City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'm Antinet Mosley, the vice mayor of the city of Asheville, and I'd like to welcome you to the April 9th, 2026 agenda briefing work session. All council members and staff are participating virtually. This meeting is intended for discussion purposes only. No formal actions or votes will be taken. In addition, no public comment is taken during this meeting. The live meeting will be streamed on the city's YouTube channel accessible through the YouTube icon on the city's website or via the live stream. You also have the option to listen to the meeting live via phone by calling 855-925-2801 and entering meeting code 4834. Mayor Mannheimr is traveling and unable to attend the meeting. And additionally, city manager DK Wesley is also unable to attend today. Council and staff, when I call your name, please say a quick hello. Council member Kim Rooney,

good morning. Council member Sage Turner, good morning. Council member Maggie Olman. Hey everybody. Council member Shenica Smith. Good morning. Council member Bo Hess. Good morning. Assistant City Manager Ben Woody. Good morning. Assistant City Manager Jay Dundis. Good morning. City Attorney Brad Brandom. Good morning. And City Clerk Maggie Berles. Good morning. Uh, I'll now turn it over to Assistant City Manager Jade Dundas. Jade.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, and good morning again, Vice Mayor, members council, and welcome the public to the April 9th uh, agenda review. Um, as of usual, we're going to start with the uh review of the uh the formal meeting agenda for April 14th, next Tuesday. We'll start that day at 3:00 in the afternoon for a budget work session. Uh, at that work session, we'll be discussing the continuation of the of the uh city's development of the the the general fund budget. Um and then also we'll be uh discussing or presenting some capital uh updates as well. So preparing you for the uh adoption of those budgets and later this this spring. Um moving on to the regular agenda uh submit meeting starting at five o'clock. Um there is one proclamation and it is uh rec for the fair chance hiring week which is April 12th through April 18th and then we'll move into the consent agenda. Um the uh first our first item I'll cover again I'll I'll cover these items of of that are of worthy of note and then we'll allow for opportunity to dig a little deeper into these and if you have anything that I didn't cover that needs to be covered please stop me. Uh item B is a resolution for the city manager to submit applications to the tourism development authority legacy investment uh grant funds for three projects, city projects. Jamie Matthews is going to cover those later in the meeting uh as as other topics. Um so we'll just put that aside until later in the meeting. Uh the next four items are um related to

u APD work. Uh the first one is a contract with the USISS agency uh to conduct background checks and polygraph testing. Um this is allows uh APD to uh process their the new hires uh and to be able to uh continue their recruitment efforts uh inefficient efficiently. The next uh item D is a resolution to accept uh and sign the appropriation application acceptance documents for the community project funding award. Uh this is a federal uh grant that was uh secured through Congressman uh Chuck Edwards office. This these funds will be uh used uh to uh update and enhance the real-time intelligence center and there for a total of 1,141,2556. Um and so these these will be put to uh advancing the the real-time intelligence center and the technology police are using uh in their day-to-day work. Um the item E is a sole source purchase is that there's a there's a functional issue in order for their the police radios. they they they provide buy uh radios off of a cooperative agreement which is a state contract which allows discounts for equipment and it's used to throughout the organization uh and throughout the state. Um, but one piece of that uh is the software that connects the smart connect software connects the Wi-Fi with the cellular network. And so this needing to actually have that specific piece of software uh connects their radios in a way that allows them to be

more functional and operate over a wider area. So it's a very important piece of equipment for them. Um item F is a uh is a memorandum of understanding with the uh ash the housing authority of the city of Asheville. Uh and this is uh to help with security and uh and additional presence in the HA housing authority properties with APD. This is an agreement they've been working on with uh with the new management of the housing authority. And these these funds will be um this this agreement allows for uh contributions from the housing authority to help offset some of the costs of of the APD presence there. Um item G is a a contract with Cherry Beckett. This is a uh our auditing firm that we've been using over the last several years. Uh one of the unique aspects of this contract is that council has authorized an annual update. Um unlike a lot of our contracts where they the council authorizes a a period of three to four years of operation. Um in this case the contract has to be oper authorized annually. Um so the the next item H is a uh is is the issuance of of resolution authorizing the finance director to issue bonds water re water system revenue bonds. These will support the ongoing efforts uh in the water system to make uh improvements. Um these are specific to uh ongoing improvements and u that are happening in the water system. Uh there's also a refinancing element uh associated with this as well.

