Days ahead of a pivotal meeting to discuss the final proposal for the “Meadows at Haw Creek” housing development, not everyone is on board.
The 27-acre project at 767 New Haw Creek Road has galvanized the bucolic East Asheville community since it was introduced by the developer, L.B. Jackson and Company, late last year.
In interviews this week, some residents said they appreciate community leaders’ efforts to forge a compromise but that, as planned, the project would change the character of the valley and bring environmental, infrastructure and congestion-related problems.
“You know, not to get overly political, but it's a bit like the will of the people gets ignored all of the time these days, and it’s like it's so clear what the will of this community is,” Haw Creek resident John Appelby said in an interview Tuesday. “And yet, the fear is it's just going to get ignored.”
Appelby said some residents believe the negotiations have focused too much on the protection of forest canopy and not enough on the number of housing units that would be built.
“I like to use the analogy, you know, we can’t see the forest from the trees – which is what we’ve been so focused on, instead of the actual number of houses,” he said. “We’ve been so fixated on that woodland that we’ve lost sight of the fact that it’s the volume of houses that’s the problem. We’re okay with them building houses. It’s just, the magnitude of how many he wants to build is the problem.”
Supporters of the project have said that it would help to alleviate Asheville’s deepening housing crisis. The city’s population is expected to increase 32% by 2050, consultants told the Asheville City Council earlier this month, with 14,000 new homes needed just to keep pace with population growth.
The issue will come to a head this Friday night, when the Haw Creek Community Association holds a meeting to discuss design options for the development ahead of next week’s City Council vote on the much-debated project.
The community association meeting, which will take place at 6 p.m. July 19 at the East Asheville Library, will provide residents an opportunity to examine three proposals for the site.
“We’re going to kind of go share with the community the terms that we have negotiated that we feel are most beneficial and get feedback,” Chris Pelly, president of the Haw Creek Community Association, said in an interview this week. “And then on Tuesday, we’ll be presenting to City Council in a public hearing, and they’ll likely be taking a vote that day.”
A trio of options under consideration
The community association outlined the three proposals in an email to members Monday. According to the HCCA, the options that will be presented Friday night are:
- Option 1: 49 housing units on the east side of the property, with no forest preservation. This option is the one available to the developer “by right,” regardless of City Council rezoning approval. After one year, the developer could apply for approval to build townhouses on the west side.
- Option 2: A total of 92 housing units – 57 homes and 35 townhouses – with the preservation of 3.3 acres of forest. This option would also include retaining walls and a bridge.
- Option 3: A total of 84 housing units – 49 homes and 35 townhouses – with the preservation of more than 4 acres of forest. This option would include minimal retaining walls, greater privacy screening and no bridge.
The community association said in its Monday email to members that it is prepared to support Option 3 “as the best ‘worst’ option – it's significantly better than what the developer could build by right without City Council's approval.”
Pelly called the proposal “a compromise for everybody involved.”
“We’re happy that this plan, the number of housing units – there was a lot of concern about too many on that site, it’s been reduced from 95 to 84,” he said. “There was a lot of concern about protecting the mature forest canopy there. Although it’s not as much as we would like, it’s significantly more than they originally proposed. As well, there’ll be a greenway on the site, connecting sidewalks.”
He acknowledged criticism of the proposal and the way the negotiations have been handled.
“Certainly many people didn't want anything to happen there,” he said, referring to the project site. “I get it. But we also recognize that Haw Creek is part of a greater community, and there's a lot of demand for housing here, and we have to be part of that solution as well, too. And so, we're saying, ‘Yes, develop, but within reason, and do something that benefits the surrounding community as well.’”
Derek Allen, an attorney for the developer, sounded an optimistic note about the project on Tuesday.
“We’ve been working closely with the Haw Creek Community Association and are hopeful that we’ll be presenting a site plan to City Council that HCCA leadership supports,” Allen said in an email.
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer praised L.B. Jackson and Company for working with the community to find a solution.
“I am encouraged when developers are willing to listen to and work with community members about their concerns,” Manheimer said in an email. “Those efforts in this case have resulted in the proposal that will be before our Council members July 23 for our consideration.”
Pelly last month hailed the latest “promising” developments in the negotiations and said there was “broad-based support expressed for the revised proposal.”
Even so, community members are far from unified. Some residents of Haw Creek’s Happy Valley neighborhood, which sits closest to the site of the “Meadows at Haw Creek” project, have formed their own association to advocate for their concerns.
“This is not about saying ‘no’ to new neighbors. It’s about smart development and appropriate development for the neighborhood,” David Russell, a resident of Haw Creek’s Happy Valley neighborhood, said in an interview Tuesday.
Russell said he and others would like to see the issue of the townhouses revisited, since the area has historically had single-family homes. There are also concerns about traffic in the valley, which has two main entrances. And there is the broader issue of the precedent that the project would set for similar developments across the city.
City officials host negotiations, but some community members say more is needed
Friday’s presentation of the three design options comes after months of negotiations as well as the involvement of Manheimer and Council members Sage Turner and Antanette Mosley.
Manheimer visited Haw Creek earlier this month and fielded questions about the project from dozens of residents. Russell said that during the meeting, Manheimer appeared to be “quite surprised that the local neighborhood was up in arms and saying ‘no’ to all of this.”
“She was under the understanding that the Haw Creek Association had the total backing of everyone,” he said.
Manheimer told BPR in an email that “there certainly were some differences in the feedback I received from some of the Happy Valley residents versus what I … heard from the Haw Creek neighborhood leadership, particularly around tree preservation.”
She also shared a brief video from her visit with community members in early July. Dozens of residents were gathered outside for the Q&A with Manheimer, with some people standing and others sitting in lawn chairs or on blankets.
“No rezoning!” some of the residents could be heard chanting in the video.
In response to a comment by one attendee about the upcoming vote, Manheimer appeared to defend City Council members’ independence.
“We don’t all vote in the same way,” she said.
Appelby suggested that greater involvement by city leaders from the beginning might have helped the process go more smoothly.
“I feel like the Council lets these types of instances kind of fester in the community. … I think the city’s got to be much more involved and much more thoughtful about how they approach these types of contentious decisions,” he said.
A City Council vote on the project has already been postponed twice amid ongoing negotiations between the developer, the city and the community.
City spokeswoman Kim Miller confirmed that the vote is currently scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, during a City Council meeting scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at Harrah’s Cherokee Center.
