City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, welcome everyone to the March 24th uh Asheville City Council meeting. Um if you would just take a moment to silence your cell phones. Um if you would like to speak on any item on our agenda, you can just sign up out in the hall uh and it will populate on our screen. And if you would rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we have um we well first I'm going to read our chamber decorum. Uh for those of you that have been coming for the last few meetings, you've heard me read this. Uh and for those of you that are new, this will be new for you. Members of the public attending council meetings or addressing the council shall abide by the following rules. Everyone shall follow the instructions of the mayor or any other presiding officer or official and shall refrain from impeding or interrupting the conduct of business. This shall include but not be limited to clapping, yelling, or other audial expressions of approval or disapproval of comments made during the meeting. Persons addressing the council are expected to observe the decorum of the chamber, to be respectful of the council and the public, to refrain from the use of profanity or foul language, to refrain from personal attacks and commentary on candidates for political office, and to refrain from making disclosures prohibited by the Personnel Privacy Act with respect to any city employee. Failure to abide by these rules may subject you to removal from the council chamber. All right. Thank

you. Um, we have three proclamations tonight. The first is procurement month and I think procurement month. I'm going to say it again. Um, and we have a number of people that are here for that item. So, please meet me down by the left turn. try to squeeze. Okay. Procurement month. Whereas the purchasing, acquisition, procurement and materials management professions play a significant role in the efficiency and effectiveness of both government and business. And whereas in addition to the purchase of goods and services, procurement professionals add value to local government by performing such functions as executing, implementing, and administering contracts and developing strategic procurement strategies with suppliers and departments within the organization. Whereas procurement professionals in the city of Asheville make important contributions to help ensure the responsible use of taxpayer dollars by providing efficient service while maintaining the highest ethical standards to ensure open, fair, and transparent purchasing activities. And whereas the North Carolina Association of Governmental Purchasing and the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing have declared the month of March as procurement month to further expand the awareness of the procurement professionals. I just like all of you try to say that that many times the procurement professionals role to government officials in the general public as well as business and corporate leaders. Now therefore, I, Esther

Vanheimer, mayor of the city of Asheville, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as procurement month in Asheville and commend its observance to all citizens.

I just would like to thank my staff. Um, the purchasing staff here supports everyone here at the city and everyone is very professional and very they're very concerned about doing the very best for the city and for the citizens. And I want to thank them as well for all of their hard work. And can we um take a moment just to have you say your name and your title um into the microphone? Hi, I'm Sarah Armstrong, contract administrator. Yeah. Um, I'm Ryan Foster, purchasing coordinator. Seriously, nothing gets done.

I'm Tanya V. I'm a purchasing specialist. Brenda Griffith, business service specialist. Yeah, Brenda. Beatric Abernathy, purchasing specialist. Fahad Ysef, purchasing coordinator. Okay, don't go anywhere yet. We have a special surprise.

Brenda, this is for you. We already thought this was as embarrassing as it could be. This is going to be fun. Okay, so let me read a little something about you. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Brenda Griffin has called Asheville home since the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from Montre College and soon after began a lifelong career in public service. For more than 50 years, Brenda has served the city of Asheville with unwavering dedication.

Throughout her career, she has held Thank you, that's longer than you. Throughout her career, she has held numerous roles with the city and provided essential functions across several departments, including water planning, community development, and finance. Her work has not only strengthened city operations, but also fostered meaningful connections with the citizens and visitors she proudly serves. Beyond her professional achievements, Brenda is deeply devoted to her family. She is a loving mother of her sons Jerry and Eric and a caring sister and a proud grandmother to three grandchildren, EJ, Brianna, and Houston. Over the years, she has also embraced countless work children

and friends, building bonds that extend far beyond the workplace. Brenda's legacy is defined by her compassion, professionalism, and commitment to service. She has left an indelible mark on the city of Asheville, inspiring colleagues and community members alike with her dedication and heart. While we're genuinely sad to see her go, she more than deserves retirement and the order of the longleaf pine for 50 years of steadfast service in the city of Asheville. speech giving all that to me. Y

I guess so. I know. Do you know?

Oh, they came for. Yeah, I thought that's why most of the folks I thought was Miss Sophie. Well, it's hard to follow that. We're journed. No, I'm just kidding. Right.

Um, no. Next, we have social work month. Um, and um, council member Bess is going to present this proclamation. And if anyone is here for this um, proclamation, please come forward. Whereas social workers are an essential part of our community, providing critical support, mental health services, and advocacy for individuals and families from birth to end of life. And whereas social workers are the largest providers of mental health services in the United States, offering therapy, crisis intervention, case management, and support for individuals experiencing mental illness, substance use disorders, housing insecurity, and trauma. And whereas social workers play a vital role in child welfare, health care, aging services, school, and the criminal justice system, ensuring that vulnerable individuals receive the care and support they need. And whereas social workers advocate for policies that promote equity, social justice, and access to services, working to dismantle systemic barriers that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. and or whereas social workers in Asheville and across the country embody the values of service, integrity, and

dignity making a lasting impact on individuals, families, and communities. And whereas the city of Asheville recognizes the invaluable contributions of social workers and expresses deep appreciation for their dedication, resilience, and compassion in strengthening our community. Now therefore, Esther E. Mannheimr, mayor of the city of Asheville, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as social work month in the city of Asheville and encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the essential work of social workers in our community. And who Dr. Vulker, do you want us to take this back to and then if you guys will introduce yourselves uh at the mic as well?

Hi, I'm Dr. Beth Vogler from Marsell University. I'm the social work program director there for almost 30 years. Um, a lot longer than a lot of people have been around. Um, but so happy to be here today and thank you so much for this recognition. We really appreciate it. Just come on. Uh, my name is My name is Austin Holder and I'm a social worker at the UNCC Teach Autism Program. My name is Eric Chaplinsky. I am a social worker at the Neil Dobin Center inatient facility based crisis unit.

My name is Brian Brown. I'm a foster care social work supervisor for Bunkham County. Um I appreciate the recognition and just hope that we can always prioritize services for the people in our community. Hi, I'm Britney Bingham. I serve our community in foster care social work. Hi, I'm Jacob Powellch. I am graduating with my bachelor's in social work in two months and I am currently interning um with Bunkham County Department of Social Services. Thank you. Congratulations. Awesome. One more round of applause for these awesome social. Thank you guys.

Thank you. Bo, you can tell you're in a band away with a microphone. All right. And our last proclamation of today is Arbor Day in the River Arts District. And Councilwoman Romney will be presenting this proclamation. And if there's anyone here for this item, please come forward. Here you are. Do we have anyone from the River Arts District that would be willing to represent the River Arts District with this proclamation?

We just happen to have one. Thank you for improv improving. Um whereas the city of Asheville has been recognized as a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for 45 years. And whereas trees mitigate urban heat islands, improve air quality and water quality and stabilized soils and planting and preserving them aligns with Asheville City Council's Helen recovery priorities of community resiliency and environmental sustainability. And whereas thanks to past leadership by the urban forestry commission, the city of Asheville will complete an urban forestry master plan later this year. And whereas the city of Asheville and other urban forestry stakeholders are joining with the NC arburetum to celebrate the Downey Service Berry as North Carolina's 2026 tree of the year and to host Arbor Day celebrations on April 11th, 2026. And whereas the city recognizes the importance of supporting the comeback of the French Broad River recovery area and chooses to celebrate Arbor Day this year in the river arts district. Now therefore, Esther Mannheim, mayor of the city of Asheville, has proclaimed April 11th as Arbor Day in the River Arts District in Asheville, North Carolina, and urges the community to enjoy acts of tree stewardship, including volunteering for planting events, removing invasive vines, inspecting for pests, and refreshing mulch to retain moisture. All right.

Hi, my name is Steph Mendal. I'm the city of Asheville's planning and urban design director and unfortunately the members of the urban forestry commission who had planned to be here all had emergencies or illnesses. They gave me some notes uh and I would like to share those with you today. The first thing is that the urban forestry commission members who are now actively serving on Asheville recovery boards thank council for their attention to urban forestry. Their continued attention. They want you to know the urban forestry master plan is well underway and they are looking forward to working with staff this summer to help guide the creation of a clarifying policy on tree fee and lof funds. That's part of their work on people and economy recovery boards. They also wanted to underscore that everyone in the community is invited to come out to the River Arts District from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 11th. There are going to be riparian zoned walk-in talks with Riverlink. Uh members of the urban forestry commission are holding demonstrations to plant several trees around the Craven Street uh boat ramp. Uh Keith Aken, our urban forester, is going to be working at 91 Riverside Drive to make space for trees that have grown up on their own over time. And most importantly, we have the president of the River Arts District Association here today. Um we're saying stay for the art. Come for the trees and stay for the arts. Starting at 1 p.m. Brad Sippid Stroll is happening. All right. Thank you. Um, that concludes our proclamations. Uh, next we have our consent agenda.

Council, do I have questions, comments, or a motion to approve the shortest ever consent agenda? Motion to approve. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. I just have a comment about uh number or letter B.

Um I am I'm pleased that we are expanding embedded behavioral health counseling services to our first responders. Um I would be interested to see if there were any other bids for that. And then also would like to see those clinicians and social workers that are embedded have a pay raise in that next contract. Um they've been at that same pay rate for the past few years that I looked at this contract. So um they deserve that that pay for the hard work that they do.

Um thanks for that. And I um in watching the agenda review meeting, I heard this topic come up in Brad's very thorough explanation about you know sort of the restrictions around the city's ability to contract with folks and what they pay their employees. And I did want to add one other thing to that just as a historical note. The city of Asheville, we did adopt a policy some years ago to require contractors with the city to pay a living wage to their employees. And you'll be shocked to hear that what happened right after that is that the legislature passed a law preempting us from doing that. So um so we are we are required under state law to award bids to recipients um who meet the lowest qualified bid or whatever the terminology is. And our effort to try to require that to include living wage uh has been usurped if you will. So keep trying. working.

Thank you, Mayor. So, we have a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda, but we don't have anyone signed up to speak under this item. All those in favor, please say I. Any opposed? All right. Um, we next have the manager's report and I'm going to turn it over to manager Wesley for this. Thank you, mayor. We have one update today and that'll be our parks and recreation director D Tyro Mcgurt will be giving an update on uh the recovery board and the recovery projects.

Uh good evening mayor, vice mayor, council. I am Darrell Megurt. I serve as the parks and recreation director also as the infrastructure recovery board staff lead. Uh the purpose of this presentation is to provide uh you all with an update on what's been happening with the infrastructure recovery board specifically as it relates to the parks recovery projects and I also hear feedback from you council on our engagement efforts thus far. So just keep in mind at the end of the presentation I have a question to ask and be looking for some participation from council on it. Some key takeaways include uh important to be aware that the infrastructure recovery board has been actively engaged with the parks recovery projects. Uh following phase one of public engagement, the IRB prioritized and voted on the top three themes for each of those park projects. uh design teams used feedback both from the public as well as the recommendations from the IRB to create a diverse uh design concept uh for the public to evaluate. We have just wrapped up phase two of public engagement and the IRB has been asked to establish key factors that the consultants must consider as they move forward with creating one unified plan. Just to recap, the infrastructure recovery board started back in November. At that time, they created a meeting cadence, a meeting every other month. Um, they did hold a special meeting in November to kind of knock out some of the administrative duties as well as to get a crash course in all city recovery infrastructure projects and the funding

sources associated with those projects. In January, following phase one of public engagement, the IRB voted on the top three themes from each of those park projects. In February, they held another special meeting to discuss the pros and cons of allocating CDBGDR funding to the water project. And last month in March, they considered key factors that consultants must consider when moving forward with creating one plan concept for each of the park projects. So, the park projects are broken down into two. Uh the first is the Aelia Parks Recovery Project. Again, following phase one, there were some things that we heard over and over again that included uh public or community members wanted flood resiliency. Uh they were concerned about the health and the river's ecosystem coupled with the integration of new uh recreation amenities in that space. Uh they were concerned with restoring previous recreation amenities that were lost. Uh providing more connectivity, improving safety as well as nature education. They created uh a framework or the design consultants following that feedback were able to come up with two design concepts to kind of capture what they were hearing from community members. The first concept is restore, protect, and connect. This concept focuses on restoring what was lost, protecting it from future flood events, and creating more connectivity throughout the park. Concept two focuses on uh repositioning those elements that were destroyed, elevating those with

more mitigation, and also providing more connectivity throughout the park. So, that's a Zelia Parks Recovery. When we go over to the French Broad recovery uh project, again following phase one of public engagement, the consultants were able to come up with three concepts. The first concept reveal the river focuses on ecology and water uh the water systems throughout the park. Activate Asheville is the second concept with a focus on recreation and the active park spaces within the system. And then the third concept is community canvas. And this concept has a focus on art and creating community spaces. Rather than choose one concept. However, with this uh project, the public was asked to look at and identify interest and amenities within each concept that they will most like to see rise to the top and uh ultimately get built. So there was a lot of discussion, a lot of questions at the last infrastructure recovery board meeting. But one question that they were asked to consider is what factors must the design professionals consider when creating a design concept. So this was front and center. This is what the board was tasked with uh discussing and providing some additional guidance and feedback uh to the design consultants as well as you council. Some things that rose to the top uh based on the conversation discussion questions were flood resilience and risk mitigation. there was some concerns or they wanted

to highlight fiscal planning and life cycle cost programming and site activation and natural systems and connectivity. So a lot of discussion around these four elements around the French Broad River uh same question was asked what factors must the design professionals consider when creating a design concept? Again, flood resiliency and infrastructure uh was a concern or rose to the top. Uh natural systems and ecology programming, site activation and community access and connectivity, aesthetics and public art and econ uh economic and fiscal planning were the elements with this uh park project. And so council, uh, this gets us to the engagement pieces. Just to highlight again, we have just ended phase two of public engagement for these park projects. We've heard feedback from the public uh from the infrastructure recovery board and next stop is council. Uh after this step, the consultants will go back and take each of these concepts, take all the feedback and recommendations heard from the infrastructure recovery board and anything that comes from you council to create one unified design concept. So the question is what if any considerations or factors are missing from the engagement? Go

go go go.

Um I just want to say thank you to the parks and recck staff for the engagement. I got to participate in person um for a short period of time and I noticed that folks maybe were a little confused by the expansive amount of opportunities to engage because there were so many options at the table. Um but it helped that there were staff there to help us navigate through that long list. Um the one thing I am holding on to is what did we know worked. Um for example with the Karen Kragnolan Park because we saw our community invested in planting and caring for native species that area of our river arts park system um was more resilient than other parts. Um, so it might be helpful moving forward to shine a light on on what worked so that people have something tangible they can hold on to when they're making asks for our parks wide solutions. And I think that was that's part of what we heard uh flood resiliency and infrastructure risk mitigations that project or that part uh is one of the things that people spoke to over and over because we know it worked. Um so that is one of the considerations. Thank you.

Is there any discussion around um telling the story of some of the damage of the parks signage or you know I'm just kind of curious included in the project? I know it has nothing to do with engagement but like has that come up at all? You know some particularly along the river and so telling the story of what happened the floods the damage the comeback. I'm just curious. I think that'll be a part of the the community connection. Thanks.

