Asheville Citizen-Times Article, 9/28/2005

Apartment tenants push to stop parking garage: Project to cost $20.8 million, faces growing opposition

by Rebeccah Cantley-Falk, STAFF WRITER
published September 28, 2005 6:00 am

ASHEVILLE — Seniors living in the Battery Park Apartments downtown and other Asheville residents are gaining momentum in their quest to stop the construction of a 650-space parking garage along Haywood Street.

The apartment residents, along with conservancy and preservation groups and other interested individuals, say they have collected 2,600 signatures against the garage. Their concerns are starting to reach elected officials, who say they are willing to research whether the height of the five-story building can be reduced.

Residents living in the 122-unit Battery Park Apartments say they have the most to lose with construction of the garage that would come within 15 feet of their windows, blocking their views and fresh air. The apartment building was originally opened in 1924 as a luxury hotel but today provides subsidized rental housing for seniors.

“All the fumes are going to gas us to death, and 46 apartments will be dark,” tenant Wilma Martineau said. “There are health concerns because a lot of us, including myself, have asthma or bronchial problems.”

The issue has also become political with parking garage opponents campaigning against City Council or mayoral candidates in support of the garage. Asheville’s primary election for mayor and City Council is Oct. 11; the general election is Nov. 8.

Residents have organized several protests, the latest occurring last week outside the Basilica of St. Lawrence. Opponents of the garage point out its location among historical buildings such as the basilica, which they fear could be damaged during construction. The Battery Park residents have also formed an opposition committee, which has its next meeting Thursday.

The garage, which has been in the works for years, has also been controversial because of the cost. City Council members say the garage was a promise made to developers of the Grove Arcade, a historical building renovated in 2002 that now houses an eclectic collection of shops, eateries, businesses and galleries.

In December, City Council voted 5-2 in favor of a cost increase from $11.9 million to $20.8 million, or $32,000 per parking space. Council members Holly Jones and Brownie Newman cast the dissenting votes, citing the price, the scale of the project and the city’s lack of investment in transportation options such as buses and bicycle lanes. The garage, taking up an entire block, would be Asheville’s largest.

Mayor Charles Worley said last week that it’s too late to cancel plans for the garage but added that he had requested that city staff study reducing the structure’s height, perhaps by putting some parking underground.

“I think we are quite a ways down the road in terms of putting a parking deck there, and I think we’ve got close to $4 million already invested in the property acquisition, design, engineering and all of that,” Worley said. “Having said that, certainly there are things we can look at to mitigate their concerns.”

Worley’s action doesn’t go far enough for staunch opponents.

When residents brought their concerns to City Council in August, several council members reacted by saying the garage was “a done deal.” But Battery Park residents said they were never informed about the extent of impact the garage would have on their home.

“The mayor asked why we were just coming forward,” tenant Marge Renfroe said. “We are not the owners of the building. The owners were notified, but we’re only renting.”

The Battery Park garage is an example of City Hall being out of touch with residents, said Julie Brandt, spokesperson for People Advocating Real Conservancy, a local organization with a 10-member steering committee and dozens of other members on its e-mail list.

PARC has made a model of the garage and surrounding buildings, something the city should have done to inform residents, especially for a project with a $20 million price tag, Brandt said.

“So many people are hearing about this parking garage for the first time,” she said. “Why do the citizens have to spend their time and money going out and informing the public and building models?”

Worley said the former owners of the Battery Park Apartments would not allow the city to make an informational presentation to the tenants.

“While there was plenty of opportunity in the media and the City Council process (for residents to learn about the project), there was no opportunity for us to go and make a presentation to them,” he said. “Under the new ownership, we were allowed to do so and we did, and that’s when the protests started.”

The sale of the apartments to Ohio-based National Church Residences was finalized in March 2004. Residents started their protests in August.

The city held an informational meeting to gather input from downtown property owners and anyone else interested in the garage in February 2003, according to a review of the Asheville Citizen-Times archive. Since then, the garage has come before City Council several times, but for procedural votes such as approving the cost increase.

“I do feel like that we’ve missed a beat somehow in informing the public,” Councilwoman Jones said.

“I’m not saying we’ve done anything subversive,” she said. “But, I am so distressed about the impact on their quality of life that I think we should slow the train down and see how we can make it less of an impact on those folks and make it less expensive.”

Construction was to have begun this fall but has been moved to the spring. The city is still in the process of acquiring a parking lot behind the apartments from National Church Residences, a transaction that must be approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That gives residents hope that the project isn’t a “done deal.” They are proposing an alternative site behind the Asheville Civic Center.

“It appears that the city has promoted a done-deal psychology upon the people as a strategy to thwart citizen participation at City Council meetings when the parking deck was a matter on the agenda,” tenant Roger Smith said.

Contact Falk at 232-2938 or rfalk@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.