By JOHN NORTH
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The attorney for the plaintiffs seeking to save from demolition the Vance Monument — the centerpiece of downtown Asheville since 1898 — planned to file a new lawsuit as early as possible May 6 in Buncombe County Superior Court to prevent the City of Asheville from later that day beginning removal of the obelisk’s granite base and disposing of the blocks already removed that are in the city’s custody.
Conceivably, the city could begin taking action to remove the base and deal with items already in storage.
Specifically, H. Edward Phillips III, the plaintiffs’ attorney, noted in a brief May 3 telephone interview with the Daily Planet that the monument’s base is its only portion that still remains on Pack Square and that, besides keeping the city from destroying it, the plaintiffs also want assurances that the stones and other pieces from its tower will continue to be protected.
Ultimately, he said, the new lawsuit’s quest is to have the monument rebuilt and preserved for future generations at its current location or some similarly prominent location in the city — and which, the plaintiffs note, may have been damaged before the previous litigation over its fate was even completed.
Previously, the plaintiffs, the Society for the Historical Preservation of the 26th North Carolina Troops, sought to stop the City of Asheville from demolishing the landmark in a case that went from the Buncombe Superior Court to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and, finally, to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The plaintiffs met with defeat in each court, with the superior and appeals courts stating that they lacked “standing,” while the high court ruled that the plaintiffs do have “standing.”
However, the state’s highest court stated, “... we reverse the Court of Appeals determination that plaintiff’s breach of contract claim should be dismissed for lack of standing, thereby underscoring the position taken by the plaintiffs that they have standing.”
During the litigation to save the monument, the city began demolition of obelisk, removing all of the stones in the tower, leaving the base intact — until the court finally ordered the city to “cease and desist” on the razing until the litigation over the monument’s fate was completed.
The city complied and — as City Attorney Brad Branham had assured the Daily Planet repeatedly in interviews — is storing the monument’s stones and others pieces from its tower in undisclosed warehouse locations in the city — and that the city plans to dispose of them when the litigation ended.
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