I've seen public art before that has been very thoughtfully done about climate change risks as well as memorials to loss. As far as anything missing, I mean, this is a pretty great Christmas shopping list already. Like, I want all of this. I think it'll probably as we get further in the process, we're going to have to be understanding how much of what things are we going to be able to get. But to start with this list for the design professionals seems like a good start. Um, I also am just like like proud of our community that we aren't um forgetting the important of the natural systems even as we're 18 months out from the storm and things for some feel like they're getting back to normal. I think that this list of things shows a lot of foresight from our community of understanding that there are still very big risks in the future and we need to use our natural systems to help us prepare for them

and more about like the education of I guess is kind of what I'm leaning on not just the history what happened but you know why are some of these things so great and important. Yeah. I'm just curious what considerations were given to some of the recommendations from um what is it urban land institute as far as recognition that these were historically black neighborhoods affected. Has that come up at all? I don't recall that specifically coming up in conversations. Okay. I know there were some focus groups included in part of this process. Um, and I don't have, we just got summaries back last week. So, okay,

do a little digging and see if there's anything specific related to the legacy of those neighborhoods. Okay. Early off in engagement, you all recognize that there was um low participation rate from people of color, younger adults, renters, and another group. I'm wondering if you've circled back around to close that engagement gap. Yes.

Okay. So the good thing with this this second round of public engagement is we did see there were three categories income and housing um race and ethnicity and age. And we did see an increase in renters and individuals low income participate in the second round of surveys. We saw more Latinos participate in the survey as well as those under the age of 35. So did that change anything with different types of representation? I think we were able to capture some of the things that were really important to these demographics. Um that would be more information provided to you all in the summary reports.

Um uh thanks for all of this and I I do think the um community engagement that I've been able to attend has been pretty pretty large. I mean a lot of folks um engaging around this. a lot of people really excited to see all this happen really really fast and get done um as fast as possible. One thing that I think's a little bit hard and that I've noticed um is kind of a just sort of a structural challenge around anytime you're doing big projects is you know you have sort of these elements that you're going to incorporate into something say and they're words on a piece of paper um and and they're good um but then when the final thing happens it means that actually something went away like something you had there before is no longer there and I didn't understand that or this new thing is there that I didn't want or I don't know what it is and I didn't understand that. So is there do you feel like um in this process there's a clear understanding of okay here were all the things you experienced in these parks before. Here's how it's going to be different. It'll be better but you you are there things that you're no longer going to have that you had before. Get ready for that. or there's going to be these other ways you'll experience the parks that's different than before and and it's reflective of what the community wanted. I I just kind of breaking that down into an actual user experience and how it's different before and after.

I understand. Um I think it's important to point out that uh our goal is to not build back what was simply damaged, right? to take this opportunity to uh do something new and improved in these spaces and this is the time to do so. So, um the goal is not to lose anything or the goal is to bring back anything that was lost from the storm in the project. Uh not to lose any of those recreation amenities, but to bring back new and improvement, maybe in some instances some things that are new. Um, okay.

At this point, we're not uh in a position to say exactly what that's going to be. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, once we understand uh the final concepts and we come back to you, we have a little better idea of what some of these design elements and amenities will look like in the spaces. I will share though, I think um it won't be the same. They may be relocated to other spaces within uh the system. Um, but the goal is to make them new and improved.

Yeah. And I think you're I mean, you know, if you if you if if the dog park doesn't go right back where the dog park was, you know, those are the kinds of things that I think, you know, residents will want to want to understand well in advance sort of what to expect. That's just an example of something. And I'm not saying the dog park will be in a different place. I'm just

Exactly. So again, next steps are to get one unified concept. We presented several different concepts for each park project. We'll come back with what a unified project looks like and we have a better idea of where spaces may be relocated, what gets built back, potentially how that looks, a little more detail in those areas.

Yeah. Great. So, next steps, the infrastructure recovery board's next meeting is May 5th. At that time, they'll be getting an update on nonpark uh city infrastructure projects, namely water, public works, transportation projects. And then at the July meeting is when we hope to dive a little deeper in those uh unified design concepts uh to give them an opportunity to review, provide feedback on both projects. And then you will be seeing uh that feedback from the infrastructure recovery board. Again, again, key takeaways include the infrastructure recovery board being heavily engaged with both park projects, the design team being able to come up with diverse uh concepts for each of the park projects, and the IRB thinking about considering those key factors that consultants must consider when moving forward. Thank you.

Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, D.

I know. I don't even have the overflow yet. Do I need to reread the chamber to quorum? Even if you're popping for D. Yes. Fees and charges.

All right. Good evening. I'm Lindsay Spangler, the budget and performance manager. I'm going to give a brief presentation before council votes on our fees and charges manual for fiscal year 27, which starts in July. Just a little bit of background about the manual itself. So, this is a document that we publish every year on the city's website. It's a formal record of what we charge for all of our fees and services. We tend to adopt it a little bit earlier than the rest of the budget in the spring. And that's so that we can use the additional revenue we're anticipating from these changes to balance our budget for the next year. And as a reminder, last year we asked departments not to submit any updates to the fees and charges. This was our last year was our first budget after Helen. So, we want to minimize impact on uh the fees and charges users. And so, the only major change we made was year two of a three-year water rate adjustment. And we'll go into a little bit more detail later about that water adjustment. Uh fees and charges is a relatively small portion of our general fund, just about 12%, but when you look at our enterprise funds, it makes up a very large uh percentage of their revenue, just about three quarters of it. So, as we're looking at making changes to our fees and charges, there's a few factors we like to take into account. So, we always want to make sure where possible that we're benchmarking and we're making sure that we are aligning our fees with other similarly sized cities. We also want to make sure we can demonstrate how uh we how how much of the cost of providing the service we recover when we're providing these services. it it's often not the whole cost of what it costs to um provide the service, but we at least want to be able to demonstrate what that cost recovery is. We also want to make sure we're reviewing those larger fees on more regular cycles. And lastly, of course, we want to prioritize the community, especially this year where folks are

still feeling the impacts of tropical storm Helen and um dealing with property reval. So, we're going to talk about some of the recommended fee changes in this year's manual. Um, we are recommending a change to the solid waste fee. Uh, this chart shows how it's changed over the past 10 years, but this year we're recommending a $2 a month increase. So, would increase from $18 a month to $20 a month. And kind of the driver behind that is an increase in disposal costs and tipping fees. So, this is has become an issue, especially after the storm. Just the cost of going to the landfill and taking our trash there has really escalated, especially yard waste. Um, also, the countyy's no longer providing a solid waste rebate that we used to get as revenue. So, that's $95,000 that we're trying to make up, but still, um, we believe that this fee is below average compared to other North Carolina municipalities. Um, and we also don't charge for certain services that others do, such as brush and bulky item pickup. Some other um, more minor fees, changes in the general fund. We're uh, we're recommending a $2 increase to the nature center admin fees for admission fees for city residents and $3 increase for non-residents. And that would get about $200,000 additional revenue to the general fund. We're also recommending an increase in the way that we charge for street closures and the right ofway. Um the fee will be restructured so that you pay more um depending on how complex the closure is. So it would be more for if you had to close sidewalks, bike lanes if you're in the central business district, etc. So really, it's meant to incentivize folks to minimize the disruptive closures, especially in the downtown areas. And that will add about $40,000 of revenue to the general fund.

So all in all, um, if you add all the fees together just in the general fund, you are, um, adding about $1.1 million of fees, and that can be used to close our gap in the general fund. Um we're going to move on to some of the enterprise fund fee changes. Um in the storm water fund we have um many needs there. We have a lot of aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance. Um there's also of course a strain on the system after Helen and we have an ongoing mapping project where we're um trying to do more long-term capital planning in that area. And so we are recommending a seven a seven and a half% increase to the storm water fees and uh what you pay is kind of based on the impervious surface area of your property. For the water resources fund, we are recommending um continuing with the three-year rate plan that has previously been discussed by council. So a few years ago there was a cost of service study done and the study found that the residential and commercial classes were um really subsidizing some of the larger uh customer classes. And so we instituted a three-year approach where each year we'd raise fees by a certain amount so that uh at the end of three years you'd have a more equitable arrangement uh between all the classes. And so last year um council approved year two of that plan. So this year we'd be approving year three and we really believe it's important to continue with rate adjustments for the water system. We have about $250 million worth of capital improvements happening over the next five years. um rating agencies are watching us really closely to make sure that we're going forward with our plans here and we do anticipate since there was a lot of damage done to the water

system during Helen um there are a lot of ongoing projects to repair and make resilient our water system and after this rate increase we do anticipate future rate increases to continue to fund that work as well. So here is the change and what it looks like depending on what customer class you are. Um that top line is the typical single family resident. Uh and then as you go down the the fee increases get a little bit bigger. On the left you'll see the base charge to everyone's bill. And then on the right you'll see the difference that you'll pay per amount of water that you use. And this is what that looks like for a typical customer. The bills come by monthly. And so, uh, you'll kind of see residential commercial goes up by about 7 and a half% while manufacturing and wholesale customers get more of an increase this year. Over the past five years, the bimonthly charge has gone up by about $10. So, here's what this looks like for a typical homeowner. This takes all the typical fees that you'll see on your bimonthly bill and adds them up. So, it's solid waste, storm water, and water. And um add these all together and you might see about an $11 increase to your bill. And that equals about $67 annually to your bills. Um just a note here. So, we are not recommending any parking increases as part of what you'll be voting on today. Um earlier today at our budget work session, council did hear a presentation from our parking division. Uh and so if we do decide to go forward with parking changes to the fee manual, we can continue that conversation and make that a part of the budget process as we go forward, but it's not a part of tonight's vote.

Any questions?

I have just a couple things. Um, so because our our budget work sessions happen earlier in the day, a lot of folks don't know to watch those. So if you're curious about our budget process, um, you can go to the city's YouTube page where these budget work sessions are streamed and archived. Um, it's very informative. Um, on slide 10, we have discussed the nature center increase and the impact on locals. Um, and I just wanted to let anyone watching today or here in the room know that um, you can access the nature center with the Zoom pass using your Bunkham County Library card. In addition, there's a whole range of familyfriendly activities ranging from NC stage and the symphony um to the science museum and the art museum. Um, so don't let the increased fees be the reason that you don't go and enjoy the tremendous assets in our community. Um, that's the Zoom pass through the Bunkham Library System. Also on slide 17, um, water rates. Wanted to draw a little bit of attention to this because the first few years I was on council, I voted against the fees and charges because I was concerned that the people who lived and worked here were picking up the tab for the largest water customers. And we guess what hired a consultant that brought us a study and showed that's exactly what was happening. Um, so we are working really hard on um, making sure that everyone's paying their fair share um, for our water bills and that's so important um, because I think we just all learn how important it is to have the water on. It's a matter of public health. It's good for business um, and having the infrastructure to be ready for storms saves lives. So, I know that people are getting pinched from every side um, in an affordability crisis. Um, but I just want to draw some attention to this because I think we're ultimately headed in the right direction.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. So, this is not on for a public hearing. So, I do need a motion to approve and a second. And then I don't have anyone signed up to speak under this item. So, we we don't have any speakers, but I do need a motion and a second. I move to approve an ordinance amending the fees and charges manual for fiscal year 2026 through 2027. Second. All right. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed?

No. Okay. Um, we have a second new business item that is a resolution reserving city-owned real property Parkside, which is bounded by Marcher Street to the north, Spruce Street to the west, Eagle Street to the south, and Davidson Drive to the east for up to two years for the purpose of exploring the development of an arts and entertainment facility within the reserved area to conduct as part of this process meaningful and robust public engagement with the surrounding communities, including but not limited to the block and east and to reserve any final decisions on the use of this property until the city council has received sufficient information and feedback. And Chris Coral is here whose title is community and regional entertainment facilities director.

Yes, thank you. Good evening. Uh Chris Coral, community and regional entertainment facilities director. And today we're here to talk about a potential landhold for a mixeduse development anchored by an arts and entertainment facility. So, our key takeaways today, uh staff has identified the city-owned parcel known as Parkside as a potential site for a mixeduse development, uh which would be anchored by this arts and entertainment facility. Parkside property has been identified for mixeduse developments multiple times dating back to the 80s with our final assemblage of the land complete in early 2000s and at that time it was with the intent to assist in the development of a performing arts center. Um, a community engagement plan is being developed to ensure that community concerns and aspirations are incorporated throughout this process and early community input is going to help shape the right partnerships through a request for qualifications process. And these partnerships will help ensure that the project fits the site and respects nearby history and cultural areas such as the block and East End Valley Street. uh meaningful and robust partnership with surrounding communities is going to be required if this project is going to move forward and securing any additional financial partners or partner or partners is going to be critical to the viability of this project. So a brief history um community interest in replacing or modernizing the Thomas Wolf Auditorium which is our current venue dates back to the 80s. Multiple efforts to renovate or replace over the past 20 years have been unsuccessful for a varying array of reasons. And analysis in the last few years has indicated that the level of restoration necessary for work at the for restoration at the Thomas Wolf Auditorium to get to this style level of facility isn't cost-effective in the long term and it actually makes more sense to construct a new facility. We last summer signed a memorandum of understanding with a company ATG Entertainment with the intent to explore the feasibility of a develop of

developing a new 2500 seat arts and entertainment facility in the downtown area. ATG is a internationally known private operator and programmer of entertainment venues. So they manage 72 venues worldwide and they have programming agreements at additional venues. Post Helen Economic Development Administration put out disaster supplemental grant opportunities that we feel we have an opportunity to apply for and could create additional funding streams for a project like this. And Parkside site has been considered again for mixeduse development since the 80s helping us get to this point of this could be a really good site to look at. So the site we talked about in February at the PFI meeting uh is the known as the city hall parking lot. It's right beside us here to the south. To give context, it's between city hall, public works, Mount Zion Church, the YMI on the block, and anchored to the west with APD and AFD. Uh, so the site properties are not directly associated with urban renewal. However, we acknowledge that they are connected to and directly adjacent with. So these are not technically urban renewal properties, but they are very much connected and we understand that and plan to make sure that we work work that in as we work through our community and engagement process with our partners. So potential use for the site site massing this is just a what can fit on the site. So with our current partner that we have at the table being ATG entertainment and Asheville Symphony as a tenant partner at the Thomas Wolf Auditorium, we made sure that we could site mass a 300 plus space parking garage, a performance hall of 2500 seats or greater, rehearsal and education center spaces, workforce development space footprint for a workshop, and a potential space for a public fire station. um as there was a plan to do some public safety station planning in

this parcel as well. So this is a draft massing that was put together by an architecture firm just to show that it fits. This is not a draft of this is what we want to build. This is just like will these cubes fit on the parcel. Uh so it's showing right now parking garage, fire station, performance hall and is also showing that there is additional vertical space and space in the parcel if you rework it to add in other retail, restaurant, you name it, we need to figure out what that is. So that's what comes in with our next space or steps potential use of the space. And retail, gallery, museum, educational center, there's a lot of opportunities, but we need other developers to do that. And that can be nonprofit developer, it could be private developer, um really could be anything. It could be another governmental agency, right? Like who can help us develop what needs to be on the space, but more importantly, what needs to be on the space. So why now we have our process moving with ATG Entertainment. We are not alone in the markets that they're working on. They're working on at least four different markets in the states right now to build or renovate and develop properties. and they're also working on additional markets to take programming contracts. So, we need to stay relevant with ATG as a private partner in this. It will also help and strengthen help strengthen our EDA grant application showing that there's true commitment because we're identifying a site. We're not just saying we have this concept that we want to look at like we think we could even do it here in our application. And that grant application would really help us with pre-construction work. to site survey and discovery, geotech, uh potential utility relocation, and initial concept design and construction documents. And what's important here is if we get the CDA grant in the first phase and we do these things, but this arts and entertainment facility deal falls apart for any number of reasons, we still have prepped the site for some future development. So, we're doing work

