Asheville approves 'massive' apartment project near downtown's South Slope

Joel Burgess | The Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE - A mixed-use apartment and commercial project that promises to remake an area south of downtown with its size and design has been approved by City Council.

The council at a regular Dec. 10 meeting voted 5-1 to approve the 488-apartment development with 86,000 square feet of office and commercial space, plus a parking deck. It is slated to be built between Asheland and Coxe avenues on the edge of downtown's popular South Slope area. Tribute Investment and Development of Wilmington said the project will take three years to build.

Voting yes were Vice Mayor Gwen Wisler and council members Brian Haynes, Vijay Kapoor, Julie Mayfield and Keith Young. Councilwoman Sheneika Smith voted no.

"This seems to check all the boxes for the type of development we want to see," Kapoor said. "We need more housing in the city. We need more housing downtown."

Smith, the lone no vote, said she had concerns the "massive" project would disrupt the transit system, which has been named a top council priority but is facing criticism from many users over lack of on-time buses.

Mayor Esther Manheimer did not vote, recusing herself because her law firm had been hired by Tribute, the developer.

In a separate 7-0 vote, the council passed a $245,000 annual Land Use Incentive Grant that would pay that amount to the developer for 16 years, totaling $3.9 million.

The project won the city taxpayer funded grant because of its anti-sprawl characteristics and plans for 49 affordable apartments reserved for people making no more than 80% of the median income — $37,200 for a single person and $53,100 for a family of four. Ten of the units will go to very low-income residents who qualify for federal housing vouchers.

Young said the development was "not a great project. It’s a good project." The councilman said he supported it because of the voucher program but he wanted future projects to feature more affordable units for poorer residents.

"This is definitely not what I want to see happen in the future in terms of the percentage of deeply affordable units," he said.

The development calls for 973 parking spots, something Smith said would lead to buses being slowed by traffic and the nearby South French Broad neighborhood experiencing more speeding.

"I called a couple of bus drivers and asked how critical Asheland and Coxe are," the councilwoman said. "They have to use those to get people to work and to school on time."

She said it would be good to delay the project to work out any traffic problems.

Mayfield said that the three years of construction time can be used to work out problems and make changes. One option is to install equipment to allow buses to preempt traffic signals, changing them to give transit priority at lights.

Members of the public speaking at the council meeting about the project were split on whether it should be approved. Joe Minicozzi, a private urban planner who has worked on downtown issues and the routing of the new Interstate 26, supported the development and said bus problems can be solved with better funding.

"Doing infill adds more value to the downtown and this project will do that," Minicozzi said.

While the project will include the planting of 145 trees, far more than the 35 required by city code, Sharon Sumrall with the council-appointed Urban Forestry Commission said it would have been better to leave open ground. Sumrall said the amount of hard surfaces in the development will prevent the trees from establishing a large canopy.

Real estate broker Nina Tovish criticized the high number of parking spaces, saying they were counter to the stated "walkability" goals of the city and developers.

Development attorney Wyatt Stevens said not all the parking was for residents, since there would also be commercial and office space. Some spaces would make up for parking lots that will be lost on Coxe Avenue on property that will be part of the development. Those lots are now used by the developer to provide parking for buildings the company owns on Coxe.

After hearing traffic concerns, Stevens said the developer promised up to $30,000 for traffic calming measures as deemed necessary by the city.