Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
A large mixed-use development proposed for the Asheville South Slope was reviewed for the first time last week by the Asheville Technical Review Committee. The development could bring 600 apartments to 4.4 acres between Asheland and Coxe avenues, an area of town dubbed the South Slope that’s seen a wave of new development over the past several years.
The committee is made up of representatives of various city departments, such as the city’s water department and its transportation department. Representatives offer comments to the developer regarding where they might have issues, and the development team can ask questions as they begin working their way through the city bureaucracy to get their project approved.
Chris Day, a civil engineer with Civil Design Concepts and a member of the development group, said his team was working through a variety of issues, such as conducting a traffic study and nailing down details such as deciding on the look of planters and benches and making sure there are 8-foot-wide sidewalks. The city and the development team are also working through details on how Federal Alley, right now an under-used back alley, might be enlivened as a new street.
The development team is set to present its project to the South Slope Neighborhood Association at a meeting Tuesday. The project will also be reviewed by the Asheville Downtown Commission before being heard at the Asheville Planning & Zoning Commission. After that, Asheville City Council will hear the proposal and vote on whether to give it final approval.
The development between Asheland and Coxe includes four buildings that range in height from five to seven stories tall and include 541 apartments, as well as a mix of retail and office space. A fifth building, a structured parking deck, would have 973 parking spaces. A separate location up the hill from this site on Collier Avenue, which is also part of the South Slope, would be a 70-unit apartment complex featuring residential units defined as affordable by city standards.
There’s more background here on the mixed-used project.