that will help us in another project later, even if this project doesn't happen. So our next steps going back to the what could the site be? So right now we're anticipating our economic impact data to come back in through our consultant and ATG. We're here at a council asking for the landhold requests which will start our process for our grant application with the EDA and then we enter into communication engagement and writing and issuing an RFQ. So this is our chance for continuing collaboration. Um, we've already updated information and FAQs that are posted on the city's project page. There's an opportunity that if you want to know more about it, you can add your email and you'll get updates throughout the project. And this is our chance to incorporate community feedback to help inform our RFQ. So that would be a request for qualification for additional development partner or partners in the project. So that's where retail is an easy example. If we want more retail in that space, for example, we can define a RFQ that helps us find a developer that will help with retail and use that same example for any number of things. But in order to do that, we need to know what our guardrails are and the guidelines. So we need to go through a community engagement process to understand what the community wants on the site. So if the community keeps coming back and saying, "We want more retail on this site," we can help design that RFQ to help us find retail. And again, I'm just using retail as a good example because it's like an easy example. Uh we took our current draft communication and engagement plan overview to the economy recovery board last week. We received feedback and we're integrating it into the plan. Uh the stakeholder list, you'll see later, was influenced by that group and we added a few more stakeholders into that initial list from that conversation. These are the stakeholder groups. I'm not going to read every single one of them, but the intent is that this would

be that first set of groups. So to inform that RFQ, we're not envisioning a big massive every single citizen in Nashville fill out a survey, but let's talk to the individual stakeholder groups that are affected by the potential site that are in the neighborhood or that are in the performing arts space. Right? So, Worm Center and Asheville Community Theater should have some input into what could happen there, just as the block should, as should Eastn Valley Street. So, get that input to help inform the guard rails in the RFQ. So, these phase one objectives and that community and engagement plan is to update the community and these stakeholder groups as to where we are and what the project is and what we're actually requesting input on. And then get concerns and excitements. What are the top things that the group likes about this potential project? What do they love about it? What are concerns? What are priorities that they feel like we should be making sure that we're prioritizing that maybe we haven't thought of yet? And then we're going to use that feedback to create those parameters in the guard rail for the RFQ and hopefully have that out later this summer to then start soliciting additional development partners. Uh so back to our key takeaways, this has been a site that's been looked at multiple times over the years. Community engagement is vital in this process and partnership with different community groups is going to really help inform those guard rails on the RFQ to help us find that next development partner. And hopefully if everything pieces together in a couple of years we'll have a defined definitive agreement with multiple development partners that can help move towards the development of the actual property with whatever we come to but it would be anchored by this arts and entertainment facility. Uh so with that opportunity for discussion

I have a question early on that wouldn't be for you but it's probably for either DK or Brad. I noticed that in the resolution language has been changed from engagement to partnerships which was um a request from the block in Eastern Valley Street. However, I noticed on the motion that has not changed.

Yeah. Uh so the materials that were originally put out and posted on the website were done as per usual policy and practice several days in advance of the council meeting. Um we have be as as you mentioned uh vice mayor, we've continued to receive feedback from the community about what they would like to see as part of any action by the council this evening. So we've continued even through this afternoon to edit uh these the resolution that's before council as well as the motion to more hopefully accurately capture what the community is asking for. specifically as you mentioned um we've moved away from recommendations of engagement to calling out specific creation of partnerships as part of this process.

So then it's desired instead of reading the one in our paper to give that motion that's on it. It is up to uh council to decide. We we again we wanted to leave the materials that were already posted on the website but uh staff has discussed this throughout the day and we believe that this is um an effective way to operationalize that that partnership with the community. So, we wanted to recognize that, but it's up to council to decide which motion it prefers. Okay.

And I should add for clarity, um, it does call out two specific groups and stakeholder groups, but it is including language of including, but not limited to. So, really, we're talking about all the stakeholder groups on that slide previously. So, it's a long list, but it would become a very long uh motion if we listed everybody out. Do you have a question? more of a comment kind of question. You want Chris to sit down?

No, but Chris is I love Chris's brain on this thing. I'm really I'm really glad that you're involved in this by the way. I appreciate your efforts. Um I guess I'm wondering, you know, we reflected earlier this year and last year about having a lot of projects in the downtown area and community at large that are big projects that don't come out of the ground. And some of the context for that is that they're complicated. There's multiple uses. there's multiple capital stacks and funding issues. And I'm just wondering um what's too much for a site, you know, like are we I know we're just exploring, but like are we exploring too big that we're you know, is there some thought going into that or are we starting out so big that we can't be without, you know, 20 uses and 300 spaces? Um, I would say I think if we decided to not do anything on the site except for a performing arts center, no parking, no fire, just a performing arts center. Between us, TDA, ATG, and philanthropic donations, we could probably make this project happen tomorrow, but that takes that entire site for one use. And the community clearly wants multiple uses. And parking is always a challenge, right? So if we build something, even if code would allow to not have parking, we still need to add parking to it, right? So we need to set those up. And the more complicated we make it, the better chance that it doesn't fall apart as long as we don't tip the scale, right? So we can't we can't make it everything for everyone. There's going to be a point that we're going to have to take

all different areas of the community's inputs and maybe there's 10 things and we're going to have to decide on top four or five or whatever those are. And then if we can piece together the finances and make it work, then we're good to go. But things that cost money that don't bring money to the table to help develop it, those are either going to have to be the first things out or they're going to have to be like our deal point line in the sand that makes us walk from the project. And so there's going to be a point where that comes probably in the next like year to two. Okay. But we need to figure out what those are first as we work through that with the community and our partners.

That's helpful. And I I agree in that, you know, if we were going to see some kind of major investment in this area, it would need to bolster more than just one use and it would need to reflect the community and the history there. I just um I don't want us to do it wrong because we're dreaming so big. That's all. Just a little cautious. Exciting though. I don't have any questions. I'm just eager to hear the public comment. I know we have it. Um, so we do need a motion and a second before we begin.

Well, then I will make a comment real quick then. Um, so, uh, as a performing arts professional who has toured nationally and internationally, played soldout shows at Radio City Music Hall, Austin City Limits, and is training future performing artists. I want our community to have nice things. Um, but I'm concerned we don't have enthusiastic consent from the whole community. Um, that said, I appreciate the community-led engagement that's happened and the report I think shows an ask around partnership that we see reflected in the changes that staff has made. um by moving into that partnership, it seems like an opportunity to have more equity in the seats at the table because instead of asking the community to be a box that's checked at the end after decisions are made, it's about making decisions together. And so I'm holding on to hope that for the next two years of this landhold and this process that the relationships could deepen and maybe there could be more trust. Um, I'm also acknowledging that this is land that's named as a community asset but is truly on the block into East and Valley Street. Um, so that said, I appreciate the motion. Um, and I'm ready to make it.

Can I can I make sure a comment? I wasn't thinking.

So, I grew up in East. My brother and I were raised there. My father was raised there. My grandmother was raised there and it was my greatgrandparents who raised my father there in East End. We moved when I was 12 in the midst of urban renewal. So when we talk about urban renewal, it's not a concept to me. It's a life. It's a lived experience right there. In fact, the uh home where my great-grandparents raised my father was on the land that I believe the public works building is. So, um it's personal to me and I don't even when I hear that it was an urban renewal land in my spirit it was. Um, I have vivid memories of being a child and walking from our home that abuts what is now Martin Luther King by myself with my dog up through Valley Street, crossing over Valley Street on to Eagle Street. And I remember the properties there. Those were people's homes. Um, I also recognize that change is inevitable. Um, I have deep gratitude for folks who carry that history and refuse to give up hope and who come forward with requirements. Um, I'm very practical. this is going to pass probably and now is the time to get in where you fit in because if you don't get in now, you will not be heard. Um,

so depending on what I hear, I'm inclined to vote in favor. One of the requirements I have is that I be at the table while the affected groups um are able to come up with whatever their partnership entity looks like. Um and I'm asking you to trust me to speak in your favor when I'm at those tables. Um because again, if you don't get in now, you will not get in later.

Okay. So, I move to adopt a resolution reserving city-owned real property known as Parkside, which is bounded by Marjgery Street to the north, Spruce Street to the west, Eagle Street to the south, and Davidson Drive to the east for up to two years for the purpose of exploring the development of an arts and entertainment facility within the reserved area and to create and utilize as part of this process meaningful and robust partnerships with the surrounding communities, including but not limited to the block and East End, and to reserve any finan final decisions on the use of this property until the city council has received sufficient information and feedback. Second.

Okay. Um All right. We have a motion and a second. Uh we have a number of people signed up to speak under this item. The first person signed up to speak is Paul Howell. And while Mr. How is making his way forward, I'll just let speakers know you'll have three minutes to speak. Although we do have one group um that signed up to speak for a block of time, but each speaker will have three minutes to speak. Please watch the lights on the lect turn. Green means go, orange means you're about to stop, and red means stop.

Good evening, council, city attorney, city manager, assistant city managers, and the glue that holds everything together, Maggie. September 26, 2023. I was up here at city council when it was being heard for the Aspire project and people were making comments and a vote was going to be made. I listened and I saw a whole lot of people come forward in favor of that project and I listened and I participated in people that were against that project. The project consisted of a 20story hotel with a five building type urban village of apartments with 450 to 650 apartments with 20% of them being affordable which would probably been about 130 apartments something like that. The hotel 20 stories down here on the corner right down through there. I don't know this somewhere down on the corner down there Oak Street. The natives were not for it. Everybody that was in favor for this project were locals. They had been living here for 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, something like that. But they weren't native. So they care nothing about the natives in that area. A five to two vote that day showed me that we had a majority council that was made up of locals that didn't care nothing about the natives.

Now here we come again with another project in our area of the woods. At least I do hear something about the inclusive being inclusive this time because before I told y'all that y'all's progressiveness did not include the black community and it did. But I was wrong because y'all's progressiveness doesn't include any Asheville native, black or white. It's all about the locals. What the locals want. Y'all have taken over our town. Y'all have taken and turned into something I don't even recognize. I grew up on Eagle Street watching my granddad run numbers, running up and down by the cold yard and all that stuff, hanging out. I remember houses being back over there, going over there to see my friends over there gone. So like like vice mayor said, I did do the urban removal, but if y'all going to do right by the people, do it. Otherwise, leave it alone. Thank you,

Rebecca. Hat.

Good evening. I'm Rebecca Heck. And can you move the mic closer to you, please? Or just

um honestly, I don't know why we're doing public comment if y'all have already made up your mind, but um I've been a downtown property owner and have owned businesses here for 24 years. I'm here with concerns about the proposed performing arts center location. I want to be clear that I am not opposed to building a performing arts center in Asheville. However, I have misgivings about the proposed location and the land hold you're considering tonight. I understand the importance of the potential economic impact of this project for the region. However, the economic impact would be just as meaningful if it was located anywhere else in the city. We are at a crossroads where we can choose to disrupt a cycle of marginalization. City leaders and partnering organizations have an opportunity to set an example and model a healthy balance between our shared values and capitalism. We can design and realize a right-minded future together. Choosing another location eliminates controversy the city and other organizations leading this effort will face, potentially making its success more likely with broader support. The proposed location of this arts center cuts right through the heart of the neighborhood which connects the block to East and Valley Street. It also threatens the two existing performing arts venues, each only a block away. I attended an online stakeholder meeting for this project. When asked about the facilities, the use of the facilities by local performing arts professionals, the answer was that the main auditorium schedule would be fully booked with no available dates for local productions. I was also told the classrooms and rehearsal space will already be booked with a full schedule. I'm a local playwright and I was told there is no potential for me to access the facilities according to project representatives present at that meeting. I wonder if the

neighbors on the block will feel like it is accessible to them. So, I have questions. Who is this center for? Will the property in question be sold or leased? For how much? Is there really a 99-year agreement as part of the deal? Who will pay for maintenance? Does it make sense to include the fire station in the project? And who will pay for that? Why are there only 300 parking spaces for a 2500 seat theater? Would the site in South Asheville be a better choice where there are newer sidewalks and infrastructure that appeals to a certain audience? With the new hotel overlay in the RAD, would there be enough hotels built over the next two years that could provide the walkability the project demands? Should a firm outside the US tell us where best to locate an important asset? Or do we have our own self-determination to decide where and how this project best serves our community? The TDA is tasked with serving the entire county, not just downtown. Can we share the wealth of tourism with other areas of the city and county? I thank you. Thank you. Uh, so just to reiterate and I apologize, but we don't have clapping except for the one person who got the long leaf pine, but if you like what the speaker is saying, just kind of give us a thumb or you can give us thumbs down if you don't. So try that out. That usually works. Um, the next person signed up to speak is Joe Wilkerson. eyeball.

Is there a clock for me to eyeball on? See those lights right there? Yeah. Good evening.

Sorry. Um I want to offer a reflection also with respect to the property known as Parkside. Um as I read relevant reporting in history, I was struck by the breathtaking asymmetry of this moment. Um, behind door number one, we've got the financial power and heft of the federal government coupled with the possibility of a huge influx of market capital at a time when the city's rightly concerned both with disaster recovery and its significant budget shortfall. Uh behind door number two, we've got the squeaky wheel of community uh with relatively little economic clout, but as the vice mayor pointed out, deep roots in and commitment to the physical land issue and the neighborhoods that surround it. So when push comes to shove, we have to be real with ourselves about what speaks louder. Uh Mr. Coral rightly points out that if what we want is to quote stay relevant, uh, we need to sweeten the pot for both ATG and the EDA, both of whom have other suitors. But we have to ask, too, what is Asheville's history to a multinational corporation with profits last year of over $200 million? What is the block to a federal agency with an annual budget approaching $2 billion? Now the city has done what the quorum requires and promised meaningful and robust public engagement. My concern goes beyond what decorum alone can address. The past is present here for better or worse. We as a civic body are much more than the values we profess in our comprehensive plan. We are also downstream of a history that has literally been paved over. We've not yet demonstrated real movement beyond our old propensity when push comes to shove and money beckons to displace people and culture by all legal means. Now, this dilemma is as old as human nature and is in no way unique to

us. What is distinct to Asheville is that in moments of vulnerability, we've expressed contrition for our old ways. And we've promised to do better. We've promised to stop the harm. We've promised to boost the block. We've promised to enact interwoven equity. But a city withers on a diet of pieties. A city thrives when fairly elected leaders such as yourselves consent to share power, share power with the most affected citizens. So what is the squeak of the wheel to an unelected corporation? My fear is that this is going to come down to a sidewalk plaque or at worst a public relations liability that won't even register on their balance sheet. But what is the squeak of a wheel to you as Democratic leaders? I can't wait to find out. Thank you for hearing my concerns.

Okay, the next person signed up is David Greenson. And I have several people who have waved their time for Mr. Greenson. So when I call your name, just raise your hand. Um, Anthony Oliva Oliva. Yes. Um, uh, Siththera Wilkerson. Yes. Molly Hartwell. Okay. Thanks. Jared Wheatley. Yep. And Nina Tobish.

Oh, well, I you you and you don't need to, Nina. Don't worry. I'm gonna put you next year. Okay. Um and and oh, so Brad and I talked about this and due to our vague rules, um you you can split up your speakers for your 10 just as long as the total block is 10 minutes. Okay. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor, council members, city staff, and Asheville community. My name is Tiffany Dau and I'm accompanied tonight with my colleagues David Greenson and Nina Ireland and we're here from the Government Accountability Project GAP AVL. Next slide, please. Oh, you need I'm sorry.

Pause. We're pausing. Yes. Thank you.