And then the last item on the consent agenda is item I and this is a re resolution uh to per with of the intent to permanently close a portion of unopen rideway uh the western edge of St. Dustin's Road. This this is a request to set the public hearing for May 12th at an upcoming council meeting. Uh, and this is a voluntary closure. So, that concludes this consent agenda. If there's any questions, we're happy to try to answer.

I don't see any.

Moving on to presentations and reports of the state of the airport uh uh report and then also the manager's report is website accessibility. Uh the city has been working diligently. It's a to uh be responsive to a deadline of April 24th to be uh present our information on our websites and the documents that we produce in to uh meet the accessibility standards. Um Dawa Hitch will be presenting that in greater detail to council. It's certainly something that I think you all be interested in and certainly that you should know about. There's a tremendous effort amongst staff to meet these expectations and standards. Um, if you got any questions today, I think Brad can help out with that a little bit. Um, but otherwise, we'll we'll be giving you the full download next Tuesday. Um, okay, moving on to public hearings. We have a public hearing to consider an amendment to the conditional zoning ordinance for property located at 30 Buchanan Place. This is McCormick Field. Uh this is a second amendment to the uh conditional zoning ordinance. This is related to signage. Um and you'll see in the in the hearing presentation that that the murals uh are included in that signage package which is part of that um amendment. And uh this was uh presented to PNZ and passed unanimously as I understand it. Um and while we're on that topic, that project is uh nearing completion and ready for opening day on April 21st

coming up or I think that's right. So uh looking forward to having having the first game in the in the newly renovated stadium. No unfinished business items. Um, new business includes a or ordinance amendment uh for the uh ordinance regulating the graffiti uh in on sidewalks. This is uh we'll make an adjustment to allow uh sidewalk chalk to be used. Um there will be a a presentation on this describing uh and and going through a full explanation of those revisions. It still will prevent this is the chalk in its very in its most soluble form. It still it does still limit um uh insulations that will will be difficult to remove or in or wash off. So the details of that will be presented on Tuesday. Um additionally we are bringing an amendment to chapter 4 or uh code and ordinances to uh to pro code of ordinance for the city of Asheville bride for repair, closing and demolition of abandoned structures. So, uh this is a ordinance that's been talked about for quite a few months now. It's uh gone through public safety a couple of times, most recently through public safety passed um as well as the graffiti ordinance two to two to zero vote uh to recommend these ratifications amendments to council. And so they'll be brought with again with a presentation of what those ordinance changes are and how staff will will enforce and and start to uh implement those. And the last item is a resolution to update the lease agreement with Dwine Seeds Silverd Dollar Baseball LLC from

Port McField. And essentially this is just an a revision of the agreement that we have uh with the the operator of the the Ash ashville tourists um to continue the use of that facility. So that was a quick rundown of the of the agenda. Um Councilwoman, yes. Um is the lease agreement easily accessible? Is it somewhere that we've attached it in a link or document because I couldn't find that? We'll find that for you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

All right. Well, that would conclude the the agenda for Tuesday's uh meeting. T Tuesday, April 14th meeting. Um there's no other questions. We can move on to uh council committees. Um, and I'm going to turn that over to Ben Woody for that information.

