FLAT IRON BUILDING * Photo compliments of Erin Kellum
Downtown Master Plan Meeting Overflows with Passion and Ideas
By Byron Belzak, Publisher-Editor, DowntownAsheville.com
*May 8 MASTER PLAN MEETING HUGE SUCCESS with 250 Citizens Working with Consultants
Asheville, NC, May 8, 2008 - While a rally to "Save The Basicila" demonstrated against the McKibbon Hotel Group's proposed nine-story hotel on city-owned land across from the historic Basilica of St. Lawrence, approximately 250 citizens streamed into the Asheville Civic Center to attend the first in a series of Downtown Master Plan meetings. The citizens crammed into an over-flowing meeting room to hear what Master Plan consultants had to say about the future of Downtown Asheville.
The citizens then broke into discussion groups of 20 each, who in turn, publicly told the planners what they as citizens wanted the city to do to maintain the quality of downtown life. The citizens who spoke and represented their respective groups were focused, forthright, civil and succinct in their constructive comments and innovative suggestions.
High on the list of important issues voiced by the attending citizens was the desire to preserve Downtown Asheville's historic buildings, entrepreneurism, charm, allure, artfulness, beauty, friendliness, funkiness, affordability, cleanliness and walkability of the city. How to achieve this was varied and a matter of differing opinions.
Many groups stressed the need for increased governmental transparency and improved working relationship between city and county. High on the citizen's wish list was a new arts center and finding ways to encourage more small independent businesses and artists to remain an active cultural aspect of Asheville's diversity.
The consultants, lead by David Dixon and Ben Carlson of the Goody Clancy team, along with Mary Means and Sasha Vrtunski, were pleased with the "passion of citizens," comprised of those who lived downtown, inside the city limits and to a lesser extend in the county.
Citizens at the meeting expressed their concerns that this new plan would be just another waste of money, such as Vision 2025, that was ignored and forgotten by city officials and council members. David Dixon publicly promised that they would do their part to encourage the implementation of their submitted plan, which will be submitted later this year.
Two local political leaders attended and spoke at the meeting. Vice Mayor Jan Davis, in his opening address, assured the large audience that their input was valuable and would be not be ignored. Council woman Robin Cape, who just returned from San Francisco on a fact-finding tour, expressed her commitment to the process.
Also in attendance were many noteworthy citizens and activists, including Downtown Commission members Kitty Love of Arts2People and Peter Alberice of Camille-Alberice Architects, as well as John Cram of Blue Spiral 1 and Laura Thomas of Asheville PARC.
This May 8 Downtown Asheville Master Plan Meeting was the first in a series of city-sponsored public meetings.
NEXT PUBLIC MEETING, MAY 15, 2008:
The next public meeting after this first public meeting about Downtown Master Plan is Thurs., May 15, 2008, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Public Works Building on Charlotte Street. The public is invited. Click Here>
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