You've heard this site described as Parkside, a municipal parking lot targeted for redevelopment that is not designated as part of urban renewal. Tonight, we want to share the deeper history of this land and why that history matters for decisions being made now. Next slide. Before it was a parking lot, this land was part of a living neighborhood on Eagle Street, connected to the block and the broader black community. Maps and city directories show homes along the north side of Eagle, occupied by black families for decades. These were multi-generational households of laborers, domestic workers, service workers, people whose lives were tied to downtown Asheville. This was not a vacant land waiting to be developed. It was a community. As vice mayor said, it was people's homes. Next slide, please. This block also sat next to the Bunkham County Jail on Marjgery Street. That building was not just another civic structure. It was part of a system that exploited convict labor in the early 20th century. Next slide, please. And it was the place where Bob Brackett was held right before being taken and lynched by a mob in 1898. The history of this land is intertwined with a broader history of racial control, unequal power, and displacement. That context matters, especially when we talk about what should happen here and now. Next slide, please. In the midentth century, families still lived along this stretch of Eagle Street, and black

people owned some of the property there. One example is 40 Eagle Street purchased in 1946 by Floyd McKisik. Later a national civil rights leader who transferred the property to his parents. Other families including the Hence and Garner families lived on neighboring parcels that would own for decades. Next slide please. Then beginning in the 1950s and60s and we know what happened there. The city enacted a devastating practice. These homes were labeled substandard. Investments for repairs and improvements was out of reach because black homeowners largely could not obtain credit. Buildings were condemned and removed, clearing and devaluing the land. Next slide, please. Here is the city council resolution to use eminent domain to condemn 74 and 76 Eagle so they could be acquired from the black families that owned them. Next slide, please.

By the time the city began acquiring these properties in the early 80s, they were no longer valued as homes, only as cleared land. Financial records show the impact of that. The McKisac property, which was purchased for the equivalent of about $27,000 today, was only sold for about $9,000. The Hence property went from roughly60,000 to about 11,000 in today's dollars. So these homes were devalued before they were taken, a major loss of generational wealth. This sequence, disinvestment, designation as substandard, clearance, acquisition at a fraction of their original value, often through imminent domain and redevelopment, mirrors what happened across the country and just across Eagle Street under urban renewal. By 2003, the city owned all the parcels that now make up the site. Proposals followed quickly. a mixeduse development with the Grove Park Inn, luxury condos branded as Parkside, a first run on a performing arts center, and more recently, a fire and police facility. Across two decades of planning, one pattern stands out. The communities most connected to this land were almost entirely absent from the conversation. When the fire and police proposal was discussed in 2023, one council member asked city staff whether this land might be considered in the context of repairing harm for urban renewal in nearby neighborhoods. And the response was a single word, no. And then the conversation moved on. In the presentation that Mr. Coral just gave, you saw that there was one slide that emphasized that this land was not part of urban renewal. And technically that's correct. But while Parkside was not a target of federal urban renewal program, it it suffered the same fate as properties that were. In 2020, this council adopted a resolution acknowledging the harm caused by urban renewal and committing to repair and

amends. That moratorum that you all passed on urban renewal land was not fundamentally about a label. It was about the harm, about displacement, loss of wealth, exclusion from decision-making. Because the city had no formal community engagement prior to tonight's vote, local community organizations hosted one a few weeks ago. Among those present, virtually no one outside of those financially or programmatically tied to this project expressed genuine excitement about the proposal for a performing arts center. After gathering input, the hosting organizations put out a recommendation that city council vote in favor of the proposed landhold today if and only if they simultaneously make a formal commitment to expand the project's partnership structure to include a locally rooted cultural partner connected to the block and east and valley street. The word partner is key. This goes beyond engagement and consultation. That's because meaningful engagement uh that's because promises of meaningful engagement are not enough. Urban renewal also included engagement where residents had no real power and were still displaced. What needs what is needed here is shared decision-making, not consultation after the fact. Going forward, the block and east and valley street must be present at every table where plans are being made and decisions formed with real authority and shaping not only the project scope, design and benefits, but whether this project belongs in this location at all. The communities most connected to this land have been clear. This is not the right site for an art center when other locations could better serve that purpose without repeating past harm. We are not opposing investment. We are asking it to be done with us, not to us. We want to bring forward ideas that reflect our community, what our community has already asked for through reparations recommendations rooted in restoration, access, and long-term community benefit. This land was unjustly taken under the narrative of

blight. While the city itself has a long record of not maintaining its own public assets from parks and pools like Malvin Hills and Walton Street Pool to cultural spaces like Thomas Wolf Auditorium. That contradiction cannot be ignored. However, it is evident that council intends to move forward without true community support. If that is the path chosen, what must follow is a genuine partnership, one that includes community ownership, decision-making power, and tangible lasting benefits. What we bring to to the table is not abstract. It is the land itself. Land that was unjustly taken by the city. That history demands more than symbolic inclusion. It demands a different outcome. The history of this site is a story about power. Who had it, who exercised it, and who did not. Tonight, you have the opportunity to begin with a different ending. One in which the people whose history is rooted here are central in shaping its future. The city has it. The city owns this land today. And with that ownership comes responsibility. The next chapter should not begin with a predetermined project, but with a commitment to shared decision-making and a seat at the table for those whose history is rooted here. Next slide, please. We would like to use the remainder of this aotted time to pay tribute to Miss Andrea Clark, whose memorial was held this past weekend at the WMI Cultural Center. Miss Clark was tire was a tireless advocate for the block in East Valley Street where I too am also from born and raised and for the importance of lifting up this true history of displacement that happened there. Throughout her life, she invited all of us to learn from that history and co-create a more just and inclusive future together. We invite you all to join us in a minute of silence to reflect her incredible contributions to our city.

Thank you. Very good. Okay. The next person signed up to speak is Nina Tobush.

Good evening. I'd just like to take the opportunity to remind council that it passed resolution 25-229 on October 14th of 2025 establishing a community reparations commission. And among the purposes intended here, and I'm quoting from the mission statement, the intent of the reparations process, as defined by the commission, is to significantly enhance the quality of life for black residents by systematically dismantling and reforming policies and institutional barriers that have perpetuated harm while avoiding creating new or additional harms. Among the these strong efforts to eradicate racial wealth disparities, access to home ownership, land ownerships, business ventures, and equitable financial restitution efforts intended to deliver lasting benefits across generations with particular focus on the empowerment of black youth. Commission insists on an official public acknowledgement and apology for past harms. All I'm asking is that you bear in mind the findings and the recommendations of the reparation commission as you determine what to do with this valuable public land. I'd love to see a new arts center in this city. We desperately need one. But what we don't need to do is to perpetuate the flaws of past takings and find a way to ensure that anything that gets done with city property benefits first and foremost those who

have been harmed by past actions. Please have a look again at the recommendations of the reparations commission and see how this project can move forward in conssonance with responding to those. Thank you for your time this evening.

Thank you. Uh, Joseph Robinson. How you doing? My name is Joseph Robinson and I'm against building that on Eagle Street in that area. Period. Um, I grew up in Asheville. I've been coming back and forth to Asheville. born in Charlotte, been coming here since I was a kid. And I was proud to tell my people wherever I went how black how great black folks were doing in Asheville. I I came to Asheville and black folks had businesses and do have great homes and stuff. I come back to Asheville and I see the desecration of white people everywhere. So when I go to Eagle Street, I'm very offended to go to Eagle Street as a black guy and go to the YMI places like that and all I see is white people. Um they everywhere. Um I noticed that we can't go anywhere. There is no place that we can go and gather um as a whole without being bothered. And the last place we had to call our own is now being taken. And I am against that. I'm very offended to see white people on Eagle Street as and talking as our history. We have Eagle Street has been known as Black Wall Street. No one ever brings that up. The history of Black Wall Street in Asheville. So, I think that that history should remain in Asheville. That that being Black Wall Street, that should never go. If you put us a place there, it's going to take the history of the black people totally out of Asheville. Everywhere black folks have come, it's been taken. And so it has to be a stand where black folks stand up and have some place to go. They can call their own, but without people just come and take it all. And so I'm against that all

together. I know I'm not um wise as many people speak very well, but my passion about keeping Eagle Street the way that it is to walk the way that it is or better help the black people. There is nothing there's only white people moving into Eagle Street. There's nothing to do with black people. They build art. The art comes and takes over every neighborhood I've lived in in this country. Art comes in. They use art to come in into the neighborhood. So don't use art as the way to come into the neighborhood. Cuz that's the way they take all the neighborhoods. They come in with monopoly. And art is one of monopolies. How you take neighborhoods. So I'm against all the tricks using art to take the rest of the neighborhood. So I'm against it. And I don't like to put black people in the place to try to get us to buy into that stuff.

Uh Skyler Nia.

Hello. Is that Thank you.

Okay. As you know, up until the 1970s, Eagle Street and the adjacent areas were a neighborhood of primarily black families, which grew gradually more and more fragmented due to government-ledd urban renewal and its resulting gentrification. Now, the residents of the block and east end communities, many of whose lives are impacted daily by this government sanctioned harm, are asking for a seat at the table. And ma'am, while I appreciate your offer to represent them, I don't think that one seat is enough. Yes, collaboration and true partnership is challenging and it can make things more complicated, but we cannot continue pushing forward, excluding and under representing people in the name of simplicity and convenience. We have too many intellectuals, too many strategists, and too many architects at our disposal. I ask you to please consider this council. Who does excluding their voices benefit? And why do they feel entitled to simplicity that the historic community of Eagle Street has been denied? Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you,

Jonathan Waynecott. Hi, my name is Jonathan Wayne Scott and since the history south of this uh uh area has been covered, I'm going to talk about the north of this project site which is this building and our neighbor to the north of Bunkham County Temple of Doom. Now, this building was built in 1926, a 100 years ago. So, happy birthday to this building. And the Bunkan County uh uh Temple of Doom was built between 1924 and 1928. So, at the time, this building cost $750,000 to build, which seems pretty cheap, but adjusted for inflation, that's $13.5 million. And the courthouse cost uh it was originally budgeted to be $1 million. It went up to $2.4 million. And so that translates to $45.5 million for that building. So the combination of this building and that building back then was almost $60 million. And just a couple years later, approximately 3 years after 1926 was 1929. And that's when the economy fell out of the uh United States and we went into the Great Depression. and the financial duress that this community was put under had a lot to do with the overexpenditure of this building and that building. So, I know that a lot of people want to have a worldclass performance arts center here in Asheville and this site doesn't seem like that's really the right one for such a thing. So you got the exterior plaza on top of the garage over there and you could walk around having a nice glass of, you know, cheap wine and a plastic cup. You know, real cultural up there and look to the north and look

at the back of the Bunkham County Temple of Doom Dungeon, aka the jail. Or you look at the south and you could look at the rooftops of our garage uh that uh handles our garbage trucks. So, that doesn't seem like, you know, a really great fit to everything. Also, somebody had mentioned earlier, I don't know, maybe it's not such a great idea to put a performance space in combination with a fire station. I don't think that's a great idea. I mean, just doesn't seem like a winning combination. It's not a peanut butter and chocolate type of combination. It's more of like a chocolate milkshake with a tuna fish swirl combination. I know. It's gross, right? So, who wants to have a performance arts center with a fire station blow? I mean, imagine flying into Asheville because you want to do that. You're going to pay $300 to watch yo-yo ma cello, you know, and he's up there celloing away and does an improvisational improvisational duet with engine number nine needs to take off. This whole thing is is totally ludicrous. So, just, you know, that's I know that you wanted robust community engagement. It's one of my favorite things to do. So, I appreciate your invitation and I will always accept that. Have a nice night.

I know. I hope I hope he speaks at my funeral. All right, Michael Hayes.

Good evening, council. Uh I'm here to speak on behalf of the people that are not here. Uh the people that could not be here because of different circumstances and the people that often get left out when we're having these discussions about what is best for Asheville. Once again, we sit here and we're having this discussion about a decision that we probably we pretty much feel that you've already made your minds up what you're going to do. So with that being said, there's only a few points I want to bring up. Your presenter said that um they can't be everything to everyone. So for most of us here that are and not that that are that are not in agreement of the perform arts uh building being there, if you can't be everything to everyone, be something for some of us who have never been heard. Be something for some of us who y'all feel like don't count. So with that being said, when we talk about somebody brought up the uh the the past is now um when we talk about the cultural ramifications of that place being there, how it can overshadow what Eagle Market should has to offer as far as the YM the shops is there. I have a office space there on 70 Market Street. Love doing business there. Love what's going on there. So that overshadow what I bring to the table when we talk about the city of Asheville. And I feel like I bring a lot to the table. So does everyone else that has a business or an office or anything there. Right? So when we talk about uh u the past being now I'm I'm I've been in Asheville for 51 years. 51 years I've been in Asheville. So I remember Miss Georgees. I remember all the things that happened around this area. And you're slowly but surely taking away black Asheville. And y'all are aware of this. You know this. So when we talk about something being adjacent to a land that is urban renewal that the city should be giving back. Uh what happens when you get that city what happens when you give that plot of land back to it originally belongs to right and you already have that art this thing there.

But I want to say this before I leave. I got a 39year-old son who remembers his grandmother's uh restaurant on the block. And then I have a nineyear-old daughter. My thing is what will my 39year-old daughter when she hits that age see Ash will become? Will she be left out? Oh yeah, and she is black.

Um I have no further folks signed up to speak under this item. Um councils, we have a motion in a second. Are there any other questions?

I I have a comment. So much has been said. Um, and beyond popular belief, some of us don't come in with predetermined approvals or denials. We come in to listen to the people and honestly take into consideration um what's being recommended, what the community's voice is as it pertains to a decision. And tonight we've heard from the people, but what I what I hear is causing confusion. And I don't want to be confused. And I definitely don't want to go down in history as that person who had a decision to make when it comes to the plight of us trying to create a renaissance because we well deserve it. So what is it that we want? because the assumption that it's already approved so just give us a piece of the pie that's not going to settle well in history. What is it that we want? If we want to hold and preserve for a different occasion, let's say that. Let's say that. But one thing is for sure, we need we need to get consensus on what is significant to our community and not allow people who are always at the table who can find easy ways to partner and compromise to lead the conversation. And that's not race specific. So I want to know from the community. I just I don't really know what to do. My heart's conviction is to say no, find another place to do it or yes, find another place to do it. But when I hear when I hear powerful leaders who I want to say do their due diligence and bring back information for us to make decisions, then I lean on that decision until public comment. So,

I'm I'm not going to vote in favor of it. Um, going into this situation, it was kind of like murky for me. It didn't feel good for me. Um, because of the history that everybody has spoken of, whether you live through it or not. Thank you for bringing that history. But we need to get on the same page. Is it a yes? Is it a no? Is it a yes? And find somewhere else to do it. So, thank you for that because I'm confused after public comment, too. in particular there is this section. So I see Yina is Tiffany still back there.

So what it said was no unless certain criteria were met and one of those criterion was the partnership. So, are we saying that as presented, the partnership that was requested is inadequate? Because when I spoke to neighborhood folk beforehand and representatives of the block beforehand, we it was my understanding that it was sufficient.

Based on the comments, it seems to be insufficient. So I need clarity before the vote. My my way of moving a little bit more Yeah. Hold on. Hold on. I need to hear because it's going to Okay. So, how can we ask community members? Yeah. Um or I could just vote no. Which would you prefer? Well, I I have Are there people who haven't signed up to speak that could speak? Yeah. Why don't we add you Jeff, please?

Speak your heart to the to the public comment. I thought I Hi. Hi.

