WABA Meeting, 6/25/2014
Meeting introduction by Alice Oglesby, WABA covered:
Haywood Road Vision Plan – starting in 2003
- Passed by City Council in 2014
- City chose Haywood Rd. as test area for Form-based Code because we were so organized with Vision Plan
West-Asheville.com is updated and has lots of information
- NOTE: Business Support: Graffiti, Animals, Marketing Opportunities
Haywood Bike Infrastructure
Asheville on Bikes and City of Asheville Bike/Ped requested meeting with WABA to discuss:
- Haywood as a test area for bike corrals
- Parking is a major challenge in WAVL
- Seeking input from businesses about parking and desire for bike corrals
To facilitate an informed discussion about potential bike corrals, updates were presented on City Infrastructure and the Form-Based Code for Haywood Road.
Haywood Infrastructure Updates
Greg Shuler, Public Works Director, City of Asheville
- Craven Street contract with Tennoca approved – stream restoration, greenway, bike/ped improvements and Craven as complete street
- Haywood Rd. multi-modal—bike lanes on Haywood (Craven to Beechums Curve), letting contract by July 2014, working with DOT
- Passed around diagrams
- EWANA working with city of decorative elements in the sidewalk
- Vermont Ave – being repaved this season
- 240 and Haywood intersection—this will be adjusted
- Turn at Hanover to Haywood –radius will be adjusted in the next 12 months
- Haywood as DOT road– currently a DOT road; would the City ever take it over – not aware of that being on the table; desire for City to hold the road to streamline improvements along Haywood; DOT is more open to process now than ever
- Street sweeping – City is sweeping Haywood, but it is DOTs responsibility; seeking more sweeping, work with Greg, Barb and Marsha; WABA does street clean ups and we are seeking support from the City
- Neighborhood Sidewalk Program – City Council approved budget on 6/24/14; $100,000/year for new neighborhood sidewalks; West Asheville will be given as much consideration as any neighborhood; multi-modal study will help City refine selection tool to choose which sidewalks will be updated
More information: City website, Transportation Department section:
http://www.ashevillenc.gov/Departments/Transportation.aspx
Haywood Road Form-Based Code Overview and Update
Alan Glines, City of Asheville Planning
Plan found online at: http://haywoodroad.code-studio.com/
- 2.5 miles from River to Patton, came out of Haywood Rd. Vision Plan
- New zoning for Haywood Road
- Highlights:
- 6 sections of Haywood, including expansion sections
- Clustering commercial in sections of the corridor; residential in other areas
- Area along Patton Ave. has a different feel than the rest of Haywood
- Story limits depending on section of Haywood
- Residential zoning suggested near Craven and Haywood with a goal of getting people to continue up the street to the commercial area and not have people stop before getting to Haywood Road main business area
- Pedestrian-oriented code: parking to side or rear of new buildings; buildings pulled toward the sidewalk/street
- Issues covered: height (2 stories at least for any new building), building setbacks, rules for window and doors, no density or building size cap, parking relaxed, buffer space for neighborhood edge to minimize impacts on residential
- Issues still being worked on: height, reviewing the parking table of uses (different types of business needs), parking study (coming up with parking solutions), allow for step back (two stories along street/front edge then step back 10’ to add more stories-keep feel of the corridor and community character)
- Want to keep light industrial on the corridor
- Windows: Would it be ok to put curtains or graphics behind the window along the street (like Trader Joes or Harris Teeter)? On FBC – there are some specifications about this, but we want the buildings to be built to last 100 years and serve a variety of uses
- Next Steps
- August 21, 2014 – being considered by Planning and Zoning
- Late July- Letters sent to notify property owners and adjacents (about 1,200)
- Meetings on-going with corridor stakeholders
- On-line presence sharing updates
- Contact/Questions: Alan Glines aglines@ashevillenc.gov – get in touch now
Bicycle Corrals Along Haywood Road
Barb Mee, City of Asheville Ped/Bike Planner and Mike Sule, Asheville on Bikes
What is it?
