By JOHN NORTH

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Updates on recent activities and problems — and plans for 2013 — were unveiled by managers of the City of Asheville and Buncombe County during a breakfast meeting of the Council of Independence Business Owners on Dec. 7 at Asheville’s Biltmore Square Mall.

Giving separate addresses to the CIBO were City Manager Gary Jackson and County Manager Wanda Greene. More than 50 peopled attended the early-morning session.

The report by Jackson and other city officials, coupled with questions by CIBO members, occupied most of the meeting, so Greene, who spoke at the end with limited time, mainly focused on the lingering election challenge over second-place for the District 2 commissioners seat.

Greene said the issue has captured statewide attention and that she hopes it will be resolved soon, so that a full commission can address pressing issues.

Speaking earlier, Jackson lavishly praised Robert Griffin, director of the city’s development services department, for improvements the latter has made in that unit.

“We’ve been on a mission since 2004,” when it was decided that “we need to fix our development services department,” Jackson said. He commended “Robert and his staff for becoming a one-stop shop,” so that those seeking to make improvements know there is “one place to go” to deal with the city for their projects.

Jackson added that Griffin and his assistants “are now creating process — or case — managers ... What we’re going to create is a quarterback — a process manager. Someone who tracks the process” to its conclusion.

“This is about changing the culture,” the city manager asserted. “It’s changing the 15 people in the department from ‘My job is getting it right’” to a point where they can report on “what came in, what came out and ‘Did we do it as expeditiously as possible?’”

As for those considering undertaking building projects in Asheville, Jackson told the CIBO members, “We know you have other choices (outside of Asheville) on where you spend your money,” so the city government aspires to make the process as simple and easy as possible.

Next, Griffin said the continued efforts to streamline his department will “probably” result in the modification of its organizational charts.

Among “several of the things we’re talking with employees about ... is we’re talking about economic development.”

Further, Griffin said, “The codes don’t always make sense for a particular project ... We’re trying (to help customers) meet codes with the fewest problems” possible.

He noted that his three areas of emphasis are timeliness, accuracy and consistency. “We hope we become a partner in the development industry, rather than” being regarded as a difficult hurdle to clear.

At that point, CIBO member Mac Swicegood told Griffin, “I’d like to commend you” for the improvement in city operations. “You’re on the right track....”

However, Swicegood added, “Merrimon Avenue seems like one of the most dysfunctional messes I’ve ever seen,” with several construction projects dragging along and traffic clogged with the situation likely to get worse as a new Harris Teeter and Trader Joe’s open.

Griffin did not voice disagreement with Swicegood’s assessment of Merrimon, but he noted that the street is under the control of the state, so cannot do much about the situation.

Addressing Swicegood’s concerns about the delay in the construction of the Harris Teeter grocery store, City Councilman Jan Davis said, “Often-times, when you have a multi-faceted project ... There’s errors on both sides of that fence.” Davis noted that the site involved a number of parcels that had to be rezoned.

Elaborating further on behalf of the city, Jackson said, “We’ve got a tracking system on the project ... The (project’s) engineer had not submitted a rezoning request (on Merrimon) for several parcels,” resulting in the delays.

Davis also discussed the River Arts District and the efforts — launched eight years ago — to clean up the French Broad River, which flows through Asheville. He praised RiverLink restoration group for generating much interst in cleaning up the river and the riverbanks in the RAD.

“We got planning money for development of the roadway through there,” Davis said. He noted there had been much talk recently about a proposed straightening f a 2.2-mile stretch of road through the RAD that might have to cut through the 12 Bones Smokehouse property on Riverside Drive.

In defending the road straightening, David asserted, “You have to plan.” Those who have investments or are considering investments in the RAD “need to know” the plan. “Aligning that road is very important.”

Next, Stephanie Pankiewicz, the city staff liaison with the River Arts District Transportation Improvement Project, said, “The point of this is to provide certaintly for business owners ... if they want to put money” into the RAD. “We’re basically making this (area) development-ready.”

She added, “So this is about a partnership between public and private sectors and nonprofits....”

Pankiewicz noted that the 2.2-mile stretch of roadway along the river will involve “a massive change on Riverside Drive and Lyman Street within about five years. There will be an extensive land acquisition project.”

To that end, she noted that the city recently completed acquisition of the dilapidated Ice House property on Riverside Drive in the RAD, after a late-October murder occurred there.

Davis said of the RADTIP, “It’s not designed to put people out of business ... Obviously, with New Belgium (brewery)” moving soon into a site along the river in the RAD, road changes needed to be made to accommodate the increased traffic.

Someone asked, “How does the funding work?”

“This is a city roadway ... It’s not necessarily a Department of Transportation project,” Jackson replied. He said it will be a $50 million project. “We need to capture some of the development” dollars that are out there for the RAD “and plow it (the proceeds) back into it.”

In a brief presentation on “the state of the county,” Buncombe County Manager Wanda Greene noted that the two District 2 commissioners still had not been sworn in because of a dispute over the narrow margin between the second- and third-place finishers for the two seats. 

She noted that, as the result of legislation in Raleigh, Buncombe’s Board of Commissioners has been expanded from four to seven seats, with two from each of three districts and the chairman. “We’ve not had that before,” Greene said.

“Since the recount, we’ve seen a flip of the candidate who finished second” in District 2. She noted that a hand recount of the roughly 48,000 ballots the next day. (The recount later showed Democrat Ellen Frost with an 18-vote margin over Republican Christina Merrill. First-place District 2 finisher, Mike Fryar, a Republican, had not been sworn in by Christmas, pending decision on Merrill’s various election challenges.)

As a result, Greene said the commissioners’ Dec. 3 meeting, with only five of seven commissioners sworn in, action was postponed on many important items of business until the Jan. 15 meeting so that the full board could decide on them.

“All eyes are on Buncombe,” she noted. “It move to the top of the docket” of election challenges, “so hopefully it’ll be decided in six to eight weeks.”

Greene also said that county tax revaluations “will go out on Jan. 3.” In general, she pointed out that “we’re seeing the greatest shift in raw land,” with values declining.