My name is Jefferson Ellison. I am the principal of JD Ellison and Company. I am also a Nashville native. Happy to be here. I wasn't I didn't want to speak, but okay. So, we um we sent in the report. It was 20 pages. I know it was long. I'm sorry. And so, we put it in the report because community was saying they were uncomfortable with council taking a vote on February 24th. We wanted time for community engagement. When we did our community engagement on March 11th, we had 51 attendees, some being from Explore Ashwell, Ashual Symphony, etc., but mostly community folk. And what we heard was a lot of confusion, a lot of distrust, but also a desire for goals to be met around reparations, community development, economic development, opportunity. We were also told by council and city staff that this landhold was just a landhold. And that two years into the project, it could still be killed, right? And so me and my partners in this, we kept we keep hearing people saying, "I need more information. I want to I want to see what opportunity looks like." But we were told by stakeholders and city staff that we can't get those answers without the landhold. And that is why we recommended that a landhold happen if and only if partnership could happen. But we also recommended that it have a timeline on it. That way the community would have at least 18 months to discuss what could happen. And then if we don't like what we hear during this research process, we can still kill the project or y'all can. So, we voted for a vote with the the stipulation that we have time

to get more information. So, I think there's a disconnect because we're all saying we don't trust this process and we have questions and concerns, but the only way it seems to get those questions answered is through this landhold process. Okay. It feels that way to me too and it's unfortunate because Okay. I also want more answers. I also have more concerns. I also am concerned about what I'm hearing tonight. I'm concerned about the things that aren't being said. I've been concerned about this location since the first time I heard it. But I agree to get to the answers we want to imagine the future that maybe we deserve the neighborhood maybe deserves, we're going to have to do some exploration. So I guess um

Okay. So wait. All right. So are we gonna Thank you so much. So it sounds like we're going into the Thank you very much for that clarity. Appreciate that. Okay. I guess it just I mean I guess what we could do I'm just trying to brainstorm on the fly is that adjust the motion to attach more parameters to it whether it's the community I hold on I think what what I was hearing was that the resolution did you look at the resolution is a vehicle to a process

that will get to a place where more answers questions community engagement involvement partnership can happen so I wasn't hearing I was hearing dissatisfaction, but not don't change don't necessarily change this, but you better abide by what this resolution calls for. And I was going to say maybe we can add more teeth to this motion that says we will do that, you know, rather than it says we it will it doesn't resolution that the motion refers. Give us a suggestion based on what's there that's in that you would well or are we you're making Brad is going to start freaking out. Look at him bite. Look at my point council. I I think this isn't tremendous, but

this motion does have a couple of typos in it. This was an earlier motion, so I I don't want people to harp too much on the exact wording, but the the motion that was actually made by council member Rooney was the corrected version of this. And I do want to call out a couple points just to clarify council's awareness and and perhaps the public's awareness.

Some elements were specifically added to try to address some of these concerns. So it'll be up to you to decide if they have, but one is over as part of the landhold there is a direct requirement as part of the resolution that staff not just engage but enter partnerships um with the uh the block east and valley street as well as other stakeholders uh that become available and necessary as part of the process and that all final decisions about the use of this property and this project are reserved until council receives that information and feed. feedback from them. Okay.

It's not limit. It specifically calls out the block and East Valley Street, but that is not and not limited to that and not limited to that, but a required inclusion of is that how we're saying that? Yes, that that's correct. It it is multi-point now which includes the landhold for a period of up to two years to explore those things and to create and utilize the partnerships specifically with the block and east end and other stakeholders listed here to be able to get the feedback needed in order to make final decisions in a partnership

um and reserving any final decisions until that exploration has been done. Okay. So, any other questions or comments? Are we ready to go? I'm sweating. Okay. Council, can I ask Chris Coral a question? Okay. In some of my initial meetings about this, you know, baby idea, there were several locations identified.

Um, so entering into this landfold means we're kind of saying all eggs in this basket. We're invested in this location, this partnership. That's it. We're not planning a plan B. We're not still talking to other land owners elsewhere. Anything? I'm a very opportunistic person. if a if an opportunity comes up for another site that makes sense. Yes, a lot of the direction at the start of this process was find land that we don't have to pay for and so land that we already own.

Um but it is possible that throughout the process just community engagement steers us away from the site and we go look for another. And if that's the case, maybe we're far enough along that we know that we want to do this project, so let's go find a site or maybe we figured out no, we don't want to do this project and that's the time to step away. And so kind of what I hear in that is that the symphony or ATG, some of these like anchor tenants, which I know are causing some conflict, but are also kind of what'll get it done. Um, they're maybe not necessarily attached to where it is. They're maybe more attached to what it is and can it meet their needs.

I don't want to completely speak for them, but I feel pretty confident speaking for the symphony. It's less about where and more about what. And for ATG it's the same but there are desires for a wear that may be in an urban setting though so not necessarily it has to be here but we need it in walkable retail restaurant hotel.

Could you talk a little bit about um other sites that have been just explored I know fullblown feasibility um but there has been some work exploring some other places like the current site and across the street. Could you just talk about some of that and the constraints and the research that's been done already? Just a quick review of sites. Um 68 Haywood was reviewed too small. A site in the South Slope was reviewed by the architecture firm. It was privately owned and actually already in the development plan. It's the site where the uh parking deck that you guys were talking about earlier in South Slope is the site that the county owned was looked at on uh Woodin Street, but it has long-term affordable housing plans. So, that wasn't available. and a site near the Renaissance Hotel was looked at but is currently not in play for

and there was a vision for Broadway on Broadway with UNCCA but UNCCA is no longer a partner. Correct. Choice point. And just for fun fact, a fire station is actually better than a parking garage next to a formyards facility. It's a weird thing, but it's an acoustic thing and it's just a fun fact to throw out there.

Interesting. Someone else actually had something that was interesting. So, they mentioned that there would be no opportunities for local groups or community members to use that space. And the way I understood it is that there would be different size performance halls, rehearsal spaces, and so there would be opportunity for dress rehearsals and multiple things to be going on at once. Can you speak a little bit to that?

There would be. I'm not sure what focus group that was in reference to. I wasn't part of it, but yeah, it is not already booked out. The concept involves the symphony helping like run and manage the rehearsal and education center space. So like they would have programs that would be like the anchor for that portion, but there would be plenty of unbooked time that can be used for local groups or other small touring groups, things like that. Uh but don't vision another worm center. Like the goal is not to be competition. And it's more like this is enhancement of the center that's there and then there will be more space available which is needed in the community more rehearsal space and small venue space. I'm also no excuse me go right ahead sorry

I'm also thinking about the work force there and if there's opportunities to have child care for example on site for the workers that are coming into work on the evenings on the weekends. Um, and I know that was part of my vision and also a local kind of arts gallery for local artists so that every single show there would be um, local art displayed. Um, is that possible?

Anything's possible. Um, I think that gets into the guardrails, right, that we're trying to create for an RFQ. Like if we decide that the ability to do on-site daycare is an important thing for us that needs to be part of it, then that's how we have to work into how we request for other part partners. Um I can say just anecdotally that art gallery is going to be way easier than daycare for, you know, anything's possible if you find the right partners that are able to put those things together. I'm sure it's been done before.

Absolutely. So, in my conversations earlier, and I guess one question I have is we've talked about the symphony being a tenant, how does one become a tenant? Because if I had to guess, I believe that the community partners are really looking for potential partial ownership. Um, so the symphony is not committed to a specific number, but they want to financially help support the project. So that's

So then if the coalition were able to raise funding itself and we passed it, that would leave the door open for them to also be a partner on equal footing with the symphony. Certainly. I mean anytime that's what this RFQ is for like we want to find partners that can help be financial partners to the project and so if they are financial partners they have a split in the proceeds depending on the final deal structure possible. Yes.

And then having excuse me one second and then if they have access to the funding it would be up to them to decide how they use their percentage. meaning say I don't know um if property values go up funding from that art center could be used to reduce property taxes maybe I mean in theory yeah like if you're if you're an investor in a business right and your investment gets you 10% of the net it's your job to decide what you want to do with your 10% right so in theory yes okay thanks to say

no as a idea on your that you might appreciate. Um, one idea too is like when this if the city is the controlling partner here and there's anchor tenants and we're building our fire station, the parking deck and we're throwing money in, we probably have reserve the right to say, you know, this retail frontage on Eagle Street that has retail bays might be condoed out for ownership and owned differently by say businesses in the block or something. You know, none of these are outside possibilities in this land study period. Um, but now I got to ask, how close in size was 68 Haywood? It was like almost half an acre too small.

Half an acre too small, but a parking deck nearby. I'm I'm really curious. 68 Haywood is dead space. I'd love to see activated. Haywood is the pit of hope. It is the pit of art. Uh so the max one other I'm just I just wanted to hear how close it was if it was even realistically a possible site.

So and Chris has done I mean he he's very modest. He has been working for years and has done an amazing job to bring this potential partnership multi-person multi-art partnership to to our community and really has done a lot of work in looking at property. But there's a lot, you know, still on the table. That site is very challenging because it actually has an easement that cuts right through it. So, um, and it would just take getting several property owners to agree to move it. So, um, but yes, there should be something done with that site eventually

and it would have been a good fit. Well, I like where the conversation transition because being a partner at the table and just being a design partner, development partner, educational partner, that's a lot different than being a partner who has ownership. And I think that's what the community is do ownership. We don't just want to be at the table. Um, that's an interesting dynamic. Um, it's a power it's a power relationship that I see at play. Um sometimes marginalized groups they they know that it's them against the world, you know, so they rather have just some footing so they don't lose traction all together. And that's what I kind of felt in the room until the language shifted. Ownership is what we deserve.

Thank you. So lots of possibilities. Are we back on the team? Let's try it. Let's see what we can. I mean, I will say to the community members that are feeling like seriously, we're ready. I We're going to have two years to talk a lot more about this. I was going to encourage community members to come out fast and early with their goals. I I just thank you for everybody bringing the heat. I think we had a good conversation about this. I certainly sweat. They're tired of us talking. Okay, we have a motion in a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you very much.

Talking help sometimes. Yeah. Well, two points. I'll do what I can.

Okay. Just give a second. Jessica, you hanging in there? Jessica hanging in there. That was pretty funny. I know. It was like not tonight.

I'll be quiet on this one.

Um, good evening. Jessica Morris, assistant director of transportation. I'm going to present tonight the art operations and maintenance service contract. The current Asheville Rise Transit fixed route operations and maintenance contract ends um at the end of this fiscal year. So at June 30th, we did an RFP process to select a vendor for the next contract and have selected a vendor. There were four proposals received and we had a selection committee comprised of seven individuals that evaluated those proposals. We have selected a vendor which happens to be the current um vendor RATPD and the new contract term is set to begin July 1st. Um ART is operated under a turnkey operations and maintenance contract. The current contract began in 2020 uh sorry 2017 and was awarded to RAPDV. The current contract term was originally set at four base years with two two-year options for a total of eight years. However, we did extend um that contract for a ninth year in this current fiscal year due to staffing resources and impacts from Helen. And as I mentioned, the current contract ends at the end of this fiscal year. So, we wanted to have um um very professional and um significant support from an outside thirdparty resource to help us with this procurement because it's a very large procurement process.

Very important. um and needless to say pretty expensive um service that we offer to the community through through our transit service. So we we contracted with Kimley Horn and Associates back in October of 2024. So right after Helen to to put together the request for proposals for the transit operations and maintenance contract. They worked with us for several months to um develop the requests for proposals and also what would ultimately go into the contract and they facilitated the entire process including the vendor selection process. They facilitated um the evaluation committee with us and as I mentioned we had a seven member RFP committee. We had one outside transit expert um that was um was um not a member of city staff or or any any board or anything but someone that we have worked with in the past. We had a member from the French Broad River MO and then we had members of several city departments including the uh city attorney's office and the finance department as well as staff in the transportation department as part of that um review committee. So, one of the things that we wanted to pay special attention to during this process was what we have heard and learned from over the last 8 n years. What we've heard from our transit advocates, our transit riders, and what we have experienced um as far as any issues or pain points. Um, and so we wanted to try to incorporate in this RFP

and in this new contract, you know, lessons learned and and strengthen that contract as much as we possibly could. Um, so we included into this process and into this new contract things that we thought would help provide more clarity um about our responsibilities, but also the contractor's responsibilities, things that would help um increase accountability. So, additional reporting, um, uh, a lot more, um, um, support from our contractor in terms of helping city staff with with the reporting back to council, um, helping with special projects. Um, we also increased a lot of our performance measures and and um goals so that we could try to have more responsiveness and additional accountability to try to ensure that we were getting more um more responsiveness from the contractor and that we could we could provide, you know, as much transparency to riders and to um elected officials as possible. So some of those things that we included in this contract are new and strengthened performance measures. So for example, we have raised our goals that are around on-time performance. On-time performance is a measure that we've always had in our contract. Um, we had a 72% on-time performance goal. We've now raised that to 80%. And so that is a measure that's

really important for riders where it it's a measure of reliabil reliabil reliability and um and it's not just about um it's not just about was the trip late, it's also did it leave early. We so we've added some additional um liquidated damages um for example for early departures so that we can um ensure and encourage that not only are we not leaving late but we're also not leaving early. So, we're trying to encourage as much as possible that we are providing a very reliable service that people can um that people know is going to be there on time and is not going to leave them at the stop. Um, we've so liquidated damages are basically a penalty. Um, and it's a monetary penalty that comes off of the invoice that we get monthly and it's a way for us to essentially achieve additional accountability. And so we've added additional liquidated damages for um if they're short on drivers. We don't want them to use supervisors and pull supervisors away or dispatchers away and put them in place of drivers because we need those supervisors out there doing their jobs, too. So, we've added things like that to to try to curtail some issues we've seen in the past. we've um increased some some performance measures around responding to customer complaints as well. So these are things that we've just seen over the past eight years that we thought were important to include in this contract to try to um improve the

customer experience and um and RAPD has responded with um with plans for how they're going to achieve that. And one of the things that we we asked for in our RFP process and is being included in this contract are three new positions that we're we're very excited about. The first is um a position that we're we're calling the crisis counselor. could have a different title at some point, but this is a position that is going to be primarily working at the transit center and will be working um with also a new position which is the customer service manager. But this position is intended to be a resource for riders that are in need primarily um folks that might be in a crisis situation, might be unhoused, may need resources. And so they're meant to be a conduit for folks that might need to be connected to resources in the community. They'll be there to help deescalate situations. they can hop on a bus if needed to help someone who who might be um in crisis. And so this is somebody that we think is going to be extremely um helpful in a lot of common situations that we have at the at the transit center and who we think is going to be um a really key addition to our service and is a position that has been um a request of some of our transit advocates for the last several years and that we're um particularly excited about. Um, and likewise the customer service manager. This there have always been

customer service representatives at the transit center, but this is meant to have more of a a manager role that would oversee a team. So there's more continuity. There's more oversight and there's more accountability in terms of customer service and there's just more um yeah, there's just more of a team atmosphere there that can work with with the crisis counselor and and be more responsive on on the whole across the board to riders um as needed. And then um the human resources manager is another key staff person that that RATB actually brought in their proposal um um on their own and and we think this is really important because it's important to have a steady flow of applicants particularly when it comes to the driver recruitment pool. We've as you know we've had an issue um with driver with with drivers. it kind of es and flows and right now they're fully staffed and that's that's wonderful and we want to we want to keep it that way um not just with drivers but all key positions and so they have um committed to having someone on site that is going to be just dedicated to having their positions filled but they're also just going to be engaging with the community and working with other organizations and and collaborating with other organizations. So, we think these three new full-time staffed positions are going to be very helpful to our overall system.

