ASHEVILLE - Today's burning question considers the construction equipment and moving earth off of Brevard Road. Have other questions for our staff? Email Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your question could appear in an upcoming column.
Question: What's happening on Brevard Road across the road from the Ashley Woods housing development? Lots of big equipment and dirt being moved.
Answer: You wouldn't be surprised if I told you that it's new apartments, would you? I only say that because... It's new apartments!
The project has been in the works for several years as the Indiana-based SC Bodner Company develops the 244 unit "Brevard Road Apartments" project. The project was approved by the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment in August 2022, the Citizen Times previously reported.
After nearly two years, the project got its final permits to begin construction in February, according to the Buncombe County permitting portal. The project will include 10 residential buildings, a clubhouse, playground, dog park and a pool area with a firepit. Honestly, reader, these digs don't sound too bad. You could even finish up your day at the pool after walking around the proposed interconnected trails or playing at the pickleball court. Sporty!
I reached out to the SC Bodner Company and didn't hear back before my deadline, but my hunch is these apartments probably would be online within the next year or sometime thereabouts.
Before its approval, the project had seen opposition from the Ashley Woods Property Owners association.
Jim Prichett, the president of the Ashley Woods Property Owners Association, said the association had received legal standing against the development in 2020, when the developer submitted plans to develop the site, but was denied standing during the 2022 Board of Adjustment hearing.
At the Board of Adjustment, legal standing is granted only to those who may suffer probable damages from a proposed plan or development, allowing an individual, lawyer or other organization to represent themselves against a project. A recent example of a group that was granted standing is Save Reeves Cove, an organization that disputed the development of condos on the mountainside known as "Wilderness Ridge" near Biltmore Lake.
Prichett described the meeting as "chaotic" with people talking over each other, and the chair "losing control" of the room, he said. The association didn't object to apartments but did have concerns over the long-term traffic impact on the Ashley Woods subdivision, which is directly across from the development site, Prichett said.
"We just thought that nobody paid attention to the fact that there were technically going to be two entrances, but the main entrance is right across from us," Prichett told me, predicting that possible traffic exchanges when leaving Ashley Woods may become "a nightmare" after the development is finished.
While the 2020 traffic impact analysis study had found the intersection would degrade to a "F" on North Carolina Department of Transportation's Level of Service scale, the 2022 plan came with a freshly minted traffic study that found it would only degrade the intersection to an "E," just above an F. Prichett pointed out that it had not considered traffic from the then proposed Pratt and Whitney plant, which would open later in 2022.
Prichett described not being able to give public comment during the August 2022 hearing and not being granted standing by the board as "being run over by a train." I can testify — blood runs hot in development meetings and it's not just in the Ashley Woods case.
At this point, however, the community is "resigned to the development," Prichett said.
Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com.Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
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