Master Plan Wants You
By
Anyone else tired of having these building-by-building battles across downtown? It’s a central reason that pausing to plan our downtown makes sense for everyone involved. Though the political will isn’t there to do the sensible thing by pausing, the process of planning continues.
If you want to your ideas for Asheville’s future to be part of this municipal conversation, it’s time to show up and wow ‘em.
AC-T: ASHEVILLE – Three public meetings will be held this weekend as part of the process of drawing up a new master plan for downtown:
An “educational session†will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at Asheville Community Theatre, 35 E. Walnut St., in which speakers will discuss issues like downtown economics, transportation and infrastructure, urban design and implementation.
A workshop in which those attending will meet in small groups to discuss what elements should define downtown for the next 50 years will be held 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at Randolph Learning Center, 90 Montford Ave. Lunch will be available.
An informal drop-in session will be held noon-3 p.m. Sunday to allow the public to see what decisions were made Saturday and to give further input.
12 Comments
May 29th, 2008 at 11:42 am
N ZNNG! N DSCSSN! N CMPRMZ! N CNSNSS! dN’T G!
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May 29th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Znng rss rnts!
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May 29th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
You are so persuasive, Alan. I can’t decide if it’s the allcaps or the specious assertions that really do it for me, but there’s something very special about you.
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May 30th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Despite Mr. Ditmore’s….excitability on the subject, I believe he is right. I do plan on going, if only so that the “none of us should be doing this” point of view receives representation.
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May 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’m definitely goin’. Shit, I better get goin’!
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May 31st, 2008 at 11:40 am
Isn’t it ironic that people flock to see the architecture here in Asheville and that it is here because no “visionaries” removed the “urban blight” that it was a few decades ago?
There can be planning or there can be liberty. Liberty is by far the more creative and innovative process of the two. Planning generally restricts and liberty generally expands.
Restriction of property usage generally will result in lower cash flow for the owner. The only way to recoup is to charge more for the services coming from that location. Alan is right.
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May 31st, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Planning allows for better land use, less infrastructure, less maintenance. Unless “liberty” is going to install water lines, sewer lines, roads, waterways, and aquifers, then I’ll take some planning with my liberty.
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May 31st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I think in Clarence’s version of liberty the idea of fifty trailers crammed into a half-acre lot is generally seen as a good thing.
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May 31st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I happen to own a mobile home park–four homes on six acres plus one house and one garage. I personally maintain this property better than any “non-owner planner” would. It takes me two days per week. My lot rent is $195 monthly and that includes yard work, free basic plus expanded cable, free water and free garbage pickup. The six acres includes woods which I planted 25 years ago. It also includes a wetlands area teeming with wildlife.
By the way, I am hoping, in the next five years, to be adding photovoltaic panels to the garage and house. I hope to sell excess electricity back to the power company and/or I might provide power to my tenants. I also want to use solar panels for ambient heating and water heating. I might add radiant heating to the garage. I will collect rainwater in cisterns from both the house and garage and will use that water for toilets and landscaping.
I prefer to do my own planning. It works for me and it works for my tenants. They generally stay here until they die. They are my neighbors and my friends.
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May 31st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Clarence,
You sound like a fantastic landlord. Compassionate, responsible, conscious.
I’ve also seen the other guys. The ones who don’t do diddly. Why don’t they do diddly? Because they’re not those good things you are.
If only everyone was kind, giving, conscious, responsible, environmentally aware, planting forests, etc.
But they’re not. They’re just not. I want my government to enact those virtues through land use planning.
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June 1st, 2008 at 11:53 am
“Land planning uses violence, the threat of government force, to impose the will of others against the land owner.”
So tell me again why the war in Iraq was a virtuous government adventure?
…
“it’s acceptable if the virtues being enforced are his own.”
Does this mean that the amendment to the Constitution to prohibit same sex marriage was also a bad idea?
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June 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
“If only everyone was kind, giving, conscious, responsible, environmentally aware, planting forests, etc.
But they’re not. They’re just not. I want my government to enact those virtues through land use planning.†— GS
“So I sold it for twice what I paid for the land the previous year to a high-powered democrat Attorney from Florida. Now, there is an apartment building there with 96 units, and it is all asphalt to provide parking.†–TP
Let’s put these together and add a dash of Parkside.
I am not sure how one logically puts much faith in government when we see examples almost everyday of people within government being corrupted and corrupting.
What is the reason we see graffiti on public bathroom walls? Why do we not see it on our own bathroom walls? Could the answer be that private owner’s have a vested interest in their own property?
A hammer is an inanimate tool. I can bludgeon someone with it or I can build a house with it. Capitalism is a tool. It can be used in an abusive way or it can be used very positively. Government likewise is a tool which can be used for good or ill.
Big government and big corporations are brothers and sisters. When we have the courage as citizens to limit the intrusive behavior of both, we will make REAL progress in this country.
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