Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers:
Question: A development in Fletcher was planned for a piece of land where an old house on a hill had been demolished more than a year ago. Some excavation work took place, but then nothing happened for months. Now the excavation work is back on. What’s going on with this site?
My answer: I don’t know who I have to beg to operate one of those honking excavators for a day, but I’m totally willing to do it. Mainly I want to exorcise all my demons from having to hand-dig a lot of holes in the yard to plant bushes and flowers for my wife this spring. It’s a long-running saga in our house, but the upshot is I’d like all future digging to be motorized. Please, someone who owns heavy equipment, reach out.
Real answer: The property, located at 3122 Hendersonville Road, is just north of Advance Auto and the Seasons at Cane Creek apartments, which will be expanding. But first, regarding that dirt being moved…
“We’ve got to get rid of about 1,200 cubic yards of dirt, and they’re in the process of doing that now,” said Carr Swicegood, part of the development team on the project. “Then we’ve got three or four people who are interested in it right now.”
Swicegood said he can’t give specifics on the commercial/retail users coming in, as no leases have been signed.
“We’re just going to try to do something that will better Fletcher, better the community, service-wise,” Swicegood said. “We don’t have anything signed yet, but we’ve had some real good interest.”
The site was 10.2 acres, but Swicegood said they sold five acres on the back part of the property, which The Seasons at Cane Creek apartments will use to expand.
Will Ratchford, vice president of Gastonia-based Southwood Realty, which built The Seasons, said grading is happening on the rear of the site to accommodate another 84 units in four buildings.
“It’s an extension of the Seasons,” Ratchford said, adding that the new units should open in fall 2025.
On the front part of the property, the grading should be finished by early June and leases signed within a couple of months, Swicegood said. Construction should follow this summer.
“Hopefully, we’ll get a couple of things done by the end of the year,” Swicegood said.
Regarding the front of the property along Hendersonville Road, Town of Fletcher Planning Director Eric Rufa said, “We’ve not issued any zoning permits for any specific commercial development as of yet.
“The site plan submitted a while back was somewhat speculative, and they did not have tenants lined up,” Rufa said. “They are currently just grading, putting in infrastructure as they work to lease the property.”
Question: I am disabled and I have an Americans with Disabilities Act parking placard. I moved here from California, where one can park for free at a parking meter for an unlimited period of time, if one has a handicap placard. I did some research and thought that the same was true of North Carolina. However, I have learned the hard way that local jurisdictions can opt out of this rule and that Asheville did so in 2010. I am wondering why this change was made and whether this is done at the City Council level or at some other level of city government.
My answer: I’m assuming that “learning the hard way” means you had your car crushed without consent. I’m telling you, Asheville does not play when it comes to parking violations.
Real answer: I actually remember the 2010 imbroglio quite well, as it was centered on people parking in front of or near the Battery Park Apartments for extended periods — as in all day, sometimes for days on end. Battery Park houses older folks, including quite a few with health issues necessitating disability placards.
It was quite the dustup for a few months, as those without disability placards felt those with the placards were monopolizing key downtown parking spaces for too long, while not paying any parking fees.
But let’s go to the city for an official rundown of events. City spokesperson Kim Miller said via email that laws governing the disability placard parking issue vary from state to state.
“North Carolina law prohibits limiting the time a car displaying a current disability placard or plate can remain in a metered parking space,” she said. “However, there is no state rule or regulation that exempts any driver from paying the required parking rate.”
In Asheville, parking rates and time limits apply to a vehicle with a disability placard or tag in a metered space.
Asheville City Council unanimously adopted a motion in October 2010 to require meter activation by all on-street metered parking. In other words, everyone had to pay the standard fees.
“The reference your reader made to a 2010 article on the City’s website outlines a coupon program put into place in November of that year allowing drivers with disability needs to purchase prepaid passes,” Miller said. “Those incremental passes could be used as a voucher against the time a disability-identified vehicle occupied a metered space.”
The idea was to make it so disabled drivers didn’t have to keep returning to their vehicles to pay the meter throughout the day to avoid a ticket.
“Due to a lack of participation, the program could not be sustained,” Miller said. “With the addition of new technologies, including credit card and app-based payment options on all City of Asheville parking meters, drivers can extend their time without having to physically return to their vehicles.”
The city also has options for ADA parking other than meters, including designated accessible spaces in city-owned lots and garages and longer-term parking for ADA Accessible parking spaces.
For all city-owned garages, the first hour of parking is free, and then the rate is $2 an hour after that. Miller noted that the maximum daily rate for city garages decreases from $20 a day to $15 a day starting July 1.
“The city is also working to improve ADA compliance and features in its garages, including the resizing of ADA spaces, new striping, relocation of select ADA parking spaces, cane detection, and signage as part of the Parking Garage Capitol Repairs project,” Miller said.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/donate.
As someone with a family member carrying a disability placard, I’m supportive of the fair compromise requiring all citizens to pay for parking, while still providing the disabled with dedicated spaces.
Too often, the designation of “disabled” has become a means to game the system – as anyone who has flown lately can attest to. Policies need to help ensure fairness so we can live together with more civility and understanding.
Exactly! Equal treatment doesn’t mean special treatment. Being disabled doesn’t mean poor. We’ve all become so enamored of avoiding accountability by claiming identity victimhood. Let’s look at more acceptance of responsibility instead of shirking.
“We’re just going to try to do something that will better Fletcher, better the community…” I think it’s time to re-evaluate what is “better” when it involves moving mountains, and cutting down oxygen makers. Personally, I think it might be time to re-evaluate the worth of human progress on this planet.
As to wheelchair accessible parking in downtown there are major problems. My daughter uses a power wheelchair. The civic center parking deck elevator is usually not working. In fact it was not working last night and there was a concert at the civic center. If the elevator happens to be working…make sure you only use the deck when the library is open. Buncombe county owns the walkway from the deck to haywood st and when the library is closed so is the walkway leaving no safe access to Haywood st. And lastly the city has handicapped parking on the left side of several one way streets in downtown. The newest next to the Flat iron hotel. If you have a ramp it opens to the right…yes into the street…same if you use a walker and sit in the passenger seat. You exit your vehicle street side with moving vehicles. How can this be safe?