Parkside: Stewart Coleman’s Meltdown

Many members of the public are beside themselves because of an alleged secret sale of public parkland known as Parkside. At their last meeting, members of council unanimously passed a resolution imploring the commissioners to re-acquire the public land. At the time, it was known that the city and county had held some portions of the land in the former City-County Plaza as joint tenants. However, it appears now that the county alone held the deed to the portion between city hall and the Hayes & Hopson building, which was sold to Stewart Coleman for a condominium development.

The commissioners’ meeting ran unusually long. It wasn’t until about 7:00 that interested parties who had been at the courthouse started trickling into the council chambers. One of them was Laurie Saxton, the city’s public information officer, who had attended the county meeting to take notes and report.

After Saxton’s summary, Robin Cape was amazed that the commissioners would give the city only six weeks to decide if they approved of the land swap the county had just proposed. The appraisal alone would take 3-4 weeks to complete. Time was needed for the city and county to dialogue. Cape asked why Coleman wouldn’t talk to council. Mumpower agreed buying more time made more sense than making a decision based on hot-off-the-press information.

Brownie Newman was astounded that property that had just been sold would need to be appraised. Newman said it would be a “travesty” for Coleman to proceed with his designs as currently configured. There were more viable options. He recommended that the city inform the county that if they did not re-acquire the land sold to Coleman, the city would sue. Newman acknowledged that public/private partnerships were always difficult, but there was too much public mistrust over the land deal to make it workable.

Mumpower deemed a lawsuit unadvisable overkill. He disagreed that the proposed condominiums constituted a travesty, and regretted council may be too eager to side with public pressure. Council was not dealing with “good guys and bad guys” but with shades of gray.

Mayor Terry Bellamy wasn’t particularly pleased that the commissioners would, with their resolution, leave the city holding the hot potato. The fact remained that Coleman’s proposal was still in the development review process. The city could negotiate with the county if they wanted to appease the public with a good appearance, but they really needed to negotiate with Coleman. “Buncombe County is not in the driver’s seat.”

In trying to decide upon a date for continuing the discussion, council realized that they would not meet until after Coleman’s project had had its final public review July 7. Interim Planning and Development Director Shannon Tuch said plans are usually 90% complete and approved with conditions at that stage of the technical review process. Unresolved issues included the need to get an easement from the joint tenants to build the proposed road and a no-build easement exclusively from the city for emergency access. If the city didn’t grant the easement, Coleman would have to build a solid firewall facing city hall.

Mumpower asked if there was some way council could intercept the project. Bellamy asked if council had the power to delay the final technical review. Neither Tuch nor Oast had ever heard of such a thing.

Cape said she was frustrated, not because the development was going up in city hall’s backyard, but because somebody wanted to put a building up in a public park, and allegations about the land purchase had betrayed the public trust. Worst of all, the city seemed to have no recourse.

Vice Mayor Jan Davis recommended negotiating with Coleman. He advised his peers to stop playing games. They knew what the realities were. Speaking of the worst-case scenario, Davis said, “I’d hate twenty years from now to have a wall without windows because we were all obstinate.”

Jones asked what would happen if the city did not approve granting easements. Tuch said if substantive changes to the plans became necessary, the current plans would be kicked out of the review process, and Coleman would have to submit something else.

Cape said she thought she had heard that County Manager Wanda Greene had been instructed to make no decisions without all commissioners present. Oast replied, “I’ve heard a lot of things.”