1st Asheville council agenda briefing: Biltmore Ave. garage 2-week closure, water update

ASHEVILLE - At their first public agenda briefing since City Council voted to end its contentious practice of regular private check-ins, council members heard a rundown of upcoming items, including a lease agreement that will temporarily close the Biltmore Avenue Parking Garage and pending contracts for citywide litter, trash and needle cleanup.

The Feb. 23 meeting included a review of the upcoming Feb. 28 City Council agenda, council committee updates and other incoming issues. Of the seven council members, only four were in attendance.

Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore, who presided over the meeting, said Mayor Esther Manheimer and council members Sheneika Smith and Antanette Mosley were unable to make it due to scheduling conflicts.

More:'Big win' for open meetings: City Council does away with regular 'check-in' meetings

Upcoming consent agenda votes

Assistant City Manager Rachel Wood took council through its agenda review — highlighting items of note in its consent agenda, a single motion and vote typically reserved for multiple routine, non-controversial items that do not require discussion.

Vote on the consent agenda items will take place at the Feb. 28 meeting.

Biltmore Avenue Parking Garage to see two week closure

Among items of note was a lease agreement between the city and MHG Asheville MX, LP to temporarily close the Biltmore Avenue Parking Garage, one of four city-owned garages in Asheville.

Wood noted the garage is a public/private partnership with the developer of Aloft hotel, which is attached to the garage, as will be the Moxy Hotel, a 115 unit, seven-story building, currently being constructed on the south side of the parking garage by the same developer.

The $39,097 lease agreement ensures the city doesn't lose money during the closure. If the construction timeline goes over, the developer will be charged a penalty.

The 15-day closure, which will begin March 25 and end April 8, is necessitated by the pouring of a new slab at the top of the parking structure. This construction will replace the existing slab, which was demolished and removed.

The closure will impact a total of 412 parking spaces — 150 of which belong to the Aloft hotel, 110 to the city's monthly parking accounts and 152 which are available for public, hourly parking.

Wood anticipated this will be the final closure of the parking deck during construction.

More:$800K mistake? Faulty garage equipment means many Asheville drivers have parked for free.

"We know that it’s going to have an impact, but that’s why we’re entering into this lease agreement and having financial constraints placed on the contractor and, ultimately, the property owner to try to minimize that impact as quickly as possible,” Wood said.

She acknowledged that this will create an increased demand for parking in downtown Asheville, and that springtime is a popular season for tourists and downtown events. She said the city is doing outreach to surrounding businesses, such as the Orange Peel and LaZoom, which are located in close proximity to the garage, as well as the city's monthly parking subscribers.

Access cards for the city’s monthly parking accounts in the Biltmore Avenue Parking Garage will be reprogrammed to allow access into the Harrah’s Cherokee Center, Rankin Street and Wall Street parking garages during the 15-day closure time period, Wood said. Once the action is approved by council, account holders will be notified.

More:Asheville food service workers call for free parking downtown; Buncombe proposes solutions

ARPA-funded litter and cleanliness contracts

Council will also vote on a resolution to authorize City Manager Debra Campbell to enter into contracts with Steri-Clean North Carolina for biohazardous waste cleanup and WNC Landscaping LLC for roadside litter and hotspot collection.

The total combined project amount is not to exceed $500,000 and will utilize federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.

Kilgore said this item was intended to address community concerns regarding citywide "cleanliness," an issue she feared was impacting tourism and visitation.

More:Downtown Asheville litter cleanup draws record turnout, cleans 700 pounds of trash

"I think we have to be more conscious of how we protect a city, take care of a city,” she said.

Facing an an understaffed public works department, Campbell said this item was high-priority by council standards, specifically collection of used needles in greenways and parks.

"I do not feel that our staff has the equipment nor the skillset to handle that type of material, a lot of the funding will probably be going into this bucket," she said.

$115,000 contract for a missing middle housing study

Also on the consent agenda is a resolution authorizing Campbell to execute a $115,000 contract with Berkeley, California-based Opticos Design Inc. for a missing middle housing study and displacement risk assessment.

• Potential fiscal impacts: $85,000 for the Planning and Urban Design department fiscal year 2023 budget and $30,000 from the Community and Economic Development department fiscal year 2023 budget.

• Timeline: March project kickoff with estimated completion by end of 2023.

• Project goals: a study to identify regulatory and policy barriers to building missing middle housing (such as townhomes, accessory dwelling units and multiplexes) and to provide a strategy to prioritize options to remove those barriers.

• The study will also incorporate a Displacement Risk Assessment that will analyze displacement vulnerability, market pressure and opportunities to put together anti-displacement strategies focused on minimizing or mitigating harm of proposed housing policies.

More:Vermont Avenue trees come down to make way for sidewalks; West Asheville neighbors mourn

Independent Water Committee update

On Jan. 10, a week after water was restored to Asheville area residents following unprecedented outages that impacted thousands and left some without water for days at a time, City Council unanimously approved the creation of a third-party independent review committee.

More:Who will sit on Asheville's water outage independent review committee? Here's the vote

Seven members were appointed to the committee by council on Jan. 24, and two by Buncombe County Board of Commissioners.

At the Feb. 23 meeting, Jade Dundas, the city's capital projects director and liaison to the committee, gave a brief update. He said the committee held its first meeting Feb. 20, and was working on laying out its roles and responsibility.

“The purpose of that meeting was to introduce the members, start building that rapport, provide some opportunity for discussion around the events, and also to start creating the dialogue associated with moving us forward to meet council’s expectations and the timeline,” Dundas said.

Per the initial presentation, 90 days from its establishment, the committee will provide a final written report and presentation to City Council.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville council briefing: Parking garage closures, needle clean-up