home Standards 

Family Care Homes (FCH’s) are homes for up to six handicapped persons which by state statue are allowed in any residential district. Handicapped people in the proposed ordinance can range from severely handicapped (cerebral palsy) to people in a 12 step program for drug addiction to people with allergies.

Concentration of family care homes in one area is considered neither good for the neighborhood nor for the family care residents because too much of a concentration can change the character of the neighborhood.   One of the biggest problems is that all FCHs are not created equally.  Adults in recovery have often been a problem because they are more mobile / independent population and the nature of these types of homes is to have greater residential turn over as people progress through program.

A current amendment to the UDO makes several changes to the current ordinance of which the most important is a requirement for separation between family care homes and between group homes and family care homes.  Group homes require conditional use permits and are generally require licensing and are for more than six residents.  Shannon summarized that the relationship between federal, state, and local standards is complicated in terms of what is required / allowed.  The state allows cities to require up to ¼ mile separation between FCHs.  The city, however, has chosen 600 feet which matches the separation currently required between group homes and which the city staff believes is both politically and legally easier to defend.

The other changes to the ordinance attempt to make the Cities definition of FCH capture more groups who may have avoided it in the past.  By being classified as a FCH a house must limit itself to six residents and will now need to abide by the separation requirements.  Normally zoning standards (FCH is an exception) set no limits on the number of residents.  The number of residents is normally limited by the building code where if you have more than 5 unrelated people in a home you get kicked into a different code standard which often creates a large cost impediment.  FCHs that are already established prior to this ordinance will be grandfathered and similarly buildings which predate the aforementioned building code standard may be allowed more than 5 unrelated people. 

The City has been conducting an outreach program to identify houses which might qualify as FCHs.  Learning that the City is having difficulty with identifying FCHs, Joe Masters suggested that searching for potential FCH based upon their status as a business and tax statements might be effective.  A general consensus was expressed that changes are needed at the state and federal level to improve the situation further.  A concern is that the city considers many facilities as FCHs which are not licensed by the state (and possibly not considered FCHs by the state) and the city believes that federal law requires them to allow these non licensed facilities as FCHs.  Non licensed facilities have less or no regulation on how they must conduct their business which can cause problems with no easy resolution in residential neighborhoods.

A CAN member who works with military people in 12 step substance abuse programs was concerned that the City’s efforts toward identifying and mapping FCH locations (need to map to identify separation) would have a negative effect on anonymity of the facilities and the people they serve.

The FCH amendment is scheduled to be heard by City Council  on Wed 9/23 after having been passed by Planning and Zoning (P&Z) with a 4/5 vote and 6/6 vote the two times it was presented to P&Z.  Shannon concluded a little mysteriously that she does not believe that this is the end of this particular study and expect to do more after going forward with these basics.

Changes to Industrial and Light Industrial Zoning:

      The purpose of the proposed amendment is to allow a limited amount of office and retail in these districts to attempt to keep people from down zoning so as to maintain areas with industrial zoning.  An example would be to let a glass manufacturer to have a small retail office.  The main focus is to provide flexibility.  A small addition will allow concrete but not asphalt plants in this zoning district.  Staff’s research has concluded that concrete plants are fairly benign and contained.  The conflict in the county surrounding a proposed concrete plant was mentioned and was believed to be a concern due to at least concrete trucks on a busy small roads near a school zone.  This amendment will also be heard by City Council on Wed 9/23.

Changes to P&Z membership (reduce number of County appointees from 2 to 1).  Reading between th lines, this amendment appears to have run into political problems both at Planning and Zoning (P&Z) and with one or two Council Committees.  The purpose of the amendment was to reduce the number of County appointees on P&Z from 2 to 1 to better represent the number of citizens in the city versus the ETJ (extra territorial jurisdiction).  Judy Daniel spoke briefly about it and reported that staff had been requested to postpone its consideration until the next census data was available in 2-3 years despite staff acknowledgement that the new 2010 census numbers are very unlikely to lead to a different conclusion.  Ms. Daniel reported that a different approach in which the county appointees were limited to only voting on matters which affected the ETJ might have had a better chance of approval.   

Shannon Tuch

(Assistant Planning Director)

Judy Daniel

(Planning Director)

4

Questions for Asheville Planning Department

Q1) Does the city have plans for providing emails for board and commission members to facilitate public communication on issues?  Recommend email groups (e.g. P&Z@AshevilleNC.gov) listed on the boards web page along with a member listing and any restrictions or advice on communication.

A1) Staff felt that a possible solution would involve providing the commission and board members (who are volunteers) with city email addresses so as to protect the privacy of their personnel email addresses.  Staff was not immediately aware that the web pages did not include the names of the commission and board members.  It was suggested that people who email board members should be “gentle” as these people are volunteers.

Q2) Regarding UDO section 7-2-4(b), how might this code be applied and could there be complicating factors?

"...In the event of any conflict between the limitations, requirements, or standards contained in different provisions of this chapter in applying them to an individual use or structure, the more restrictive provision shall apply..."