I have a curiosity. Sure. In adding these new positions, will they displace any workers from the old contract? Any personnel? No, ma'am. Because oftentimes to accommodate new ideas, we have to get rid of old things and people, you know, right? So, I'm just wondering, just curious. No, I don't. There's no um there's no decrease in staffing.

And then um the the other thing that's maybe a little less exciting for for some of us but or but for us on a staffing level, one of the things that we've been working with and over the negotiation process with RPB, RPD, they're they're a big company. They have access to a lot of resources. There's only there's only four staff in transit in for the city. So, what we've been asking from them is how can we tap into more resources from from your company in terms of technology reporting? Can we use some of the the the cool technology that you guys have that can help make our job easier? And that is something that they're going to be um working with us on. And it is some of those things will actually result in money savings for us, too. Nothing major, but um we're going to be able to use some of their software systems. So, it's going to help us improve our efficiency and um it's overall things that are going to help us be more just more efficient and work better as a team with RPD. So, we're excited about that as well. Um, so just to get into how we came to this selection, um, we had a very, very robust, very detailed, um, in the RFP criteria for how all of these were going to be evaluated. There were I think 30 32 to 35 different criteria that the team was the selection committee was going to evaluate each proposer on. Um and there were ratings from 0 to five for each of those those

items under these these categories um that you see here on the left. Um so and then there were different phases. So each of the proposers had to give us two two major pieces. They had to give us a technical proposal and then they had to give us a price proposal. Um, we looked at the technical proposal first, didn't look at the prices, and we just looked, the evaluation committee just looked at everybody's technical evaluation, and we scored those, and we scored those criteria. The committee then met to discuss all of their ratings of each of the four proposals that we received. And if a proposer uh didn't receive more than 70 points on their technical proposal, they wouldn't move to phase two, which meant that we wouldn't even look at their price proposal. So um if they got more than 70 points then we'd look at their price proposal and then we would then we would also consider doing um interviews of short-listed offerers select a preferred offer and then move to negotiation. So, as I mentioned, we did receive four proposal proposals. However, there was only one that actually made it to that 70 point threshold um and made it to that phase two where we looked at the price proposals. So, we did um put here for you guys the um the costs and the points from the other proposers. Vendor one is RAPD dev. So they scored 74 points. But you can see that um we had vendors that had prices

that were higher

um with way less points and we had the next closest vendor pointswise um was below 70 and their price was significantly higher than vendor one which is the the vendor we've chosen. So you can see like what we're not just going based on price. We're looking at technical technical criteria first before we look at price. But you can see like we're what we're trying to achieve is the best value. Um and and make sure that the technical criteria are met first before anything. So um we did we did have consensus amongst the committee um as far as vendor one and we have been in that negotiation process with them for the last um few weeks and um we also did do an interview with them even though they were the only only proposer to to move forward and um we are only asking you to um approve approve the first year as far as the the budget um for this this coming fiscal year. Um but we're asking you to approve the the first four years of the contract if that makes sense. So um but the the next the options you know those are not being asked to be approved now only you know only if we got to that point would we look to execute options. So tonight you you're considering authorizing the city manager to execute the contract with RAPD.

Um we if if you do that then we would issue a notice of award to RAPD by Friday. Then we have 10 days to execute the contract with RAPDEV. um they have to provide us with some things like their insurance and such but um we have 10 days to execute the contract and um then they have 45 days to provide us with some other um documents such as their hiring and onboarding of some of those new positions that I mentioned and they would be you know taking this this transition period um to implement their new software programs and things that they are that are part of this new contract that don't exist at this time. Um and so July 1st is when the new contract would go into effect. So, the motion is to authorize the city manager to execute a 4-year contract with RABD in the amount of 54,899,942 for the operations and maintenance of the Asheville REDS Transit fixed route transit system. And I'm more than happy to answer any questions. questions.

Um, I guess I have two buckets of ideas here. I ride the bus every day. I ride the bus here. I've ridden the bus for 18 years. I really believe that we can do public transit. Well, um, I'm going to start with the bucket that's the messiest. When folks were anticipating and hearing rumors that we were going to stay with the current negotiator, the nicest word I can think of to use is disdain. Um, it's not going well. The current the current contractor,

right? And there because this is a public service and it has Asheville on it, it reflects on us when the bus doesn't show up. um when the bus stops are dirty, when um the transit center isn't cared for, um when the bus runs early, it's even worse. So, one of the solutions that I asked about during peed is can we approve a shorter contract? And I understand from legal that's not an option. It's four or none. So, what happens if the contract isn't able to be met and we need to get out of it? Or we finally decide that we're ready to have a regional transit authority with partnerships with the county and dedicated funding and we're going to do things differently and we want to get out of this contract. How do you do it?

That sounds like a legal question. So, and I'm looking at you.

I'm going to jump right in. I appreciate the nod. Um, so the as as uh Jessica has mentioned here, the contract process follows approval. So we don't have a contract in place right now. That would be done as part of the next stage if council chose to approve this. Um, city staff and my office uh always negotiate to the extent that we are able uh clauses that deal with termination of the agreement. That can be conditioned on certain things. It can even be essentially unilateral. Um, as all contracts go, uh, it requires commitment and agreement by both parties to include the terms of those contracts. But we always try to include provisions that would dictate what would be required to, uh, essentially terminate the contract prior to the end of the term. Um, I would also mention that we always include what's called a non-appropriation clause. Non-appropriation means that if in future years the city council decided not to put funding in its budget um for any particular contract then the contract automatically terminates as a result.

Thank you. That is the fullness that I will explain of how ugly the conversations have been when I have heard that we were staying with our ATP dev. Let's talk about the second bucket because I am hopeful and one of the reasons I'm hopeful today is page seven. Um, this list of new full-time staffing positions, crisis counselor at the transit center, that is a community longtime advocacy transit staff in the city of Asheville heard us. RATP dev has agreed to put it in our contract. It's needed. It's a really big deal. It will improve the everyday lives of drivers and riders and staff and the people around the transit center. um the customer service manager, the human resources team, the automated accountability. Those are reasons that I can say I'm hopeful and I'm ready to approve this contract because if we don't, those things go away and we can't afford for those things to go away. Thank you for hearing my concerns and helping me understand how we get out of it if we need to or want to. Anybody else have a question for staff?

Okay. I don't have a question. I just want to chime in. Um, okay. Wait. Can we let if there's anything process? No. Well, just so she can sit down. Oh, yeah. I'm okay. Or you can just keep standing there. All right. Yeah, I mean more comment either way.

Uh, the service we provide for transit is just really important. It's essential. There's a lot of people who that is their mobility option and it is a true public service. We don't ask like how much do parks cost, can we make a buck. We we say it's a public service. We all chip in through our taxes to provide it. I think with transit it's it's very essential to be for that purpose. Um so moments like these are really big opportunities for us to move forward in advance and I appreciate um Kim the items that you highlighted. There are a lot of improvements to this system based on this contract change and I appreciate that. Um, I also kind of feel like transit is one of those things that, well, let me back up and say I'm thankful for our ATP dev. I think that they are they have operated under certain constraints just like any institution. There's room for growth. But I just kind of want to have it on the record that like, hey, thanks for bidding on us. Thanks for wanting to work with us. you've seen us and what we do and how how we interact with you as a partner and you guys wanted to come back to the table and the progress we've made on us saying let's move in this direction a little bit and y'all meeting us there and you winning through the bidding process. Um you know if you if you follow our neighbors at the county when they do big contract reviews around their garbage haulers, some of them never come back. And I think that we couldn't do this without y'all. So, I just I do want to put out a thank you so that the the only thing on the record isn't disdain because that's not that's that's part of a voice, but I also hear other voices about that about you as a partner.

That is all I wanted to say. Yeah. No. Yes. Okay. So, do we have um any further questions or comments or a motion? Please make a motion to authorize the city manager to exe execute a 4-year contract with RATP dev in the amount of 54 million899,942 for the operations and maintenance of the Asheville Rides Transit fixed route transit system. Second.

Right, we have a motion and a second. I've got a couple people signed up to speak under the sideman. You'll have three minutes each. The first is Rachel Cohen. Hello everyone. My gosh, I've never had to raise the microphone before. Um, good to see you. Short person problem. Um, good to see you. As you know, my name is Rachel Cohen and I'm a member of Sunrise Movement WNC. And I just wanted to mostly come up to say I'm going to voice some confusion and questions about this process that I've voiced in emails and other means of outreach and have not gotten really great engagement on. So I figured maybe if I send them in public I might get a little better engagement. Um so first of all as we always say and as you all know transit is critical for all of us. It is a basic public service and I get so so nervous when we get to a budget year and it's a budget crunch and I've tried to ask many times does this new contract have implications for the level of services that we're providing to our people and haven't gotten really any kind of response to that. So just flag that as a curiosity I have and others might have that curiosity as well. Um, also want to second the concerns not just with this particular for-profit contractor that does some things well and also leaves a lot to be desired in other ways. Um, if we do indeed move forward with this four-year contract, which we basically have no choice for, right? Because even though we had multiple bids, only one company met the basic minimum standards.

That's a red flag for us as a city, right? Because what do we do in the future when the one contractor can extort exorbitant price increases from us because no one else is willing to do this. So I would just like to bring forward that I understand we probably do have to sign this contract and I do see the benefits to it in terms of additional staff etc. that we use these four years to think about what a better model could look like in the future for numerous reasons. One of which we are not good at collaborating with county when it comes to transit or at least we could do a whole heck of a lot better. Excuse I was almost going to use profanity. We could do a whole lot better. Um, so I would like us to focus on how we can work with county to potentially move to a model where we're not paying a forprofit company that milks us for all we're worth and get back to kind of a transit authority situation where we also consider a sales tax to fund transit so that we have a consistent sustained revenue source and we don't have to worry every single budget cycle when we hear, "But transit's expensive. ensive. Yeah, it's expensive and it's critical and we need it and we need to build funding for the future so we can grow the system to be the system we need. Thank you.

Thank you. We just got to clarify if we had a transit authority, we still would need a third party because we legally can't directly manage. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry. We always got Yeah, we got one other person signed up to speak and and I was thinking there was a number of things that um Rachel said that probably need to be addressed. Um, Brianna Jones.

Right, Mom.

Hello everyone. Um, it's good to be here. I brought notes. Not going to use the notes. Um, I'm going to speak from my firsthand experience as someone who moved to Asheville. I ride the bus every single day as it is my primary mode of transportation. But outside of that, I also had, I would say, the dis the displeasure of working for RAPD and Asheville Ride Transit in this city. um this year or this past year, something I noticed was first of all the most egregious management that I think that I've ever experienced in my entire life as a young professional. Um a lot of veteran drivers felt the same. What I noticed as someone who is proactive and someone who deeply cares about the community that I chose to come to to potentially serve for the benefit of myself and others to understand how things can improve and get better is that there is zero connection between you all between city council between any type of hierarchy of decision- making and the current management atpev and they are very aware of that. I witnessed You talk about the the lack of driver retention. Five people get fired in my time there. They had seven to eight open EEOC cases in the very short time that I worked there. And what I realized is that obviously people just do things because they have the ability to. there are no checks and balances and there are no consequences or repercussions. Several of my former colleagues reached out to various people. Um I believe the director of transportation, Ashley Hair, definitely got a couple emails from myself and

others only to be met with it is out of our hands. Um Miss Olman, I know you said that you know you are grateful to Asheville Ride Transit. Personally, I think gratefulness is a very dangerous slide to slide down, especially when it comes to a service that is supposed to be a public service and it is supposed to serve every single person, including the people that work for it. I understand efficiency, but I think that sometimes there is too much focus on things being run efficiently and not ethically. And until that changes from the top down, you will forever, and I mean forever, have an issue with Asheville Ride Transit. So, thank you.

Um, okay. We have a motion and a second to approve this. And I was just looking this up because I know Brad, uh, you said in the agenda review where we talked at length about this item. I wasn't there, but I was able to watch it. Um, you mentioned that because most drivers are in unions and because North Carolina has outlawed collective bargaining for public employees, the practice for cities has been to contract with a provider to provide the drivers to to drive the drive buses. And I was just looking here and it looks like the only exception to that might be Charlotte, which is so big. And maybe you can correct me since you are from and were involved with the tr the transit system in Charlotte.

Yes, mayor. So that's correct. What you're referring to is a state law which uh prohibits local governments in the state from collective bargaining. Meaning that we cannot directly negotiate with any unions. And in this state uh we do have unions uh that essentially encompass uh bus drivers as well as the mechanics for those buses. So essentially the vast majority of um the employees that are absolutely necessary to operate a transit system are part of the unions. So because of this and because of our inability legally to negotiate with them, it is the common practice in this state for all transit agencies to utilize a third-party contractor to run the system who are actually employees of that particular uh agency. In Charlotte, the exception is that uh without going into too much detail that the uh the Charlotte system also has trains as well as buses. The train operators were not unionized prior to the law that established this prohibition. So they actually are able to be employees of the city, not the bus drivers.

So a hybrid system. So and and it looks like most of the other cities in North Carolina are contracting with RP Dip. uh interestingly. So I mean this is a a conundrum in that I get the point if there are very few qualified if only one qualified provider of the service and you need the service uh you are not in a very strong bargaining position and don't have much leverage um at all. We you know we do need to provide this very essential service to so many people in our community. So I mean I'm supporting the renewal of this contract. I wish there was a way to um resolve this issue. I think also Asheville feels the pain more than other communities our size because what I call some of our sister cities like Wilmington or Greenville, North Carolina um or Chapel Hill, North Carolina, they have systems where they're partnering with very large universities to offset their transit costs. Um we we have had extensive exploration with the county uh in the past around the idea of creating a transit authority. It still would be presented with the challenge of funding. Um so it doesn't resolve all issues. Um, and we have we have even talked about using asking the county commissioners to use the state legislation that authorizes them to put on the ballot a quarter cent sales tax referendum to be used for transportation, in this case transit services. There are some counties in North Carolina that have passed that. Orange County, Durham, Wake and Mech, uh, Wake and Meckllinmberg County have passed that. um they they passed it for very different reasons. I think they were being offered the opportunity to invest in light rail and some things that in in some cases um and

so there were and and also their municipalities are much larger relative to their county populations. We have the inverse. We have the city only has about a third of the population in in the city that resides, you know, within our whole county. Um, so I I I think it would take a pretty not I I do think we should explore this with the county, but I think it would take a pretty big effort to kind of pitch it to to county voters as to why a quarter cent sales tax for transit to expand the service and really have a dedicated funding stream for it would make sense for everybody in the county. Um, I think it would, but I think it's given our voting dynamics, I think that would be a little bit of an uphill battle, especially when I look at places like Guilford County and Foresight County that don't yet have it and they already have larger municipal populations um relative to their county. So, just just some benchmarking that I'm I'm looking at. But, um but we do need we do need a long-term way to structurally address funding transit. Uh because the cost of transit relative to our general fund expenditures, especially when you compare us to these other municipalities, you can see that it is a great financial weight. Um but but you know a service that we continue to try to support for our community members.

