From Staff Reports

More than 3,500 people have signed an online petition — as of midday Aug. 25 — at www.change.org that calls for limits on the number of national chain and formula stores seeking to locate in downtown Asheville.

In addition, the city is continuing to devise a plan that might keep the chains to a minimum, in an effort to preserve downtown’s eclectic, independent character.

The petition signature total skyrocketed 75 percent over the roughly 2,000 people who had signed it about 30 days earlier.

“I don’t think we can legally put in a moratorium, at this point,” petition organizer Rebecca Hecht told the Daily Planet in an Aug. 25 telephone interview.

Hecht, who owns Adorn hair salon downtown and also is a member of the Asheville Downtown Commission, noted that she and others have researched further and learned that “there are certain limitations in North Carolina (regarding the legality of outright bans), but there are opportunities to limit chains.” 

Therefore, Hecht stressed that she and her like-minded compatriots are now seeking limits, rather than a moratorium — or outright ban — on chains.

The petition was prompted by the recent announcement that Anthropologie, an Urban Outfitters subsidiary, will be locating on North Lexington Avenue, just south of Lexington Avenue Brewery.

The national retail chain Urban Outfitters created an uproar when it located in downtown more than six years ago, in the former CVS pharamacy.

The response to Anthropolie by independent downtown businesses was to keep downtown local.

In the Aug. 25 interview, Hecht said that, based on what she knows now, “let’s completely ban the word ‘ban’” in the chain store discussion. Instead, “let’s talk about creating a balanced downtown.” 

She added that her aspiration is to “strike a balance downtown, having what we have (now) in chain stores,” while “encouraging independent, vibrant businesss.

She noted that a subcommittee meeting of Asheville Downtown Commission was held Aug. 24 to address the threat of national chain stores taking over the downtown area. “We wanted to bring shareholders to the table,” she said.

About nine or 10 people were present, including ADC members, city staff, merchants and one concerned citizen, Hecht noted.

The meeting resulted in “homework” to be done between city staff and others at the meeting. That “homework” includes looking at other nearby cities, such as Chapel Hill, N.C. (with its heralded Franklin Street), and Charleston, S.C. (with its fashionable King Street), to see how the chain store issue was handled — and the successes and failures that ensued.

“We also discussed deed restrictions that property-owners” could obtain to keep out chain retailers. Also, “we discussed trying to make small-business resources better advertised,” so they can compete with chains.

Another ADC subcommittee meeting will be held in September, but no date had been set as of the Daily Planet’s press deadline.

Hecht also said a “community meeting” will be held to address the issue of an impending chain store invasion of downtown, but no date had been set for that meeting either, as of the Daily Planet’s deadline.

Meanwhile, Citizen-Times columnist John Boyle wrote on July 26 that “I’m here to tell you more development is coming. Asheville is hot right now, and that’s not going to stop. People need to be aware of what’s coming and what they can do to shape it, but they’ve also got to be willing to give a little.”

Boyle quoted from an AC-T news story in which Marylou Marsh-Sanders, who owns a clothing store downtown, said, “Once one chain weasels their way in, more will follow. Once that happens, how will you ever be able to come back to what it used to be? After everyone pioneered and worked and fought to make downtown Asheville what it is today, all of it could be wiped away if we aren’t cafeful. We’ve got to hold onto that. There has to be a way.”

On a wry note, Boyle then concluded his column by asserting, “I’d note that JC Penney, Belk, Bon Marche, Woolworth’s and other chain retailers anchored downtown for decades, but I don’t want a fight on my hands.”