Disturbing aspects cited in two Merriman projects

You may be surprised to learn that City Council lacked review authority over the new Merrimon Avenue Harris Teeter and Trader Joe’s projects.

Another disturbing fact: the last City Council allowed the Harris-Teeter investors to keep the property’s “highway-business” zoning despite its location within an historic, walkable neighborhood situated at the gateway to downtown.

“Highway-business” is a zoning designation given to interstate truck-stop or “motor miles.” 

The Harris-Teeter project isn’t all bad. However, it’s basically a suburban stripmall and a wasted opportunity.

Asheville’s 2025 Plan states: “Protection, preservation and enhancement of existing neighborhoods must be as much a part of our development pattern as promoting new construction.”

Planners realize that traditional development has led to serious health and environmental problems. Smart planning encourages walkable neighborhoods and gets people out of their cars.

The Harris Teeter investors own several adjacent properties and have asked council to rezone those in exchange for basic concessions to the city and neighborhood.

It’s a bully tactic, but the neighborhood is willing to support them if they will add one more: no fast food drive-thrus. Fast-food drive-thrus hurt neighborhoods. Idling cars pollute the air with carbon monoxide and other noxious chemicals. Drive-thrus result in increased traffic and litter. They contribute to the obesity epidemic and rising health costs. 

But greed is greed, and civil responsibility seems to be a very low priority. They do not even have to contribute to traffic calming around the site.

When the matter went before council, the developer asked to have the vote postponed to Feb. 12 due to Mayor (Terry) Bellamy’s absence. (Bellamy and Councilman Jan Davis helped the investors keep the highway-business zoning on a previous council.)

The five newer members of council voiced their support of the community and of taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen to the next neighborhood. 

Columnist’s notions of ‘radical fringe’ challenged

Cecil Bothwell wrote in a January 2013 article “Unplugging the trigger” in the Daily Planet:

"“But here, where gun ownership is extrolled by a radical fringe, gun ownership is extolled and gun deaths are relatively common.” (extrolled in article.)

Cecil again doesn’t mind labeling local mountain citizens as radical fringe, the ones he and his liberals have been pushing out replaced by a more normal “Little San Francisco?”

 LifeNews Jan/2009 reported Bothwell wrote “the human fetus is a not a child, but a parasite.”  Bothwell was born in Oak Park, Illinois, according to Wikipedia, home of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. I don’t remember anyone referring to Oak Park residences as parasites of their mothers, especially Frank Lloyd Wright’s son who was born there.

Fringe? Cecil needs to stop parroting the talking points of The New York Times’ elites in Gotham City. People who disagree aren’t fringe. They’re Americans ... many locals probably tired of Cecil’s ongoing rants.

I read Cecil was originally elected when only 14 percent of Democrats showed up at the voting booths. It allowed Cecil a win by, what, a fringe?

House Bill 552, sponsored by Rep. Tim Moffitt and signed into law by Gov. (Bev) Perdue on June 28, 2012, directed the City of Asheville to turn over title to certain WNC Ag Center properties.

To this date, the city has not complied with this directive and instead contemplates action that would control the conduct of gun shows on those same properties.

In April 2012, the General Assembly’s Legislative Research Committee directed the City of Asheville to effect a merger of their water department with the county’s sewerage system into a reorganized, locally-operated regional water authority that would continue the mission of serving water and sewer customers on a wider scale with greater efficiencies and fairer representation.

Instead, they have held an irrelevant and insular referendum, passed antagonistic resolutions, voted down reasonable proposals by MSD, conducted propaganda forums and coordinated oppositional activism, all aimed at thwarting the good faith process called for by the committee.

As with the Ag Center, the city has shown every sign of repeating a pattern of stubborn recalcitrance with the water merger and I urge the General Assembly to take full control of this matter and expedite the merger without compensation at its earliest availability.

Planet’s editorial accused of lacking in compassion

Your blame-the-victim editorial (in January’s Daily Planet headlined “Why so unprepared in N.Y., N.J.?”) was as petty as it was mean-spirited.

The sort of damage requiring federal aid is, for one of many major examples, the billion and a half dollars of flooding damage to N.Y. University Hospital.

People preparing little bags of food for themselves has nothing to do with it.

Water system merger? It will hurt everyone

In this time of fiscal crisis, the takeover of the Asheville water system proposed by the state and MSD will do no one any good.  No government and no business or family will gain any benefit from it.  

It is a taking, the equivalent of a condemnation, and one that violates our system of government.  Since the Magna Carta and the Constitution, and even before, government responsibilities have always been shared between state and local governments, whether counties or municipalities.  The roles played by state and local governments have always been mutually respected.  

It is acknowledged that Asheville has been an excellent manager of the water system.  For the city, the appropriation of the system would create a structural deficit in the city budget that will not be possible to fill except by raising the property tax.

MSD, presumably in agreement with state representatives, has proposed a level of compensation of $57 million over a 10-year period.  Again, there is widespread agreement that this figure is far less than the true value of the system.  

Apart from the gap between true value and proposed compensation, the method proposed for the compensation creates problems for all involved.   This is because there is only one source of funds involved.  The only way to pay for any compensation is to raise the water rates paid by the businesses and residents who use the water.  There are no other funds that could be used. 

City ratepayers would have to pay higher water rates for the compensation of their own city for losing the system, and since the compensation would only be partial at any rate, they would also have to pay higher real estate taxes to fill the budget gap. 

Out-of-city Buncombe County water ratepayers would also have to pay higher water rates for the proffered compensation to the city.  

If Henderson County is added in, the same applies to those users.  Their water rates would have to be raised to pay the compensation to the city.    

And all of those paying the higher water rates would receive no water-system benefits whatsoever for their extra payments.  The money would simply be used for the extra expense of compensating the city.  Not a penny of it would be used to improve water quality or the efficiency of the water system.   

And for the local governments of the state in general, this aggressive takeover of local resources and powers will probably usher in more of the same for others.

Finally, for the entire citizenry of North Carolina, whether in incorporated or unincorporated areas, the outcome would be disrupting local government to a dangerous and unprecedented extent.  Local governments play indispensable roles in providing social services, police and fire protection and infrastructure for jobs and economic development. 

I hope there will be a more rational approach in the best interests of water ratepayers and their valued local governments.  I hope the state will think this through before committing a serious mistake 

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 EDITOR’S NOTE: Nutter heads Nutter Associates, Community Planners & Development Professionals, based in Asheville. In a note to the Daily Planet, Nutter noted, “I am a city planner with experience in planning for water and other utility systems. My sources of information include reports issued by the Metropolitan Sewer District and the City of Asheville, attendance at Asheville City Council and Metropolitan Sewer District meetings and newspaper coverage over the past year.”

Water fluoridation story praised; questions raised

I want to commend you for your article about water fluoridation (in the December 2012 issue of the Daily Planet).

I also want to ask you if you are aware of the recent study conducted by Harvard University about water fluoridation? The study found a significant drop in IQ in areas most fluoridated, and even drops in IQ with small amounts of fluoride added to the water.

Here is a link to the study: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/features/fluoride-childrens-health-grandjean-choi.html

I am also curious why there is no public debate about this? This is something the local TV station should take up....

William Connelly