Greenlife fiasco the fault of city staff, not the UDO

Asheville Citizen Times Jan 10, 2006 letter to the editor

The article, “Greenlife, neighbor spar over dock,” (AC-T, Dec. 29), barely hit the tip of the iceberg of the city staff’s mishandling of the Greenlife fiasco.

Per the Unifed Development Ordinance, delivery trucks are prohibited from Maxwell Street because its use is primarily residential and Greenlife has access from two other commercial streets. The city has allowed Greenlife to turn a quiet residential street into a loading dock with 70-foot tractor-trailers routinely blocking the street and sidewalk all hours of the day and night.

As quoted in the article, city staff argues that 50 percent of the street is either used or zoned commercially to prove it is not residential. They forgot to mention that 80 percent is either used or zoned residentially and that the UDO criteria is as “used” not as “used or zoned.” When measured as “used” it is 68 percent residential and 32 percent commercial, therefore delivery trucks are prohibited from Maxwell Street. Period.

The UDO is not the problem. It is time for City Council to hire an independent auditor to review this mess. City Council should then turn its attention to corrective actions so that everyone’s time and money is not wasted in the future on ridiculous stonewalling.

James Judd,

Asheville