Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
After more than five hours of listening to public comment and discussion Tuesday night, Asheville City Council put off a vote on the proposed Ellington high-rise hotel/condo project in downtown. But it appears they put off the inevitable and that the project has the support it needs.
The biggest concern was the scale of the 23-story building. The public comment was a mix of those against the project and a surprisingly strong expression of support. And as is par for the course in an election year, we had to suffer the parade of council candidates who stood and bloviated.
Several council members expressed a long laundry list of concerns about the building height and its impact on traffic along Biltmore Ave., as well as issues such as access for fire trucks and the staging of the actual construction.
The vote on a conditional use permit came to a head when Councilman Carl Mumpower motioned to approve the plan with a long list of conditions, but at the building’s original height.
Earlier in the meeting, Mayor Terry Bellamy had asked the developers if they could lower the height of the building 36 feet. Why 36 feet? We don’t know. The development group, which included former Asheville mayor Lou Bissette and Craig Madison of the Grove Park Inn, said they could probably do that.
But when it came time to vote on Mumpower’s motion, Councilman Robin Cape spoke up and said that despite earlier stating she couldn’t support the project because of an access issue, she might “eat crow” because she liked many other aspects of the project. And she wondered aloud if the developers would work on the size and scale issues if they had a little more time.
Bissette tried to get a feel for council. Vice Mayor Holly Jones said she really liked the project, but wanted them to address the height. Bellamy basically said she’d be satisfied with the project if they lopped the 36 feet off the top. And Mumpower and Councilman Jan Davis, who made the original motion to give the project the conditional use permit, clearly support the project.
So council agreed to table their vote and bring the project back at its Oct. 16 meeting. It’s pretty clear that the votes are there to give this project the green light. We’ll just have to wait another month for a final vote.
