Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
From loyal reader Laurie, regarding the Health Adventure’s clearing of its property off of Broadway, where it plans to build a new children’s museum:
Approximately 250 trees were cut down, with the majority of those trees being on the hillside that is in the rear of the property. For those of us who live in Montford and have homes adjacent to the site, this has been a gut-wrenching experience. Large mature trees were cut down in the buffer area. I understand that trees had to come down. However, an arborist and environmental planner should have been consulted on a development that claims environmental sensitivity. You should have been here to watch the children at the Odyssey School stare in dismay as the large mature growth trees right up against their fenceline were cut down.
For those of you who believe that this project is environmentally sensitive, wake up. I’m sure that the wood floors will be beautiful. But, the large mature growth trees should have been left standing in the buffer area. There would have been plenty of trees for the flooring. Over 100 mature growth trees were taken out. Think about that number.
Health Adventure officials have gone to great lengths to protect trees on their frontage (Broadway) while they clear cut the space adjacent to the Montford neighborhood. They had the opportunity to preserve a substantial buffer and they chose to do otherwise. We all diligently took part in the planning meetings. We looked at the buffer areas in the drawings and assumed that existing trees in those buffer areas would be protected. One week prior to the clear cutting process, we could not get clarity on what trees were staying and what trees were going. That ambiguity was likely intentional to keep us from raising concerns. And, the city of Asheville needs to address large mature tree growth in buffer areas.
If Montford was your neighborhood, you would react as we have. How would you like the lot next to your house clear cut? Drive or walk by the property, then you may re-consider your support of this development.
I am not certain how much extra money it cost developers to circumvent trees in the course of construction, but I share Laurie’s concerns about the mature trees removed from the buffer. While it true that one can plant new trees, a mature tree magnifies the benefits trees provide: more shade and foliage (for noise and view buffers), greater root structure to lessen erosion and sedimentation of waterways as well as seek from greater distances in times of drought, and finally they will clean more air.
Montford Walker: Laurie said she understands that trees had to come down, but it seems that there was some misunderstanding between The Health Adventure and the residents about the buffer area. Did The Health Adventure make it seem like (or flat-out claim that) the trees in the buffer area along the neighborhood would be spared? I’d love to hear more input both from The Health Adventure and from Montford residents who were involved in the community meetings.
I am with you Mont Walk. It seems Asheville has a lot of cry babies that you will never actually see plant a tree. A bunch of trustafarians with nothing better to do then to move to Asheville and scream about every building and every tree coming down regardless of how many jobs it will create. They don’t care because they don’t have to work.
I’ve lived in Montford for over 25 years. 110 years ago, most of our properties in Montford were pasture, wiith few trees. Many of what trees were here were cut to build homes with footprints of 1,000-2,000 square feet on urban lots (actually suburban lots at the time). Look in Richard Sharpe Smith’s promotional booklet from around 1901 at Pack Library.
Almost all of the trees that we have in Montford today came after the houses, over the past 100 years. At your house and my house, we had pasture, then houses and small trees, now houses and large trees.
I have no connection, no membership, no ownership of the Health Adventure nor any connection to their property, other than walking or driving by the site several times each week. But I know that their new small trees will grow, and every year they will be larger and more beautiful. And their activity at the edge of our neighborhood will improve our quality of life, for the neighborhood and for Asheville.
We’re a city. A beautiful city, yes, and we want to keep that beauty. But please everyone stop saying we are Paris of the South if we are so ambivalent about being a city.
Maybe better to say we are Paris Hilton of the South.
I may have defended The Health Adventure before, but the cutting of the buffer trees along the neighborhood does in fact suck. I totally understand the writer and others being pissed, especially if The Health Adventure was less than forthcoming about what would happen with those trees.