From Daily Planet Staff Reports

Asheville’s Technical Review Committee on July 7 unanimously approved — with conditions — plans for Parkside, a nine-story condominium building just west of City Hall that have raised a public uproar in the community.

The downtown project still must receive approval on a number of issues from City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners before construction could start.

The TRC’s job is to ensure technical compliance with zoning and building rules.

After the vote was taken, about 50 people who packed the TRC’s meeting room in City Hall chanted “Shame!” The session drew an overflow crowd that included developer Stewart Coleman. As some of those who spoke against the proposal left the meeting, others were allowed in, including Coleman.

Upon his admittance to the meeting, the suit-and-tie-clad Coleman alternated between taking copious notes and staring fixedly at several project opponents seated nearby.

The TRC vote was the last level of review mandated for Parkside in the city’s process for considering building projects.

The approval followed developer Stewart Coleman’s reduction of the planned building to a size just less than 100,000 square feet, which enabled the project to bypass approval from council.

At a meeting on July 15, council is scheduled to discuss options for halting or modifying the project. Possibilities include a land swap that would give Coleman property on the south side of Marjorie Street in exchange for the Parkside site. Project opponents say they have gathered over 1,000 signatures on a petition urging the city or county to re-acquire the property instead through the process of eminent domain.

The Marjorie Street property is considered the city’s most valuable, at nearly $4 million in total, while Coleman reportedly paid $322,000 for the Parkside parcel.

Opponents who spoke at the TRC review raised technical as well more general objections — such as the destruction of a magnolia tree on the property — which the TRC said it could not consider. The technical objections, which TRC members considered and rejected, included lack of a traffic study on a road in front of City Hall the development would require, police concerns about emergency access on Marjorie Street during construction and an allegation that not including the police department among the voting members of the TRC violated the city’s Unified Development Ordinance.

The TRC’s conditions for the Parkside project to proceed include a number of permits and easements from the city and county government.

Coleman’s plans call for a street near the front side of the building connecting Spruce Street and the small loop in font of City Hall. Most of the street would be located on land owned by the county and some observers have predicted that the commissioners would not allow it.

Also, the county would have to agree to an easement saying it would not build on land to the east of Parkside if, as currently planned, that side of the building has windows.

After the July 7 meeting, Coleman reportedly said the project could move ahead without the road if necessary.

However, Coleman’s statement ran contrary to what TRC chair Shannon Tuch said during the session. If the road is eliminated, Parkside would have to start all over again with reviews by the Downtown Commission, Pack Square Conservancy and the TRC, Tuch stated earlier.