That's a great segue to what I wanted to share. Um I'm actually not going to be supporting this tonight and it's in recent years I've been very expressive about my concerns about our current transit plan, our current ability to achieve it, the upset that it creates in the community when we can't meet the goals that we've laid out. And you know every it's a really tough budget year. So, for me, everything is coming back to budgeting. And approving this tonight means that this council will raise your taxes to cover the $800,000 in new cost. And it's just for the service that we already have. This isn't growth, right? This is maintaining and some new perks that I feel like are wonderful perks that have been asked for and requested. So, there are some wins. But for me, every time we face a budget, we see a transit increase that is impacting taxpayers. We raise taxes every time to afford the transit service we have. And I'm getting to a point where I feel like the to consistently raise taxes on everyone to support transit. Transit needs to be supporting more residents. It's getting a little out of balance for me. Like the mayor just said, we have a high portion of our general fund money is going to transit. And to Councilwoman Alman's point, it's like we don't say that about parks, you know, we don't go out there and say parks are costing us more, but this one does. Right off the top every year, we've got to rightsize it. And I'm not sure how to do that. I don't have the solution. I do worry though that just renewing the contract, not reflecting on other cuts to make sure we can cover the 800,000, those are they're just not sitting well with me. Um, so I'm not going to be supporting it tonight. I do believe we have support to move it forward. So I'm not worried about the contract, but I hope in the near future we really figure out how to handle this better. It's it's not working. Well, and I feel like I'll just add to the chorus because I've heard three colleagues so far say we want to look at a bigger picture strategy for transit. Continuing to do the same thing every

year with higher costs, with later buses, with not a lot of competition. I mean, there's a lot I could say. Um, but but I do think that this is an opportunity to look at a bigger picture. And I think several of us have said different aspects of that. Whether it's looking at a sustained revenue source, it might be more of a going to the state legislature and asking to have the legislation changed so that the quarter cent sales tax is at the city level. I don't I I just know that we've had cycles of council support and then um we we need some more help to really look at something bigger picture and I think this contract catalyzes that. And yes, we're in it for four years, but honestly, to do a really big picture play that involves state legislation and perhaps a transit authority, it might take four years. So, I love the idea of saying, let's have a four-year shot clock of something new. Um, but I I hope that we can have a bigger picture and I we need to maintain the service in the interim. And just to you know on our list of we we have asked for the legislature to to confine the sales tax referendum to just the city. Uh and our our legislative delegation in the past has sponsored legislation

attempting to do this which means you know which hasn't worked yet but but we can keep on trying and we can keep trying for partnerships with the county right back and forth each year. There's we can keep grasping at straws, but long term we need a better plan. So we have a motion and a second. Just can you confirm, Brad, that we did discuss at planning and economic development because this is a new contract with some new services and new accountability metrics that we have requested more updates at planning and economic development so that we could weave that into the contract or some sort of practice of hearing more about how the new contract is going.

Yep. I think that's absolutely possible and I think you've got transportation staff here which uh can uh cooperate in my office to help include that in the contract. Thank you. Okay, we ready. Yeah. Okay. Are we locked into four years? Yes, because it was in the RFP, but we have two years of renewal after it. Brad has drafted the strongest termination clausy camp. But yes, four years and possibly six or eight. And still keep in mind only one contractor might be out there then too. Do you want to say more things?

I I I think it was answered, but but the short answer is yes. Um it was bid out as a a four-year contract. So, if we were looking at a period of shorter or longer than that, quite frankly, shorter primarily, we would need to start the process over again and rebided under those new terms because all of the price proposals that were submitted to city were based upon that time frame. I did ask um budget staff earlier what the impact of $800,000 in tax increase is to the resident and we don't know that answer yet. So I wanted to share we will find that out but we don't have it tonight.

And some of the way you're saying that it it's not necessarily directly apples for apples there Sage because we just had a two-hour budget presentation that also looked at service cuts that looked at a bunch of different things. So it's not 100% a correlation to just put a tax increase on the back of transit. That doesn't feel fully honest. It's just one of the many pieces we will have to increase taxes. That feels a little more nuanced. I appreciate that. Although, am I misunderstanding? I mean, just not to carry this on forever, but for this year, we're actually sliding over fund balance from um transit. Yes. So, so for this year, we're not raising taxes for transit, but we are recognizing that we we it is an increased contract. So,

in in future years, it will be it will be there will need to be a way to cover that cost for sure. Okay. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Megan Jesus, she's scratching her. She's not res. All those opposed, please raise your hand. Okay. Well, if I were to predict tonight's votes, that wasn't any of any of Okay. Um Okay. the we are done with what's happening in Builtmore Village the printed agenda and yes we have what is happening

we have a number of people signed up to speak under public comment um everybody you will have you will have three minutes to speak except Carol Wheeler you're going to have 10 they're all here from yeah um suspense please watch the lights on the lect turn green means go orange means you're getting ready to stop and red means stop the first person signed up to speak is Vanessa Salamo fis everyone here from Builmore Village.

Oh, I know. Good evening, mayor, council, city manager, city staff, and everybody else left. Um, my name is Vanessa Salamo. I represent Corner Kitchen Restaurant and historic Builtmore Village. And I'm here because I'm concerned about Builtmore Villages recovery following Hurricane Helen. On behalf of the historic Builtmore Village business and property owner community, I want to begin by saying thank you. Thank you to Ben Woody, Rachel Taylor, and Charlie Savage for your ongoing engagement with our district. We recognize the scale of what this city is navigating, and we do not take lightly the time and attention you have given us. We are grateful. We also want to recognize the Asheville Police Department. APD has shown up for Builtmore Village consistently attending our meetings, keeping us informed and treating us as partners. That kind of engagement has meant a great deal to our community and we want to acknowledge it publicly. Builtmore Village was among the hardest hit commercial districts of the city. While much of Asheville has been impacted by Helen, our community experienced a level of damage and disruption that set us apart from most other commercial corridors. Business owners here have taken on significant debt just to reopen our doors. This past winter was one of the slowest economic seasons our district has ever seen. Not because people don't want to be here, but because the infrastructure that makes this place safe, accessible, and welcoming has not been fully restored. We want to be honest with you today. Many of our members feel left behind. That is not an easy thing to say and is not said with anger. It is said because we believe you need to hear it and because we believe this council has the capacity to change it. The speakers with me today will walk through our specific priorities. But before they do, I want to say clearly, we are not here simply to present problems. We are here because

we want to be part of the solution. Builtmore Villages business community is ready and willing to advocate alongside the city for resources, funding, attention from state and federal partners, whatever it takes. We simply need to be at the table when these conversations happen and we're ask we're asking for that seat today. So, thank you.

Mr. Lee. Oh, sorry. She made it sound like it was all coordinated. So, Okay. A little bit. Mhm.

Um, so I'm going to emphasize the same thing. I'm Neil Reid with New Morning Limited Blio Art to Wear in Builmore Village. And I am here because I too as a business operator and property manager. Uh, and as a of several properties, we feel that we're kind of left behind in Builtmore Village. We do greatly appreciate I'll echo what Vanessa has said about all of the department heads the we the mayor and I uh and several members of council have toured with a lot of groups a lot of politicians the governor the attorney general congressmen from all over the country and it's like yep you got problems yeah we're we are the southern corridor into the city of Asheville the Builmore estate is the largest tourist attraction ction. The Builmore Company has been incredible in supporting us and businesses in the village by offering help and cleanup. All of the cleanup has been done privately

and through nonprofits such as Asheville Greenworks, but our corridor, we have buildings that are there that people come into town and we hear this every day. Oh my gosh, Asheville is just messed up. And so we understand that we may need to wait on FEMA funding for things, but there are some things with a cost in a city that is running a deficit and I know your issues uh that we have to address and some of those things are the structures uh that are there. the soccer building if you see it right now. It it just tells tourist stashful is messed up and they go back and they tell people that and it is a big problem if it cost $20,000 to tear that building down or require property owners to do something. I know that we're you you guys are going to talk about this Thursday and I strongly support and everyone in the village supports your efforts to uh go with abandoned buildings. that is a big priority. Um, they create safety risks. I could go down the list, but you know these things, but we have to address it because we're losing business because of the way we look. We have five or six big hotels. We generate hundreds of millions of dollars in hotel stays, taxes. We have hundreds of employees in our small little district and we are a big part of the city. We need to we need to have some attention. The other lights coming so I better get in street lights real quick. Going on two years now, no street lights. The um head of inspections and anecdotally the uh electrical inspector said, "Why don't you just turn them on and see if they work, but we're doing studies after studies and we have no street lights." And it's a continual problem. It is a safety problem and again it's perception that we are just messed up on the main corridor to our largest.

Thank you. Traction I can go on. Yes. Sherry. Yeah.

Sherry. Thank you for having me. Um my family um ran the restaurant at the Cantina Village. Um, and we own the building that that restaurant was in as well as the one that um, Spartina's in, the old liquor store for those who've been here a while. Um, you know, prior to the storm um, we were told that the periodic flooding that we'd have, the storm drains, um, was our responsibility to clean. And there are many, many times, um, on a Saturday evening before the floods came that we were out there cleaning those drains. Um they're not any better, they're worse. Um you know, the last several months um for businesses in the village, many of our owners spent the fall doing whatever it could to reopen, cleaning out their damages, making repairs, taking on debt, and the winter arrived. It was, as necessary painful seasons we've seen. Um, we suspect that the village's storm water infrastructure sustained serious damage during Helen and even prior to the storm. As I discussed, we were experiencing drainage issues during just regular rain events. Um, we had one last week. You know, the flooding's already there. Um, unfortunately, LOS gets to touch that and tells people not to come to the village while we're cleaning out those drains. Um, we understand um and and we're requesting a repair plan again to work with you with a committed schedule and we're willing to help communicate that plan to our community and our advocates for whatever resources are needed to fund it. We understand this requires collaboration with the city and North Carolina Department of Transportation and we encourage you to make those connections as soon as possible as we were just not set up to do that. Um the Ash Citizen Times reported just last week on the city's new storm water management

initiative and we're hoping to see Builtmore Village included in that project scope. We desperately need the city to prioritize storm water management in areas that were already experiencing issues even before Helen and even with just like flooding issues that we have repeatedly raised over many years. Uh another priority is the hazardous tree removal. As you know we cannot remove trees on our own properties. We have to get clearance from you guys. Um, we have a tree at Swan Street in Boston Way that's damaged um and remains in place and poses a a significant safety hazard. The tree has been reported to the city department and in the Asheville app multiple times and we recognize there's a long list of things that this city is working through and we appreciate that. But this particular item is specific. It's addressable and it's in the middle of a district that is trying hard to present itself as open and recovered. We would simply ask for confirmation of when this can be removed and cleaned up and keep us in the loop. Thank you.

Yeah. And we're going to keep calling on um the next speaker is Jenny Serado and I just heard a comment from Sage about this and I I I will ask the manager I think we debated this at the end of this to update us because staff has met with folks just so we understand what's going on.

Yeah. Um, good evening. My name is Jenny Serado and I first of all want to say thank you to all council members and our mayor who do a great job and work very hard for our city. Um, my husband Anthony Sado and I recently purchased a building called um, Builmore Crossing. It is the first building you see as you cross the bridge entering south into Builtmore Village. Um when we decided to move forward with this endeavor, um we we were fully aware of the flood zone that we're in. Um but as we began to go through all the work that it took to put this building back together, um our hearts have gone out to every single business member and neighbor and person that works in the village for what they've all been through. Um, I'm here today to talk about pedestrian safety, um, and district appearance and planned maintenance. Um, so here's my spiel. Um, Builtmore Village is one of a small number of commercial districts in this city where the impact of Hurricane Helen was truly severe. The distinction matters because it means our recovery needs are not the same as those districts that experience less damage. We're not asking for special treatment. We're asking for a level of attention that reflects the level of disruption and destruction we experienced. Sidewalks along Boston Way are damaged prior to as well as in the storm and continue to create hazards for the people who walk through our district. For a business that depends on being approachable and accessible, a broken sidewalk is more than an infrastructure issue. It shapes how people experience this place and can present a liability. We are asking for a repair or replacement plan with a clear timeline, particularly in light of the state's funding announcement last year for this project, and we are glad to work with the city to

help communicate that work to the public as a sign of progress. I want to share something that I think speaks to who we are as a community. In the months since the storm, every cleanup effort along our rideway has been organized and paid for by private business owners and residents within Builtmore Village. We did not wait. We showed up with our own time and our own resources because we care deeply about this place and about the message it sends. But that cannot be a permanent arrangement. The condition of Builmore Village shapes how every visitor and every potential customer perceives Asheville's recovery. Ride-of-way maintenance is a city function. We're asking the cities to step in and develop a coordinated plan and we're ready to partner in that effort. Plan maintenance notification. Additionally, water system maintenance has been occurring with minimal advanced notice during business hours. We're requesting a formal notification process with at least 72 hours of advanced notice and a commitment to schedule maintenance outside of quarter business hours where possible given all of the other issues we're facing with getting people back to the village. I appreciate your time again. Thank you so much and have a great night. Um, Abigail Riley.

Good evening. I'm Abigail Riley. I'm a citizen and a business owner and I worked for this city for 15 years. So, I'm pretty invested in the welfare and future of Asheville. My husband and I own Finch Grocery in Builtmore Village. Before Hurricane Helen, we fed and supplied village employees, neighbors, and tourists. We lost our entire business in the flood. It was as if a bomb had gone off in our tiny little building. When the water receded from over our building, tea bags were hanging from light fixtures and our thousandbes were found on Hendersonville Road. If you're not familiar with where Finch Grocery is, Hendersonville Road is, I assure you, quite a ways for a thousand pound bench to travel. If I never have to smell the mud, the rotting food, the mold, and the mildew I smelled during that time and that cleanup in Builmore Village, it will be too soon. It was 13 months before we were able to reopen. and we're considered the lucky ones. I'm here tonight with my Builtmore Village neighbors and my fellow small business owners to remind folks that we in Builtmore Village are an economic and cultural engine in this city and we would appreciate it if we were treated as such. Have y'all been to the village as businesses have opened and reopened? Have you bought any art or crafts from the Village Artist Market or New Morning Gallery? Books or plants from Gardener's Cottage? Toys from Dogwood Darlings? Have you bought any clothes at all in the village? Kitchen gadgets? Ice cream?

Ice cream.

Have you all directed city staff to use their purchasing power to buy food from the restaurants in Builtmore Village for meetings and department events? Has Builtmore Village been in your mouths and pocketbooks? Because I know Costco has. And I'd like to see council and staff give an iota of thought and consideration to our local businesses in the village that has recently given to Costco. Local businesses that lost everything. Local businesses that constantly fight to stay alive and relevant. Local businesses that defied the odds and reopened. local businesses that buy local goods produced by local makers with ingredients grown by local farmers. And we these local businesses, we're already here. We're already here clothing, supplying, and feeding folks. We're already here paying our property taxes, our fees and charges, and our sales taxes. Y'all don't have to convince us because we quite literally pulled ourselves from the mud and the muck to be here. Thank you,

Travis Taylor.

Hi, I'm Travis Taylor. Thank you for taking the time to listen to uh myself and my peers. Um, I represent the residents and businesses of uh Builtmore Courtyard, which is located on Brook Street in Builtmore Village. I'm also very concerned about the village's recovery uh following Hurricane Helen, as much as my my peers. Some of you may not be familiar with Builmore Courtyard, but I suppose you've heard of some of our businesses. uh Wink Salon, Fig Beastro, Spa, Bitmore Village. But you might not know that there are eight residential condos. There's homes for eight people or eight groups of people in our building. These residents have not been able to return to their homes for 17 months. Can you imagine that? If you had to stay away from your home for 17 months, not able to to go back to your home, I can't I couldn't I don't know what I would do. I know I know some people who are dealing with this. If I were to represent one person tonight at this meeting, it would be Annie Annie Cochran who uh lost her home. She is a US Army vet. She shapes have a disability. She and seven others were trapped on the second floor of our building uh when the flooding got really intense and bad. They had no electricity, running water, and very little communication with the outside world for days. Annie has been able to be very unfortunate not having a home for 17 months to have good friends that she rely on and a community that backs her.