Thank you, Jade. And good morning, Vice Mayor, members of council. So, I'm going to real quickly cover uh two committee agendas. One is going to be in past tense because we actually had the meeting this week, but we want to cover the items and the other will be uh will occur next week. So, we'll start with housing and community development. Uh they did meet earlier this week and we had two items on the agenda. one was uh kind of an update on our efforts to master plan uh what we're really calling the Dreview property. So that's property um that the city owned is adjacent to Hacka own property and of course there's been some um interest in having perhaps peak academy be an anchor facility for that property. So good update from HCD or CED staff about what the master planning process could look like. uh we had partners that were there as part of that discussion. Uh I'll summarize it is very well received by um HCD and something we're going to continue to move forward with and we'll of course keep bringing updates on our progress in the future. The other item on HCD was our steadystate uh CDBG funding recommendations. Uh CED staff gave a presentation. There were three recommended funding options. uh ACD committee through the course of the of their discussion added a fourth. So they made a slight adjustment. That adjustment was uh reducing funding requests from Habitat for Heranity by $60,000 and moving that $60,000 to Pisca Legal Services to fund their eviction protection programs. So again, those four funding options will come to full counsel for uh your action with HCD's recommendation uh to fund four applicants. Any questions on that committee agenda?

Great. It was a good good meeting. Got a lot accomplished. So looking forward you we do have peed scheduled for April um 21st next week. And we've got two items on that. The first is one thing that PEED has been doing is we've lined up quarterly data reports much like happens at public safety, but we have a different department slot in each quarter. So, we are scheduled at our next meeting to have our transportation department to give an update on transit and parking data. So, Ashley Hair and her team will be available to provide that information. Then the other item and really excited about this one is we're going to have an update on our small business support program which is a grant program funded through our DR funds. We're going to have our CED staff there to give an update on the progress. But I think what's exciting is we're going to have some of our subreients there to talk about their efforts to get this money into the community out to our businesses. Any questions on peed? All right, hearing none, Jade, I'm gonna turn it back over to you.

Thank you, Ben. Um, so the next item on our agenda briefing agenda is the 8week look ahead. Um, we have already covered the April 14th meeting. Um, there is no meeting on April 21st. Again, opening day ball game. though. Um and then April 28th, um we actually have quite a bit of information on that. Uh quite quite a few topics on that April 28th agenda. Um highlight just a few here. Uh there one of the topics that we're working on is the contract with a industrial hygienist. This is uh we we have recurring needs to do invest uh investigations of materials and and and indoor air situ air quality situations. And so we're just really trying to make sure that we're have somebody on play on call that we can be responsive quickly responsive to the those needs. Um, we have a uh a resolution to ask the HCA CEO to engage directly with stakeholders and and WNC. Uh, that's a resolution that has been passed through Land of Sky NO here recently. So, um, we're we're working through similar similar language. um water department continues their efforts to meet the EPA requirements for lead and copper testing and has a contract to support that effort. Um one of the big highlights of that 28 uh April 28th meeting will be uh advancing Hela Helen recovery uh efforts. Uh storm water has three projects. um they're broken up into areas and and the different differing scopes uh to address

the damages related to um and not if I'm not corre if I'm understood correctly, these are design services. So, we're certainly working towards getting those repairs uh designed and completed. um North Forg Dan uh the the uh the gates um some of those damages were done by lean out there. Uh it it has a contract that is advancing the repairs of those of that structure. Um again, the structure is in intact and in good shape that's been uh cons looked at by structural engineers. These are just repairs uh that that are necessary to put it back to what it was previously. Um uh see if there's any other things additional budget amendments for recovery response expenses and then lean recovery uh funding for uh Builtmore Village. uh amending the budget to incorporate grant funds into our existing funding sources. Um and those those are pretty and then also there's a uh conditional zoning for 50 Cox Avenue which is if I'm not mistaken the county's affordable housing on Cox Avenue. May 5th there's no meeting. Um and then May 12th, we will be uh budget presentation at the reports and presentations uh fourth quarter fiscal year. That's the quarterly update uh for uh finance. And then um in the public hearings that will

be the actual hearing to close the rightway uh at St. Dunston's Road. No meeting on the 19th. And on May 26th, that is the uh public hearing for the budget. Um the the manager's recommended budget. And then uh looking ahead of that on June 9th, that'll be the uh ordinance to adopt the budget and then a tenative ordinance for Rams Creek Fire Department automatic aid agreement. So that covers the 8we week look ahead. Any questions?

No, I don't question. No questions. No questions. Okay, great. Thank you all. And then I'm going to turn it over this for the last item, other items and updates to Jamie Matthews to discuss the TDA lift applications. Thank you.

