March Minutes 2016

The meeting was called to order by Vice President Dave Campbell at 4:06pm. Minutes from the February meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report: There are two new members this month, the new owners of Clingman Café and the Phil Mechanic building. We have over $9,000 in account.

Neighborhood Update/Officer Lucas Lovelace: There’s a graffiti issue again with two arrests of potential suspects. In mid-March, there was an assault at a bus stop and a breaking and entering of a car off Parks Ave. In the past two weeks, there have been 6 more homeless camps. They are working on moving them out.

City of Asheville/Marsha Stickford: PSNC doing installation of new larger gas lines at both ends of the Riverlink Bridge. As of now, there will be no street closures just narrow lanes and brief stops but traffic will be directed. They are working on removing cement between the roadway and bridge. This will begin the week of April 11th. There will be updates sent out on this project from the City. BeeCity USA is working with the city to use available space for pollinator plants. A proposal was sent over but it was too expensive. The goal is to tie into RADTIP and create habitats for pollinators for them to link together. As for Special Events taking place in the City this year, Marsha will be forwarding event applications to keep us in the loop.

NBB Update: There is officially sellable Fat Tire in Asheville and there will be a sneak peek neighborhood open house on April 26th. The first day it will be open to the public will be Monday, May 2nd. Tours will start later this summer as well as an 828 opening weekend. They are talking to CVB and NCDOT about directional signage from West Asheville and logo signs off the exit. Their hours will be Mon-Sat 11am-8pm and Sunday 12pm-8pm.

Riverlink Update: The schedule for RiverMusic and the first two events will be May 6th and June 10th and the last two events will be held at Carrier Park on July 8th and August 12th. On Saturday April 23rd, there will be an Earth Day event on the Performance Plaza. The event is free and will feature crafts, puppets, food trucks and games.

RADTIP Update/Steph Monson Dahl: Steph handed out a timeline of most of the Riverfront Redevelopment Activities that will be taking place beginning in April until the end of the year. It also includes a summary of the communications plan the City is putting together to help with consistent and helpful communications with stakeholders throughout the construction process. A big concern right now is utility relocation which is combining all distribution poles to transmission poles. This will start in mid-August and there will not be any more special events from August till the end of the year on the Riverside Dr. Lot. At the July RADBA meeting, this will be talked more in-depth. There will be a big event/kick off in May to celebrate the work that has been done so far. Once a contractor is hired, a full schedule and communications plan will be released. The first draft of the Form Based Code is out and there are a couple meetings in April for stakeholders. There will be a finalized draft later this fall. There is a public art master plan which will bring in ideas for putting art in the RADTIP area. You can find more information on all these projects on the right hand side of the City’s website as well as more information on Open City Hall which provides more background of projects and an opportunity to give opinion. The leadership round table group will be continued once NBB is open. There is no update on the RAD Lofts project.

UGO Tour RAD Presentation/Paul Hedgecock: Paul Hedgecock from UGO Tour came to present the app to RADBA again. The app has developed a lot since the last time he presented. There were some concerns about affordability of the app as well as getting the CVB and Chamber on board. There were discussions of setting a meeting up Paul, CVB and Chamber and then we can look at making a decision from there.

Business Walk Report: Dave presented a few slides of the outcome of the Business Walk that was conducted a couple months ago. The top concerns for the River Arts District were parking, greenways/bike paths and public transportation.

New Business: Joe Ransmeier presented his proposal of maintaining the grassy areas along the Clingman corridor. Yancy sent his proposal over as well and there will be a vote among members to decide which direction to go in. City is still trying to come to terms with maintenance of public right away and will be bringing in a consultant that will help in creating plans for the City.

Adjourn: 5:02pm