Woodfin – The November Woodfin Town Commissioners meeting on November 17 started with Keith Miller of the Buncombe County Tax Assessor’s Office explaining the 2021 reappraisal process.
The commissioners then set a date to hold a public comment hearing on the newly-rewritten Mountain Village Zoning district ordinance and the removal of the moratorium on the district if the new regulation is accepted. Council had no questions for the new Woodfin Planning Director Adrienne Isenhower about the ordinance. They set a hearing for December 15 after the town’s planning and zoning holds its hearing on the new law.
Paul May of Leicester sent a petition to the board asking for voluntary annexation of his property (PIN #9639-69-0839). Isenhower explained that there was no action to be taken at the meeting, but an investigation of the sufficiency of the petition would be examined before the next meeting. She would inform the board as to the results of the investigation at that time and, if needed, a public hearing could be set for the January meeting. The nearly ten-acre tract property is located across the river from the Silver-Line plant.
The board then heard reports from various department heads, and the first heard was from Police Chief Michael Dykes who said arrests were up. Crashes were down as traffic is down. Dykes said that his department developed leads leading to the arrest of suspects in a number of storage unit break-ins. Dykes also said they had a detective retire, leaving law enforcement due to the climate of public sentiment against police officers.
In the ABC report, ABC Chairman Tom Spradling said that the City of Asheville had gone back to regular hours. While they were on shortened hours, the Woodfin ABC did a “bang-up business,” and he was hoping some of that would stick.
Isenhower then returned to the podium to give the planning & zoning report. She first reported on the last planning & zoning meeting where a developer presented a multi-use development in Mountain Village. Two variance requests were postponed, and the last item was a zoning map that needed updating. She explained a digital map linking to the Buncombe County property card would be developed after the paper map had been finished.
Town Administrator Eric Hardy then gave the rest of the reports beginning with public works, which Hardy said there was nothing to report out of the ordinary. He then moved on to administration, where he said the budget was also the same.
Commissioner Don Honeycutt asked Hardy about the status of the annual Christmas event for needy families. Hardy said the mayor had some ideas on that and then turned it over to Mayor Jerry VeHaun, who noted that the virus had been hard on businesses that normally supported the event. “If someone donates some money, then we’re going to put it into a fund,” said VeHaun, then added so far, they had only had two requests for help. Anything leftover from this year would go toward next year’s event, “and hopefully we’ll be able to get back to normal.”
Hardy then announced that the town would be going to a new website platform that would be more responsive to the town’s updates than their current platform, which they had to rely on the website provider to update the website. The new site will cost about $10,000 with a $3,000 annual cost.
In news about the greenway/blueway, Hardy said that the town met with the Tourism Development Association board and updated them and that he was working with RiverLink to develop a communication plan. He also said he was working on a fundraising plan. Three million of the town’s $4.5 million bond was also approved. He also was meeting with the Asheville Area River Front Redevelopment Commission to update them on the project’s progress.
He also said the Silver-Line Park project is about to begin with vertical construction as site work is about finished with a change order to install a storm drain. There will also be a cofferdam install while work is done on the riverbank and installation of a boat ramp. Hardy also said he hopes to be able to present a final plan for Riverside Park in January.