But for a quick second, Jamie, before you start this, I need to see if Sage is able to speak. If not, she sent a question that I can ask you. Sage, are you able to ask your question? Okay. So what she asked was um regarding TDA funds and the process for determining what we apply for is it only a staffled um or is it a community input that's included? Right. Um thank you vice mayor. And I think I'll address that as I go through my presentation if that's okay.

Yeah, totally fine.

Great. Um, thank you all. I'm Jamie Matthews, the assistant to the city manager and here to give you all an update on the um, TDA grant application, specifically this cycle of lift funding. Next slide. So, we'll start with key takeaways. Um, the TDA provides leverage funds for tourism related capital projects. So, our goal is to align our capital needs and our CIP with the allowable uses for the TDA grant funding. Um, the TDA has two different types of grant funding, TPDF and the Lyft. I'll talk a little bit more about that later. Uh, we work with them on a regular basis talking through these projects and where we can have that alignment. uh this phase of lift funding uh open the applications opened in April and they're due May 1st. Next slide. So again, the two different types of funding sources TPDF are really focused on those major capital projects that directly relate to bringing tourism to Bunkham County. The lift funding also still relates to bringing tourism to Asheville, but it can it is a bit more flexible uh in the way it can be used uh for maintenance through some design uh and also for infrastructure. Next slide. Uh these are the projects that we have been awarded in the last uh several cycles of TPDF and uh the lift funding. Um, we've talked a lot about uh opening day of baseball, but the McCormick field was a major um funding stream that we got from the TDA. Next slide. So, the lift timeline

um again opens opened in April and the application period will go through September uh when grant funding would be decided by the Lyft board or the TDA board ultimately. Next slide. So here are the projects um that we're focused on for this lift cycle. Um and uh to answer the question, we look at our CIP and the projects that have been proposed through our CIP uh through planning efforts that have happened and then projects that are funded through our CIP that align with the requirements of a TDA grant. So that's how we get to the projects that we uh are are applying for in Lyft and TPDF cycles. So this year uh we're focused on Craraven Street Bike Ped Bridge. This will be an additional bridge to create more safety uh for bikers and pedestrians to cross the river. Uh it would be parallel to the current bridge. Um this current Craven Street bridge. It's an NC DOE project. Uh they will be doing the construction. This amount is the city's portion of that that we will be applying for this year. Um Eagle Market Streetscape. This is in relation to the boosting the block um project that we're currently uh in that's currently in process. Uh the matching funds for this come partially from the Melon grant and bond funding that we have allocated to improve sidewalks in that area. Builtmore Village sidewalks and streetscapes. Uh this is to improve sidewalk infrastructure and accessibility in Builtmore Village. Uh

this we got the North Carolina Commerce Grant and would like to match it so that we can expand the footprint of improved sidewalks in Builmore Village. Next slide. uh as we look like future years of our CIP, uh these are some projects that are currently there that we think could align with possible future uh grant opportunities uh through Lyft and uh TPDF. Next slide. So, back to the key takeaways. Uh again, really our goal is to align the projects that we know are important, that we've heard through planning efforts with the allowable uses for the TDA grant, uh Lyft and TPDF grants. So, I'm happy to answer any questions or hear any comments. Maggie,

hey. Um could you share a little bit more detail on the timeline of the Craraven Street Bike Ped Bridge? Since we're collaborating with DOT, they often have pretty long run rooms, but not sure uh get like when would construction happen. When would theoretical completion be slated for? So, I know construction is currently slated for 2027. I think the around summer of 2027, but I would have to get more I can provide more details on what that timeline looks like. Great. Thank you. And then on the boosting the block, did I hear correctly that the infrastructure element that we'd be applying for is sidewalk improvements?

It's sidewalk improvements, but also some of that enhancements, sidewalk, uh, streetscaping, some public art, and some of those enhancements that we want to add to that project. Okay. Um, it'd be helpful to have just a general update at some point about the status of Bucina block and kind of what's in motion. And I know as we've all been discussing the perform the potential of a performing arts center, I just would love a what's the latest status of where we are, what's projected, what's decided, what's in planning. Um the last materials I saw on that were a little dated. Yeah, sure. We can bring that to you all. Thank you, Jamie. This is Sage. I have a question.

