From Staff Reports 

The City of Asheville’s form-based zoning and recent changes and amendments in the Unified Development Ordinance were explained to the Council of Independence Business Owners — and drew some criticism — during an Oct. 4 breakfast issues meeting at Asheville’s Biltmore Square Mall. About 50 people attended

Making the presentation was City Planning Director Judy Daniel.

She first told about changes related to signage and agricultural uses. “In the past, there were confusing aspects,” Daniel said. “Industry is very important to us and we want to get those high-paying jobs here, when we can.”

Daniel said the changes would include level three, which would be required in the industrial district; level 2, for final approval in the industrial district; “and anything below that is just a level one”

Another change is related to reducing the open space requirements, she said. The reduction is from 15 percent to 5 percent in the commercial/industrial district.

“The second set of changes relate to signs,” Daniel noted. “The first is a clarification (where) when you’re putting up a new sign, you must take down the old sign first.” In addition, a multi-tenant commercial development change was made “to allow additional signage where you have frontage on other streets ... Now you can have an off-premise sign…. This expands the use of signs.”

She said “the most significant change” is an “extended annexation period from five to seven years for signs.”

The last set of changes adopted by the council relate to agriculture, Daniel said. “There’s a large group of mostly younger people who want to do farming within the city limits. Now, you could not only farm that land, you could put up a building and even put up a farm stand. So I’m very happy to announce these changes.”

As for the form-based zoning code (on Haywood Road in West Asheville), she said the concept is that “mixed uses are what’s normal. So multiple uses are allowed — over time — to be changed without much regulatory input on that.”

In concluding, Daniel said, “A safe walking experience is very important, because more people are walking along Haywood Road… The walking experience has become very important to many people, even in our suburban environment.”

In question-and-answer session that followed, CIBO member Mac Swicegood said, “Judy what you’’ve got sounds good. But it’s conceptual zoning, again. It seems like instead of having real rules to hang your hat on, we’ve got some concept that someone thought of that looks good on paper, but makes it difficult if someone wants to build something.”

Unphased by Swicegood’s cricitism, Daniel asserted, “It will be very easy to see what you’ll be able to do on a property… That’s the whole idea behind it. I think most people used it. They may not agree with it, but it’s easy to undersantd.

A man asked, “With all the development on Merrimon Avenue, what is going to be done as far as the traffic and people?”

“I think it will settle down, eventually,” Daniel said. “Trader Joe’s tends to do that (draw crowds) when they open. When you have new popular stores opening, for a few weeks, that’s going to happen. I think that’s going to settle down a bit. Our traffic engineers” and those from the Department of Transportation that their traffic plans will work well, without undue congestion.

On a separate matter, CIBO heard about economic development incentives for small business, as presented by Assistant City Manager Cathy Ball and City Sustainability Manager Maggie Ullman.

“We’re excited to be here to find how we can get more input on the city’s development goals,” Ball said. “We feel that we cannot do it without getting input from our small businesses... We are incorporating sustainability into everything we do. Part of sustainability is keeping small businesses within our community.”

Ball then introduced Ullman, noting, “Maggie’s role has expanded…. You’ll hear us saying ‘sustainability.’ You might think it’s a cliche for trying to make everything green. Maggie’s leading the effort.”

With a smile, Ullman said that, to her, to be sustainabile “we need to have a happy, healthy business community…. We want to get outside of City Hall, where government can be out front, rather than just reacting to economic development. We want to start building a relationship.

“This all started last year, when we were having a hard time with the budget. Council instructed us to be up-front, working with folks. We want to have a suite — a menu — of tools that y’all can easily” access.

“The process .. the very first step is evaluating the incentives we have now — from permit waivers to development-related incentives,” she said.

“Of those dozen or so tools, we came up with about four that are not being used much, or at all.” As examples, she cited an incentive grant and density bonus. “Where are there gaps? When you look at some of the economic development grants, the threshhold for development is multimillion, which often doesn’t help small businesses.

“I think staff, sometimes, we can get stuck at City Hall. We’re getting out and partnering with the N.C. School of Government. I’m a big fan of not re-creating the wheel. We also ask this group (CIBO), if you’re aware of incentives you’ve seen elsewhere, tell us of them. We’ll see if we can apply them here. Think about if you’ve heard of an inventive….

“The process takes a little bit of time… We don’t want to just be subjective in the way we’re providing these resources. So today’s part of that first step,” Ullman said.

In questioning that followed, Swicegood said, “I’ve heard catchy words like ‘collaboration,’ ‘threshholds’…. I still don’t understand what you’re talking about. You need to be more specific in what you’re talking about.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Ullman replied. “When we’re talking about small business, we’re talking about under 50 people… Right now, typical economic development means number of jobs and amount of capital investment.”

Undeterred, Swicegood said, “When you start talking about sustainability… and providing the services I’m already paying for,” it leaves him wondering what is going on. “I have a building downtown that I’m having to put up no trespassing signs to be able to enforce the law. … If you would just provide the services that we’re paying for....”

“Our two core services are safety and infrastructure,” Ullman told Swicegood. “Sidewalks are our business… We’re the infrastructure folks — we really know streetlights and sidewalks. That’s really our strong role. We know we can’t be everything to everybody…. “