I'd like to take an opportunity to thank uh Abigail just spoke and her husband because they've supported Andy by giving her um employment during this period. So, as you can see, as a community, we support each other. We take care of one another. So, when it's possible for Annie to come back to her home, I'm working hard right now to make sure she has a safe and a healthy place to go back to. Not to be dramatic, but uh we're there. We're there for one another, and we ask the city council be there for us, too. I believe the Builmore Village community. I believe that that the city council believes in us as well. We can't do this on our own, but we are doing what we can on our end. We're asking for your partnership to help us see this recovery to the end. I thank you for your time and consideration tonight. Let's get this done and let's go home.

Thank you. Um, we do have some other people signed up to speak tonight, but I did just want to ask if I know there's been some meetings and I personally have been in Builtmore Village many, many times bringing a lot of people here who want to see and help um with our community's recovery. Um, and I appreciate the staff submitting to the state the you mentioned the um grant that's been awarded to redo the sidewalks in Builmore Village, but I I have also heard the um you know concerns around like why can't the lighting be fixed? Like why why does that have to take so long? Why does the So is there could you just if you wouldn't mind just kind of tell us where we're at right now with the conversation between staff and the the needs that need to be addressed in Builmore Village.

Yeah, Mayor, I'm happy to do that. We are coordinating prioritizing prioritizing coordination with historic Buildmore Village, but I want to let Ben who has been taking the lead on that with staff give an update. And just real quick, and I apologize to those who are signed up to speak, but I didn't want people to get up and leave and not not hear this.

Thank you, Manager Wesley. Ben Woody, assistant city manager. And Rachel Taylor and I did meet with the village about two weeks ago, maybe a little less. And one of the things they were kind enough to do was to provide much of the feedback you heard tonight in writing to Rachel and I as followup. And I'll just say that we are committed. um a lot of what they ask for is just information and that that's something we can do and provide and of course you we'd want to follow that up with response where we can do that. So I think the first step for us is just to make sure we answer their questions and the second step for us is to tell them the timeline from which we can respond to those. And as you can imagine, as you know, council, it it spans multiple departments. So there's a bit of coordination on our end, but we are going to do that. We're going to follow up and we're going to look to um you know address some of the needs that they've raised. So again, that is something that we have identified as a priority to try to work through and be responsive to.

Can you follow up with us too, please? Yeah, I I was going to say if if you could provide the the list of questions and the responsive staff provides for copy to us. We can do that. Thank you. I know there's a lot going on, but and I recall being down in Bilmore Village with Ben early on in the days and um there's just so many pieces, but I if we can shift any prioritization to get some of the simple low hanging fruit cleaned up, it seems like the least we can do right now. I thought we had a lighting fix. I mean, I was in multiple lighting conversations, too. So, I'm I think I appreciate y'all coming and kind of updating us because the historic lighting has not been replaced is is But there's been additional lighting made. Yeah.

Well, I can't wait to dig into the details. Okay. We did get the temporary lighting.

We can't You're gonna Yeah. And this is totally not not not I'm sorry. This is normally just public comment. I understand. And as a as a board member of the board build association, um I don't want it to sound like this is new for us in communication with city staff. Right. So we have archived history of day one of great cooperation with staff coming and listening and saying we're working on it. So the frustration that we have now is that we haven't had any action. Okay. In a lot of these areas. This is not just new communication. Absolutely. So it's just a re-emphasis right now tonight of saying let's use some common sense and get these things. So

So and I appreciate everybody coming tonight staying all the way to the end of the council meeting to do public comment. I I would be glad to to meet again and and go through this list so that if so that you don't have to do this at 8:00 at night at a council meeting.

I have a logistics question since we're engaging in this public comment. Um for several of the business organizations across the city, there are regular meetings and it sounded like because of the staff that were named that's happening and we're regularly engaging. But we also have um capital project dashboard. Are we using the dashboard for recovery projects? So instead of having to do one at a timelines of where it is in the the planning, the funding, the implementation, um are we not at the place where we have a dashboard for that where people can follow along? Um

we do have project pages for some of our major capital projects. Um and so those projects can be updated on the site but I my understanding there are smaller things that we need to take care of that we need to be communicating on as well because it seems like reimplementation is the question right so okay again thank you for for coming tonight and more to come have a couple more questions

the next person signed up to speak is Natasha Can I use Sorry.

That worked. I can see it. Yeah, that's good. It's good. Okay. Um Oh, and then I actually have just in case people want to know.

Okay, cool. Hi. Um, I'm Natasha Schuade. Uh, I came to the budget work session earlier and I wanted to bring a perspective to the conversation that I didn't hear. So, um, one of the things is what are the true costs of parking services to the city? People are struggling to stay in the city because buildings were torn down for many of the parking lots that exist now, such as this example. Um, buildings where more people that can that that parking lot footprint could ever serve, people lived there and worked there. So what are the economic costs of the equipment like the meters, payment machines, the facilities like the offices and storage and also the road maintenance because parking is for vehicle storage. So parking decks are an option but they are built doubly reinforced which means that they take twice the concrete support beams that are used for a building of the exact same footprint. And the concrete industry is the third largest poller globally after China and the US. On an individual level, the true cost of parking implies the cost of the vehicle, the maintenance of the vehicle, and the fuel plus the parking. Another option though is thinking about here's a nice view of Beth um the cost of transit walking or a different method. So if you don't need a car to transport you to and from the places you want to go then you are freed from this whole conversation. The benefits to the whole community and the individual would be priceless. the benefits of human organic giving of life. Imagine the economic benefits of unplanned and spontaneous experiences of

the reduced infrastructure wear and tear. Imagine the conversations we could have instead. So these pictures, the first ones are from Asheville here. And these next pictures are from the Netherlands. And I took these ones in 2025. I took these pictures in 2015 from the same place. And that's what progress could look like. It could be something exciting instead of scary.

Thank you. Um, the next person signed up to speak is Cara Wheeler, who has three people yielding time to her. Just raise your hand when I call your name. Tyler Sullins. Uh Stephen Riblelett and Jess Jessie Perwick, sorry.

And we were sent your presentation prior to the meeting.

All right. Hi guys. I'm Cara Wheeler. I'm your neighbor in West Asheville. Um I'm a bus rider. I'm on transit committee and I'm also part of Strong Towns Asheville. So today I just want to talk to you all about what would it look like to use an incremental step forward to modernize our bus system in a way that isn't cost prohibitive and isn't using a lot of resources at the beginning. What would that net increment look like for mobile pay on bus systems or on the bus? So I'm going to talk about our current state, the demand, previous barriers, and what our current proposal is and other systems that actually use the software and then demo it out for y'all. So, current ways to pay, in case you haven't ridden a bus in a minute, is you can use your dollar as cash um exact change only. You can purchase a ticket booklet from the art station. That's only when they're actually um during their working hours at the art station. You can use a credit or debit card to pay there. Um we also have a discounter program for various residents and various uh groups that people can will get their annual or monthly pass at a discounted rate. And then we also have a system that all of y'all are elig eligible for where you show your city um ID badge to the bus driver. They visually see your badge. They n on you walk on. We have that same program. It's called the passport program that big corporate not big corporations that um you can use New Belgium um Grove Park or Grove in um use that same system where those employees show their ID badge, the bus driver nods them on. Right? That kind of visual checking is what we're already used to in our system. So I see this all the time in various Facebook Reddit posts all about Asheville that says we need other ways to pay. I can is how do I pay? I don't have any cash with me. I could withdraw from an ATM, but I don't want to do that. It's a beautiful city. This was someone who's a tourist from DC who was trying to come to our town. They were

asking about how do I how do I use this bus? How do I what what are the barriers? How can I how can I get on the bus? Um, someone said, "Charlotte, you can purchase it from your phone. How do I do that here for Asheville?" So, there's a lot of people talking about it. Staff responded to that um for that talk and how do we mo how do we modernize in 2024 staff put together proposal for a physical hardware upgrade. So all the pay boxes in the buses would get upgraded was the staff proposal for a quarter million or sorry $250,000 with a $90,000 a year annual reoccurring cost for that system. That was staff proposal two years ago. Uh they presented that to y'all think about August September right before the hurricane and then I know everyone's lives got pretty busy. So that was what was proposed out there. Other systems are using a software only approach. So instead of spending the $250,000 to upgrade the hardware, we say how can we do it with the software. So you buy it in the app. Um Easy Fair and Token Transit are the two major players in this space that other cities are using. I personally like Easy Fair better, but they both work about the same way. you um buy you either load your credit card information into the app or you you have Apple Pay, Google Pay where you click buy ticket. Um whenever you're ready to activate, you click activate for your ticket. That's going to start your trip and that bar is kind of pink and green and purple on this app starts moving so that you can't just take a screenshot of it. So this is what you would show to your bus driver. You have that moving thing with the time stamp. It's that same visual indication that the bus drivers are already doing for Bunkham County City of Asheville staff for passport program staff. It's that same visual indication and that's how they know it's a valid ticket. Um this is the token transit app. It

looks very similar. That circle just kind of goes small to big to small to big. Um but same same exact same concept. So, those are the two systems that are already or the two softwares that already do this. Um, EasyFare, this is the one that I think is fantastic. They've got a lot of different systems who are using it. There's got 19 agencies so far. They have ones that only have seven buses, so it's a small system. And they also have a system that has 500 vehicles in there. So, this would scale with us as we can continue to grow. It's not like additional users would crash the app. um we're kind of right there. We're right in line um with with them. Um I also want to just while we have this here and would love to point out our system with 35 vehicles and the 1.4 million rides um versus the Amtran, another similar system with 500,000. Just love to point that out for transit um on there.

So here's the proposal. We add a mobile pay option for ART. We let the mobile pay. The way the software works is they take a small percentage of the ticket price to cover the the software. That's that's that's how it gets paid for. So maybe we charge mobile pay $150 as opposed to a dollar, whatever that right increment is. So it doesn't end up costing the system anything. And we keep the current pay boxes and current ticketing method. So currently, if you're a cashon user, rock on. You can still use your cash. You can still use your annual pass. We're not taking anything away. We're just adding an option. We're eliminating friction. We're doing that next incremental step to move this forward. Um so this is what it looked like. It took me um less than two minutes by the time I got the app downloaded. Um I just selected a random I did the Tarta um system because I like the name. I clicked um buy with Apple Pay. Right there I have a single ride ticket. Um, so I clicked the buy ticket. Uh, from right there it says I've now got one ticket in my account. And when I clicked activate ticket, that's what my screen looked like. It's that easy. Um, so in summary, we can do mobile pay for buses without changing our Paybox hardware. We don't have to over complicate this. We don't have to go crazy. Let's do one incremental step forward and let's get mobile pay. It would be super helpful cuz how many of y'all right now have a dollar cash on you cuz I don't, right? Like sometimes you just get stranded somewhere, you could take the bus home and you literally just don't have a dollar. So that's that's the proposal. That's the request. So specifically, can you direct staff to go look into this? That's my request.

Thank you. Thank you. Are we responding to public comments? Well, I got You're noting the public comment. That was a really good one. PED agenda. Yes, let's add it to a PE. Hey, it just happened. Now it's on a PED agenda. Um, and we might we might ask our manager to provide us with information about when this was previously proposed to so we understand the history. But yes, it was an equipment cost and it didn't pass because it had an expensive equipment cost and it put cash acceptance at risk. But this does either. The next person signed up to speak is Paul Howell.

Yeah. Can we please it says average is 10%.

I think it's cool that the East and Daddy Street and the block on the ask for partnership. But I also was wondering are the other stakeholders available? Are they able to ask for a partnership as well? That's just something I was thinking about. But I wanted to collect up here when I talking about the block because like I said the last time I was here, the block used to be the center of action for the black community. I mean, we had restaurants from the top all the way to the bottom. Not to mention, we even had Bill Stanley's barbecue and bluegrass right around the corner right there. So, we can listen to bluegrass music this week, listen to R&B, just have a good time. Since 2019, let me make sure I got this right here. There were approximately 100 black entrepreneurs up on the block. Today, there are absolutely zero except for the little hair place. as far as entrepreneurs, restaurants, little shops, record shops, bakeries, stuff like that. We don't have none of that. And since the black people have been kicked out of away from the block, there has not been no more black business downtown. So, black business are missing out on the tourist money big time by being excluded. That goes back again to being progressive. if they can put retail places and all that stuff in this center and not just for the people in that area for East End and for the block but you had other people that was up on that block as well earning a living from Hillrest Shiloh Burton Street. I mean the block was just full of different people working making money and everybody's making money. If they could put provide something like that to bring people back up to where they can be involved that would be awesome.

That would be awesome. Just not just I mean not just for East End Valley Street and the block. You got sisters. I don't know how many of y'all been to sisters. They are trapped off down there in that mitt store doing the best they can but they try to get a building. They try. They try and it's hard for them to get a loan. Not only a loan, but it's hard to get a building downtown. I'm telling you, y'all want to see the tourism money go up, y'all got to bring the black people back down to the downtown. You gotta bring them back. We got too many people visiting this place, asking about places like that. We don't have none. Nobody wants to try to track down a food truck,

right? So, it's good being progressive. I love progressive. Just don't omit the people that need to be progressed with. That's all. Y'all have a nice evening. Thank you. Um, and our last person signed up to speak tonight is Jonathan Wayne Scott.

Yeah, my name is Jonathan Wayne Scott and you know I was going to mention that the Newton Shepard sign is still wrong. You know, it's a history lesson that goes back to 1881. Tonight, listening to all these public comments tonight, I'm just thinking about uh how much we don't learn at anything at all from history, how unimportant it is to us. And I hear uh my heart breaks for all of the people who are suffering in Builtmore Village. You hear this, this is this is something that happened 18 months ago. 18 months ago. But I wonder how many people can even remember the name of the hurricane that happened in 2018 was Florence. devastated North Carolina. The program to rebuild it was just horrible. Our governor did a horrible job rebuilding that community. The people who were homeless in transitional housing for four or five years. I don't think that there's a person in this room who is going to live long enough to see Asheville the way it was on September 26th, 2025. It took decades to rebuild Builtmore Village, one vacant building after another, couple every year, decades of that rebuilding. Currently, the level of occupancy on Swanoa River Road out to the lows and that whole, it's got to be lower than it was in the 1800s when it first started getting developed. I don't think that the scale of this devastation has even really sunk into the people who live here. I mean, I live 800 ft from the French Broad River and have for 26 years. intimately aware of the devastation obviously and you know I I I'm not angry at anybody up here for this having not been

rebuilt in a year. There's no way it can get rebuilt in a year and you know and I just think some of these projects that we have going forward you know I guess the you know performing arts thing is probably never going to get off the ground. Should we even be bothering with that? Could we borrow money? I mean, all of these bonds that we take out and that we as a community borrow to build, that's the only way that we're going to be able to tear these buildings down. They're going to be, you know, dilapidated structural nuisances for decades because it's the property owner's responsibility. We put the storm water uh responsibility on private property owners in this town. So, I mean, our efforts to rebuild here, nobody's coming. Nobody's coming to help. We didn't help. I mean, what did what did the people of Asheville do for the uh people in eastern North Carolina when Hurricane Florence happened? We don't remember that. We have no like you go a couple hundred miles away from this area and Helen is like, "What is that again?" We'll never forget that name, the people who live here, but you know, we'll be forgotten by everybody else. So,

thank you. On that note, we are journal.