A2) Judy felt that she could only discuss on a case by case basis as they arise in the future.  She however stated that she believes in fully documenting interpretations.

Shannon Tuch

Judy Daniel

5

Transit Master Plan

Yuri Koslen and the City are terming this the first ever master plan.  The majority of the plan considers public transportation (i.e. buses) although a significant focus is put towards sidewalks and pedestrian access to get to and from the bus.  The Transit Plan builds on the Bike Master Plan and Pedestrian Master Plan. 

Public comment is being collected Sept 15-29 and as with prior feedback the transit team is prepared and eager to integrate the feedback and use it as further evidence of community support and priorities.  The Transit Master Plan can be viewed at: www.ashevilletransit.com and the document will also be available at City Hall (Transportation Department), Buncombe County Public Library (Branches: Pack, East, North, West, Oakley & Skyland), Transit Center (Coxe Ave.) and the Transportation Offices, 45 Wall Street.  The purpose is to receive feedback from the public before the plan is submitted to City Council.

Generally speaking the plan recommendations new route structure that will ensure improved on-time performance and feature Sunday service on six routes and thirty (30) minute frequency along portions of Tunnel Road, Haywood Road, Merrimon Avenue, Patton Avenue, and Biltmore Ave. The recommendations also include two unique routes; a North Asheville Loop, connecting Charlotte Street and Montford Ave. via UNC Asheville and a Crosstown route, connecting West Asheville to Biltmore Village and neighborhoods and shopping areas in east Asheville.

Yuri characterized past transit planning to be a product more of political momentum than of an actual logical plan.  The overarching goal of the transit plan was to increase frequency, increase choice, tourist market, shoot for making transit part of a community lifestyle, etc.

Based on questions Yuri commented that the plan considers speeding issues, publishing schedules, and the need for marketing.  The city is already doing work on Google transit.  Yuri stated that the study determined that existing routes often have too many bus stops.  Regarding crosswalks, Yuri explained that Pedestrian access is a key component.   Recommendation is $700k increase in cost not including marketing. 

Yuri strongly urged people to register these types of comments and concerns.

Yuri Koslen

City Transit Plan Coordinator

6

CAN Newsletter

Joe is working on the first issue of a newsletter which will contain two main articles.  The goal is to have a public face of CAN that is not too nitty-gritty.  The newsletter will focus on providing information that is not normally in the press.  Ideas for the first two articles include a global look at development in city and possibly insight into Family Care Homes including the recent amendment.   Discussion suggested that other topics might include transit issues such as “first time transit riders”…how to ride the bus.  It was learned that the Transit Commission will do a bus rider 101 course.

Joe Masters

7

Questions for City Council Candidates

     Instead of hosting a candidate forum, CAN has decided to engage City Council candidates in a conversation about neighborhood issues via an  email questionnaire to Candidates and then have one follow up email exchange to expand on the conversation.  Many question to city council candidates are often out of their realm of influence.  Hope to be source of good non standard questions.

    One suggestion was to submit questions to other forums while another suggestion was to partner with Mountain Express to have our questions and answers included in their publication and/or online.

Joe Masters

8

Affordable Housing Working Group: Continue to have issues with increased density in transit corridors including quadriplexes in residential neighborhoods

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Storm water Ordinance – P&Z will review on Sept 24 but will not include discussion of buffers, the most controversial issue, but will save for a later meeting.  CAN members on the task force stated that there is a lot that we developers and neighbors learned from meeting together and were able to achieve consensus on many issues and that is what will be brought forth first.  Due to complexity of issues, P&Z is having difficulty getting up to speed on the details necessary to make a good decision.  The Task Force has met regularly for several years and have had the benefit of hearing from many experts on the topic.  Barber believed that the Task Force should have had P&Z members attend their meetings over the last several years on a rotating basis.  Noted that have had no participants from P&Z or Council during meetings or even on the bus tour of affected areas.

Flood Reduction Taskforce:  next meetin g is Oct 2^nd and the task force is “clicking right along”.  Setting up a separate group because the new FEMA maps are out and the Feds are requiring that a new ordinance be out in January and therefore the smaller group is tasked with pushing through and ordinance to meet the Federal requirements. 

Steep Slope:  Will report more at the next meeting.  Barber thought that the County was doing an awesome job of trying to tighten up steep slope.  City Council has been looking at what County has been doing and may look towards tightening up further.  Would recommend attending / speaking at the County Commissioner’s next meeting to support steep slope legislation.

Other News - RENCI center is opening Oct 1 and they have a GREAT presentation on a 3d dome dealing with Storm / Flood / Steep Slope.  Everyone should see this.

Parking at AB Tech without Sustainability Features

AB Tech in conjunction Mission Hospitals is building new parking spaces.  The surrounding community and some AB Tech employees have been trying to get them to look at sustainability / rainwater ponds / catchment ponds but are not getting any serious movement by AB Tech or Mission.

Tom Rightmyer

Robert Zieber

Tom Rightmyer

Barber Melton