Romando Dixson

rdixson@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE – The city on Monday cut the electricity to eight buildings in the River Arts District and requested a disconnection of gas services, said Shannon Tuch, director of development services.

The city cited various code violations and safety concerns for the structures at 339 Old Lyman St. Tenants rent space in the buildings from property owner Robert Camille and run a variety of operations, including a dance studio, art studios and a woodworking shop.

The buildings, however, do not have certificates of occupancy, and work has been done inside some without the proper permits, Tuch said. At least two of the buildings show signs of structural failure, she said.

“The goal is to get everything and everybody from out of those buildings until they can become properly permitted and inspected,” Tuch said.

Ceramic sculptor Alex Irvine and muralist Ian Wilkinson are two of the artists there concerned about losing their rented space — and the work inside. They are working on a project selected by the city of Asheville for the 51 Biltmore Public Art Project on the exterior of the public parking deck next to Aloft Hotel.

Part of the project is a 1,500-pound, 11-foot tall sculpture, Irvine said. He needs about two more months to work on it but said it can’t be moved right now without ruining it.

“If I can’t finish this right now, then I am going to lose about $4,000 worth of the city’s money and a month of my time,” Irvine said.

Irvine said he was at the site when the city delivered a notice of removal of utilities. He said rent is paid through August in their building.

Tuch said the buildings have had issues since at least 2009. She said the city would sometimes notify the tenants of the violations, only to learn that they later vacated the premises because so much work had to be done. At that point, there’s nothing the city needed to do.

Then, someone else would occupy the space.

Tuch said the city allows owners and tenants to address the issues on their own schedule as long as they’re making progress. But that wasn’t the case for those buildings.

Tuch said two of the biggest sources of fire stem from bad electrical work and human error and cited inoperable fire hydrants as one of the safety hazards, along with combustible materials inside the buildings.

In a letter dated July 2, the city said it had a phone conversation May 13 with Camille regarding the legal occupancy status of his buildings on Old Lyman Street.

Daniel Rhinehardt is one of the artists renting space who is scrambling to figure out what he’s going to do with all of his materials. He has rented a building there for about six or seven years. He’s trying to determine if he can fix the problems with his building or if he needs to find new space.

“I just need to know where to go from here,” he said.

Rhinehardt and other tenants said they learned about the removal of utilities on Friday. Camille said that wasn’t enough notice.

“It is very unfair to the artists down there,” Camille said.

He declined further comment.