Below is a statement that was read to City Council last night on behalf of WECAN:
January
21, 2013
Dear
City Council and the Honorable Mayor Bellamy,
As
you are planning to vote on the New Belgium brewery project, please consider
the perspective of the West End/ Clingman Avenue Neighborhood (WECAN). WECAN sees our future quality of life
tied together with our surrounding neighborhoods, and would like to take this
opportunity to address the impacts of this project.
WECAN
is primarily interested in seeing our neighborhood develop as laid out in our
Master Plan, including more affordable infill development, safer pedestrian
access and routes, multimodal transit, and ecological restoration enhancing the
public experience. The recent
upgrades along Clingman Avenue is one example of this, with the City and NCDOT
responding to the requests of a neighborhood to improve a major thoroughfare
with traffic calming devices, better signage, bike lanes, sidewalks and
adequate lighting. Whether through
improved safety & wellness, or reduced household transportation costs,
infrastructure can improve quality of life. We would like to see City resources
continue to be used to enhance the economic vitality of neighborhoods through a
diverse mix of property and transportation uses.
We
appreciate New Belgium’s interest in a centrally located site, adjacent to the
French Broad River. Our
neighborhood was established when the cotton mills built housing for its
workers, creating an early sustainable community in the heart of Asheville. The
creation of new jobs in the middle of Asheville’s residential core that will be
accessible through multiple modes of transit is a huge benefit to our community
and the city. While many residents
are excited about the potential of this project, many others are quite
concerned about the unknown impacts including, but not limited to the scale of
the facility, increased traffic, odor issues, and noise.
We
believe this is an opportunity to address existing deficiencies in
infrastructure that will only be magnified by the increased traffic to the New
Belgium Brewery due to truck, employee, and visitor traffic. We recognize that in order to
enable additional job growth in our neighborhood, including the River Arts
District, ease of access for freight vehicles (Riverside Dr, Hazel Mill Rd,
etc.) needs to be resolved.
In addition, Haywood Rd. and Clingman Ave. will see increased traffic
volumes, whether from visitors or from business operations. We seek a commitment from NCDOT and the
City to prioritize developing Haywood Road as a complement to Clingman Ave,
serving as a continuous multimodal, mixed-use corridor as laid out in the
Haywood Road Corridor Plan. This includes but is not limited to complete street
planning: slow speeds, beautification through design and landscaping,
pedestrian, bicycle and transit facilities, and narrow travel lanes. Inevitably, we recognize that large
freight vehicles may use these corridors; a corridor design that promotes
safety on shared roads in a residential area will promote successful economic
development and strengthen neighborhoods.
We
support the city staff’s recommendation to Council, with the following adjustments.
1. Broaden the language to
complete a feasibility study that identifies how to provide freight vehicle
access to I-240 in the shortest route possible without crossing through
neighborhood corridors. This
includes more due diligence and communication about the feasibility of the
Riverside north route, including prioritizing improvements to the Craven Street
Bridge in the RADTIP funding to enable truck turning.
2. If and when changes are made
to the Craven/Riverside intersection, we ask that utmost importance is placed
on improving pedestrian and bicycle safety, including improving the connection
to and from Roberts Street.
3. Fund a shovel ready design
for the Haywood Rd. corridor to make it multimodal and effective as a mixed-use
neighborhood as laid out in the Haywood Rd. Corridor Plan. This design and
construction should continue through Beacham’s curve to I-240, whether using
city funds, or French Broad River MPO funds (either through amending the TIP or
using STP-DA funds).
4. Changing Clingman Extension
and Roberts Street to one way is not a priority for the neighborhood and we do
not currently see the need for it if this area will not be seeing increased
truck traffic. While we have no
problem with studying this option, we would like to have more feedback and
discussion with our community if this study moves forward.
5. Finally, we ask the city to
consider new approaches to understanding and communicating with impacted
neighborhoods earlier in the process as other projects such as New Belgium come
to the table.
In
conclusion, WECAN welcomes New Belgium to our neighborhood, and it is clear
they take being part of the community very seriously. We are grateful for the extensive efforts they are making to
ensure open communication, solve problems creatively, and generate high quality
jobs for those who need them. We
also appreciate the time, effort, and sensitivity the City has put forth to be
responsive to neighborhood concerns. We look forward to proactive and increased
collaboration among all parties as this project moves forward and others come
down the line, in order to create healthy, prosperous, and truly sustainable
neighborhoods.
Sincerely,
West
End / Clingman Avenue Neighborhood (WECAN)
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