- Bike parking on Haywood Road
- Need minimum of 8’ on sidewalk to add bike rack
- Alternative: parking space or almost parking spaces to put in a bike corral
- Corral can be plain or fancy, covered parking is ideal to keep bike seat dry
- DOT and City are talking, willing to work together on this
- Seeking support and input from businesses on Haywood Rd. and where would you put them
What is the value of on street bike parking?
- City making considerable investment in active transportation
- More people are riding, where do they park, where do they stop?
- AOB has a bike corral program (festivals and events and asked by businesses at times to set up)
- 2007, parked 25 bicycles, now parking about 100 bicycles
- 2013 – parked 2,350 bicycles between May and October
- One rack in a single car parking spot, fits 15 parking spots for bikes
- Those who ride bikes, don’t bring their car and thus this open up parking spots
- When cyclists know there’s parking and they are welcome, they patronage that business (example: Wedge)
- Not enough bike parking on Haywood, negatively affects the pedestrian experience when bikes are parked in ped space due to lack of racks
- Portland study on protected bike lanes—when people ride bikes, they spend 24% more at the businesses that have bike infrastructure accommodations
- More info: mike@ashevilleonbikes.com
Would WABA support this? Who might be willing to explore this concept?
- Contact Barb Mee if you like or dislike this idea: ibike@ashevillenc.gov
- Rainbow Community School – offering space next to Rainbow along Haywood for bike parking
- Sunny Point – adding bike parking between house and restaurant
- Westville Pub – putting bikes in front of the building
Opportunity to sponsor a bike rack?
- Barb is interested in walking through the City and DOT
- With DOT ordinances, there are some restrictions
- AOB can tell the cycling community where to find racks and who is sponsoring it (social media and website)
- See this as a responsibility of the City and DOT to provide this parking, particularly along the street; see the sponsorship idea and the support of the concept of separate
More info on City Bicycle & Pedestrian Services can be found on the City website: http://www.ashevillenc.gov/Departments/Transportation/TrafficEngineering/BicyclePedestrianServices.aspx
More info on Asheville on Bikes: http://ashevilleonbikes.com/
Elections for WABA Board – Fall/Winter 2014
- Seeking nominations for WABA board
- Mission: advocacy, education, marketing, networking
- Upcoming events: monthly gathering (WABA Wednesdays) starting in July
- Fall Haywood Road Clean Up – Saturday, September 20
- CONTACT: secretary@west-asheville.com if you are interested in helping to sponsor the Fall Clean Up. Update: Westville Pub has volunteered to be the meet up point for Fall Clean Up.
- Same format as Spring event: 10 a.m. breakfast, followed by clean up until 1 p.m., returning to WALK for post clean up beers
- Desire to have some of these on Sundays because some businesses are open on Saturdays – will alternate scheduling
- Quarterly meetings at least going forward
MEMBERSHIP: form online, $50/year, join today!
SHARE NEWS on website: secretary@west-asheville.com
Graffiti Ordinance/ City Support for Clean Up
Cathy Ball
- Program starts July 1, 2014
- Download AVL app, early register to get City support for clean up
- Graffiti is illegal, City is putting out $300,000 from July 1 to October 1, 2014 to remove graffiti
- Program in place:
- Civil penalties
- Property owner contacts City to request removal of graffiti (not neighbor contacting city for another’s property)
- City contacts a contractor to remove graffiti
- Cap/building/offense is $500 – property owner pays any overage
- 3,300 hours worth of work available within $300,000
- Will be painted with grey paint; property owner needs to provide any other color desired
- Property owner will have 7 days to clean it, regardless
- Beyond 7 days, property owner pays for clean up, City provides contractor
- Within 7 days, City will provide $500 toward clean up
- If this program doesn’t work, it will be altered
- Brochures available to share with other businesses
- Feedback welcome: cball@ashevillenc.gov
More information at: http://www.ashevillenc.gov/Departments/CommunityRelations/ProjectsandInitiativesInformation.aspx
123 Graffiti Free Asheville – Graffiti Clean up Program PDF file
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24388865/20140623_123-Graffiti-Free-FLYER.pdf
Marsha Stickford, Neighborhood Coordinator/Volunteer Coordinator for City of Asheville had brochures available about living with Bears and Coyotes in our City. Connect with Marsha at mstickford@ashevillenc.gov
Meeting concluded.