Asheville – The next deadline for funding for Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority (TDA) funds is December 1. A slide presented by Asheville’s Assistant to the City Manager Jaime Matthews read, “The city’s goal is to align capital needs with the allowable uses for TDA grant funding.” In years past, TDA funding was available only for capital projects that brought tourists to the area. Now, due to changes in legislation as well as the interpretation thereof, hopeful recipients are primed to position themselves for explosive mission creep.
Last year, the City of Asheville received $1,586,000 for improvements to Harrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville and $22,950,000 for major projects at McCormick Field. Also last year, the TDA launched its Legacy Investment from Tourism (LIFT) fund. According to the TDA, LIFT funds may be used for “tourism-related capital projects that will increase patronage of local facilities and benefit the community at large in Buncombe County.”
Allowable uses include construction, expansion, restoration, rehabilitation, or maintenance of facilities; or extension of infrastructure. The funds may also cover soft costs like design and project administration. Another use, which brings to mind the “river wave” at Woodfin’s Riverside Park, which received $5,890,000 from the TDA last year, would cover “enhancement of natural resources.”
This year, the City of Asheville has several requests for LIFT funding, which are generally described as needed to correct former city leaders’ negligent deferred maintenance. The most-discussed projects are HVAC repair and design for the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium ($1,792,000) and improvements to Harrah’s Cherokee Center that include upgrading the HVAC system, replacing elevators, and making the loading area accessible to more performances ($675,000).
City council also wants funding for “planning, environmental, and engineering work” for the construction of multimodal infrastructure on Coxe Avenue between Patton and Short Coxe avenues ($3,000,000). Another request would create a 4,000-foot greenway linking the South French Broad and Livingston Street neighborhoods ($1,000,000). Known as Nasty Branch Greenway, the improvement would include a 10-foot-wide impervious pavement, two retaining walls, street furniture, “entry treatments,” and historical markers.
Smaller requests include the design and reconstruction of six courts at the Aston Tennis Center ($15,000) and Bigbelly trash cans ($30,000). The latter are large, compacting, varmint-proof receptacles that can even be solar-powered. The city intends to purchase ten bins for a trial run. According to Bigbelly, Dublin ordered 800 solar-powered units for its city center.
Projects staff suggested council might be interested in for future grant cycles, in addition to improvements to established, city-owned tourist attractions, included modifications to I-26 beyond what the NC Department of Transportation was willing to fund. Among these would be making the Bowen Bridge a multimodal cityscape, improving the Haywood Bridge, and providing better pedestrian bridges around Hillcrest.
Other funds could go toward improving infrastructure downtown, like sidewalks and parking garages, or creating greenways in more forested areas. The main thing the most outspoken members of council wanted, though, was affordable housing. Mayor Esther Manheimer explained that getting TDA funding for affordable housing was a “creative interpretation” of new legislation. It remained uncertain whether or not the TDA was even going to consider such requests.
Buncombe County, in fact, had asked the TDA to fund only one thing this grant cycle: the development of the Ferry Road parcel. This is the parcel that was tied into the long, drawn-out Water Disagreement until purchased by the county from Hendersonville, with strings attached, in an emergency meeting. Multiple attempts by the county to unload it had fallen through until it embarked on a planning exercise that involved the UNC School of Government.
The current design calls for the creation of about 645 housing units, over half of which would be affordable, with 22,000 square feet dedicated to neighborhood services. About 60% of the property, which neighbors the French Broad River, the beautiful Bent Creek recreation area, and Raytheon, would be conserved. The project’s estimated cost was $210,000,000, in a milieu of escalating construction costs. The county is asking the TDA for $6,000,000, and it’s asking the city for something else.
Mayor Esther Manheimer explained county leadership wanted a letter of support. She clarified that they wanted words, not money. Regardless, a quizzical discussion raged until City Manager Debra Campbell called Community and Regional Entertainment Facilities General Manager Chris Corl to the podium to explain the process. He said that each application for TDA funding needs letters of support. The county was asking the city to write one for them. Campbell reiterated that the council would be part of the process, “so it wouldn’t be so weird to the TDA.”