Sure. Um I guess I just I brought up my questions and thank you Vice Mayor for um trying to ask for me. I guess my curiosity was that um in the past and maybe like councilwoman Rooney and Smith can help reme, but I feel like we used to get a slate of options that align with our CIP, aligned with our program and you know current Cath, but then we would also weigh in like as a council as opposed to just getting this final list and do you like it? And maybe I'm remembering that incorrectly, but that's kind of what I was referring to. Did the staff just take like 20 items and boil it down to these, which these are great projects, don't get me wrong. I'm just talking about process.

Yes, I think we can we can look at that process, kind of share a little bit more about how we go through that with you all and and probably get some input from you all on that if that's if that would be helpful. I do think a prioritization and what was on the list for consideration would be helpful um just for communicating with the community. Um a lot of times we have options for um matching funds and there's you know different funding stack but it would be helpful to have some more information on how we landed um and what are the projects that did not make the cut and why.

Okay. I I'll chime in too that I I wonder um as as I keep channeling DK and a lot of the leadership I hear her sharing is that we want to get council at the goal and outcome level and out of the project level. And so I wonder if it's really that we should be seeing a list and picking or if it's we should have a process to say over the next five years here are the outcomes we want transportation improvements or community arts or whatever something that's bigger picture and have a process around that so that we're not in project based decisions. So just adding some flavor to the discussion.

Ben, so all good questions and Jamie I think you're right. We can talk about the the touch points with council. Um, I do just want to flag I think part of it is is number one is the TDA they're grants. So, so we're leveraging funds. So, we have to bring forward projects that are otherwise already funded for the most part. So, what we're really doing is you're just drawing from your CIP. So, I mean, the prioritization actually already exists and it exists within the approved CIP. So, you know, you're trying to bring forward projects that you can leverage funds that are ready to be constructed. That's like So, there may be more than the four that you see. Like, I I don't know that's the touch point, but for the most part, we've got to have projects that are already funded and programmed and ready to go because again, you're building off your CIP that you already have in place. Yeah, it sounds like you're talking about things that are also shovel ready. So, I guess just um once again, which ones aren't shovel ready and why? Like it it would just help if we understood the lens that staff is using to come up with the slate. Um I know we've had this conversation in the past and we're not meant to get in the weeds. Um but it would be unfortunate if um we ended up with an unnecessary delay because of a process issue that or a lack of understanding around that process issue

and to a certain extent I think we'll be able to explain that through the CIP process a little bit this in on Tuesday um but also in the future we'll we're looking at that longer term CIP pro you know vision so the five years um and and eventually hopefully extend into the 10-year time frame. And that kind of lays out like like Ben was saying the projects that are prioritized and and so those are really the the the suite of projects we're looking at um using or trying trying to see whether they align with this funding source. So um we we'll continue to work on that. Yes. Hey Maggie, do you have a question or is that your hand just remaining up from the previous question?

Remaining up. Let me see if I can turn it down. Okay, no worries. No worries. Anybody else have any questions or comments? Thank you all. Okay. Is that the last item? Jade, are we Yeah, that's the last item. Are you kidding me? 11 34. All right. I love it. Well, that's all we have. And again, no more questions or comments. Council, there you go. Kim, what's the question?

Um, I just wanted to be ready for this on Tuesday because I started getting a couple calls. Um, I know that the fourth shift for the firefighters was presented to us as a request from a department. I think it was in the list of departmental requests because we didn't have that last year. Um, but for some members of our community and our staff, there was an expectation that that meant it was baked into the budget. And that is not my understanding. Um, so I think we need to be prepared to talk about where the departmental requests um are or aren't in this year's budget.

Yeah, thank you for that question. We'll make sure the finance is prepared to does discuss that in the budget presentation. Thank you. Okay, if there are no more questions, I think we can go ahead and adjourn. Great meeting everyone. Thank you. Bye bye.