After months of delays, Asheville council OKs divisive 84-unit Haw Creek development

ASHEVILLE - An 84-unit development in Haw Creek was approved by Asheville City Council July 23. The climactic vote followed multiple delays, months-long conversations with developers, meetings between council members and neighbors, and a shifting proposal for the 27-acre project that will have fewer units, greater canopy preservation and still its fair share of ire.

The decision was the culmination of a nearly five-hour long meeting — drawing upward of 100 people, dozens speaking or ceding time — and split council 5-1, with only council member Kim Roney opposing. Council member Sheneika Smith was not present.

There was audible frustration with the direction of the vote, council's comments occasionally interrupted by incredulous laughter, but it also had its supporters, some advocating for needed housing to combat Asheville's staggering housing costs, others calling it the "least-worst" option, resulting from nine months of back-and-forth with the developer.

"I empathize with everyone who doesn't want change in their neighborhood, but I'm also hearing how badly we need the housing, and how many thousands of units we need," said council member Sage Turner.

"It's almost like every corner of the community is going to have to take a little bit to help us recover more housing."

What's planned for the development?

The project originally proposed 95 new homes for the bucolic East Asheville neighborhood, igniting grievances over tree loss, traffic, pedestrian safety and stormwater management. Dubbed "Meadows at New Haw Creek," it is planned for 767 New Haw Creek Road and brought by developer L. B. Jackson and Co.

Chris Pelly, president of the Haw Creek Community Association and a former Asheville City Council member, said for nine months they've lived with the "uncertainty of a proposed major development on a landmark property long revered by our community."

As dialogue began with the developer, Pelly said HCCA negotiated solutions for many of its major goals, such as preserving canopy acreage, expanding buffers behind the planned townhomes, connecting trails within the subdivision and sidewalks along New Haw Creek Road.

Ultimately, Pelly told City Council July 23, HCCA's 12-member board of directors "tepidly, but unanimously" voted to support the proposal.

With council's approval, 49 single-family homes and 35 townhomes will be built on the parcel, which sits along a road that has been described as one of Haw Creek's two main arteries . The parcel is bisected by New Haw Creek Road and is predominantly wooded, though the project will result in the demolition of several single-family homes formerly occupied by Asheville musicians , who said the the area was refuge as they found themselves priced-out elsewhere.

Hundreds flooded neighborhood meetings. Signs opposing the project sprouted in lawns. Community groups splintered. As Ashley McDermott puts it: the neighborhood's perspective is not a monolith.

McDermott, who lives on Sleepy Hollow Road, part of the Happy Valley subdivision abutting the project parcel, spoke to concerns around infrastructure and engagement, and called for another continuance — hoping to get closer to a "collective yes."

“There’s not a lot of buy-in with the community because folks don’t feel included, and it feels misleading for HCCA to give an endorsement on behalf of the community association, which didn’t consult the community in a democratic way, or even in a way where folks are given that information ahead of time," she told the Citizen Times before the meeting.

She and others were vocal about dissatisfaction with the project's current iteration. McDermott pointed to last minute changes made to the proposal and "alarming" infrastructure concerns, like perceived flooding risks for a bridge within the bounds of the project.

There were also concerns around changes since Planning and Zoning reviewed the project — like a new access via Sleepy Hollow Drive, which would require the developer to build partially on property outside the development area.

City Attorney Brad Branham said if the developer was unable to secure the necessary legal rights to build the road, prior to development they would have to return to council and "seek a rezoning of some type."

Pelly acknowledged the neighborhood's "range of opinions" during his address to council.

"There may be a perception we did not adequately communicate, for this I accept full responsibility," Pelly said. "I believe the proposal before you today, as some suggested, is the 'least-worst option.' It's certainly better than what use by-right would offer."

Affordability? Tree canopy preservation?

There were some eleventh hour changes. Most notably, a new affordable housing condition, presented by Sam Starr-Baum, a city urban planner, ahead of public comment.

Starr-Baum said the new condition would offer two discounted townhome lots as pad-ready for construction to area Habitat for Humanity, or similar nonprofit affordable homeownership-oriented developers, "with intent that the nonprofits will build and bid the units and offer them for sale to qualified buyers as affordable housing."

The parcel is currently 53% tree canopy. A birds-eye view shows a rolling grass meadow and wooded acres. The requirement is for 15% preservation, and Starr-Baum said a total of 5.65-acres would be preserved, or above 20%. There are also 11 acres of proposed open space to be preserved and maintained in perpetuity, "well above the 4.06 minimum required."

A hard conversation

Mayor Esther Manheimer said, while acknowledging that some people still "feel left out of the conversation," this was likely the first time she's been asked to convene meetings between a developer and neighborhood representatives, not to weigh in, but to help facilitate discussion.

"This council has learned and learned and learned about how to best address a housing crisis, and one of the fundamental things that we have heard is that you have to facilitate housing in your community, in your city. The No. 1 factor for whether or not you're going to see people experiencing homelessness in your community is housing scarcity," Manheimer said, noting research from Gregg Colburn, author of "Homelessness is a Housing Problem."

In the same breath, she expressed skepticism that the project would be built at all — citing a pattern of approved projects stalling, many of them facing financing challenges, which Turner and Starr-Baum also alluded to earlier in the meeting.

"There's bigger problems out there than whether or not this council is going to vote for something, and it's all contributing to a housing crisis," Manheimer said.

More: Asheville musicians' Haw Creek homes face demolition; say artists 'getting squeezed out'

More: Final vote on Haw Creek development delayed again; council takes up BID, budget June 11

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on X, formerly Twitter, at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times .

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: After months of delays, Asheville council OKs divisive 84-unit Haw Creek development