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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 16:06 |
By DAVD FORBES
Asheville City Council on April 10 voted 6-1 to stop pursuing the purchase of the McCormick Heights public housing apartments.
ìIn December, council voted to try to acquire this for a mixed-use housing development,î Mayor Terry Bellamy said. ìIn the course of doing our due diligence, we discovered that due to the restrictions on the property, this was not possible.î
However, she said that she did not regret the cityís decision to become involved, as the city provided aid and funds for current residents to find other housing before the current owner, Progress Energy, lost the property because of the debt surrounding it.
ìIf we hadnít pursued this, we would have had a lot of families evicted right around Christmas,î Bellamy said.
Councilman Carl Mumpower, who cast the lone dissenting vote, did so in protest of the cityís involvement.
ìThis is not something we should have been involved in,î Mumpower said.
ìWe rushed in carelessly and I hope weíll learn a lesson from this.î
ï Heard remarks from Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods President Joe
Minicozzi, criticizing city police for their policies relating to truck
traffic on Maxwell Street near the Greenlife grocery store.
He noted that Reid Thompson, who has extensively criticized Greenlifeís
loading dock ó and pronounced its proximity to the street illegal ó had
been written a ticket for unsafe movement.
ìHe asked the police, six of them showed up, if they would enforce all
the laws,î Minicozzi said. ìIím asking council to rescind the policy
that the police had put in place that allows this sort of thing. While
I was at Mr. Thompsonís house, I saw six trucks use Maxwell street and
one go up on the sidewalk.î
In reply, Bellamy noted that the policy was an administrative one ≠ó and not under councilís jurisdiction.
City Attorney Bob Oast also noted that the truck on the sidewalk was
legal. ìThe law says that a business may make reasonable use of
surrounding sidewalk space and that clearly falls under that,î Oast
said.
ï Approved 6-1 an amendment to the cityís Animal Control Ordinance to allow the ceremonial release of birds.
The dissenting vote came from Mumpower, who asserted that the city should not be regulating this matter.
ìI just donít think we should be in the business of bird control,î Mumpower said.
In response, Councilwoman Holly Jones said that the revision is
intended to allow ìsomeone who raises doves and is currently not
allowed to do this.î
Councilman Bryan Freeborn added that ìweíre allowing her to operate a business.î
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