From Staff Reports

Three people claiming to be descendents of George Willis Pack have sued Buncombe County over the sale of land their ancestor donated to the county in 1901.

The lawsuit filed in Buncombe County Superior Court last Friday aims to block plans for a 10-story condominium building in front of City Hall.

The suit says the sale last November of a parcel of land adjacent to City-County Plaza violates the terms of Packís donation to the county.

Pack, a timber baron who retired in Asheville, donated the land to the county for the courthouse and for public purposes, the lawsuit argues. That land includes the property county commissioners sold to developer Stewart Colemanís Black Dog Realty.

The sale included 3,153 square feet of park space where a magnolia tree sits, as well as an alley, an old building and a small embankment. Altogether, the property sold to Coleman comprises 7,740 square feet.

The sale was approved by commissioners in less than five minutes in November and received little public attention until a July story in the Asheville Citizen-Times revealed that the property had been sold for roughly half its assessed tax value.

The county tax office changed that assessment the day before the story ran, bringing it closer to the sale price.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Louise Pack Metcalf, Barbara Pack Holcombe and Michael Lawrence, say they do not want the land back, but want to ensure it remains a park.

The Pack Square Conservancy, the nonprofit charged with renovating the park, also has criticized the sale.
However, Coleman says the sale has been reviewed by several lawyers, who say it was legitimate.

Commisionersí Chairman Nathan Ramsey also reportedly said that the sale was legal.