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Tuesday, 30 January 2007 14:38 |
By David Forbes
A deal to sell 10 acres of city property in East Riverside moved forward on Jan. 23, when Asheville City Council voted 6-0 to approve a final public hearing for the matter.
If approved, the property would be sold to Mountain Housing Opportunities, a local non-profit, and the Green family, owners of Greenës Mini-Mart on Depot Street.
Mayor Terry Bellamy was recused from voting on the matter, as she is employed by MHO.
Jointly,
the Green family and MHO plan to find a developer to build 100
condominiums and town houses, with 20 percent of the homes intended for
use as affordable housing.
The developers will pay $274,000 for 3.8 acres located at Ralph Street and $426,000 for the 5.92 acres at Choctaw Street.
The deal is part
of the cityës attempt to look overall at properties it owns, to examine
if they can be used to encourage affordable housing or other
development that council considers desirable.
In other action, council:
ï Voted 6-1 to
create an Adaptive Overlay Use District that is intended to preserve
some of the cityës older buildings by allowing them to be used for
slightly different uses than those allowed by an areaës normal zoning.
"I like this
because it keeps the form of these buildings while acknowledging that
sometimes the function of them has shifted," Councilwoman Robin Cape
said.
Bellamy voted against the measure and did not state a reason for her vote.
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