Group says new road at Sayles site violates conditional use permit
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Asheville residents march for
peace in honor of MLK

Over 300 people marched for peace in Asheville, North Carolina, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2003,
in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Photo by Liz Allen

By Liz Allen

Asheville, North Carolina, Jan. 20 (AGR)— Over 300 people marched for peace in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this past Monday. The march started at the St. James AME Church on the corner of Hilderbrand and Martin Luther King and proceeded to City County Plaza where a rally was held. The racially mixed crowd of marchers was lead by the Hillcrest High Steppers Marching Band. The entire event lasted from 11:30am until one that afternoon.

“We come to celebrate not only the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., but the lives of everyone who stands for hope, freedom, justice and peace,” said Willie May Brown of the Martin Luther King Association in her opening statements to the crowd.

In addition to unity between the races, opposition to the war in Iraq was a major focus of the march; many carried signs calling for peace and protesting Bush’s march to war. Eight-year-old Logan Murray, who carried an anti-war, anti-Bush sign he made himself, explained, “It’s mean to do war, and it hurts people.”

In his address to the crowd, Bob Smith, the executive director of Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations, urged the crowd not to become complacent, to be more than just inspired, and to think of love as an “action word.”

“I can’t think of a greater challenge and a greater charge than this war we don’t want to fight but we hear about every single day. Nothing is more important than people killing and dying in our name, it’s something that effects all of us, it’s our country and our world,” he said. “What you can do is you can write and you can call and you can show up and tell folks we don’t want this thing to happen…War is the enemy of the people.”

Smith also urged the crowd to regard poverty and homelessness as unacceptable problems that must be eliminated.

“It’s time to start acting like the children are all of ours, there are homeless children going up and down the streets of Asheville and we look the other way. There’s something wrong with that; if they’re all our children then we better do something about it,” Smith said.

As further evidence of complacency, Smith pointed out that Monday’s march only took up one lane of traffic. He recalled that in the 1960’s marchers took up the entire street.

March participant John E. Jones, who was in school at Stevens Lee (once the black-only school in Asheville) during the civil rights movement, commented, “It’s come a long way, but still there’s a way to go. I remember signs that had white only, black only, I’ve seen a lot in my 61 years go on right here.”

Rally speaker Jackie Hallum led a call and response, with people raising their fists and shouting “freedom” and “peace.” Hallum also read Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Especially loud cheers erupted from the crowd when Hallum recited, “I have dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Many children were present in groups from local schools, after-school programs, or with family and friends. Joe Jones, an after-school counselor at the YWCA, said he brought his group, “to show the kids, give them a little bit of history with Black History Month coming up, and to let them see what Martin Luther King stood for and let them be a part of it. It’s not as big of a march as it was back in the sixties, but they get to be a part of it and maybe have a little bit of understanding of what is was like back in the sixties.” Children in his program will also be watching videos and doing artwork to learn more about Black History.

Emily Green and Haley Brockwell, who attended the march with a group from the Jewish Community Center, held a sign wishing King a happy birthday. Ten-year-old Brockwell commented, “I think the way they treated him was just horrible and I’m really glad he made them free.”

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Group says new road at Sayles site violates conditional use permit

Statement of Community Supported Development

Asheville, North Carolina, Jan. 20— When Asheville City Council voted last July to grant a conditional use permit for the construction of a massive development at the old Sayles Bleachery site that includes a Wal-Mart Supercenter, they paid heed to citizens’ concerns over flooding, toxic waste, and traffic by including among the condition’s requirements that “all necessary agreements, easements and permits” for the project “shall be in place prior to the construction of any development phase or part thereof, including those necessary for the construction of the roads and other infrastructure serving the project [Condition 14; see sidebar].”

According to City Council Minutes of July 23, 2002, Mayor Charles Worley attempted to reassure the public that “before a spade of dirt is turned, the engineering has to be done to show that the streets can be built to city standards and that any agreements that are required in order to eventually construct the streets have to be obtained and finalized. Any approvals by NCDOT (North Carolina Department of Transportation) for signalization, design, etc., have to be in place... In other words, everything that they would have to construct would have to be permitted or an agreement signed so that there are no legal impediments to their eventual construction before we would allow them to turn a single spade of dirt for any aspect of the project.”

As of Jan. 17, 2003, the needed permits have not yet been obtained and the numerous conditions have not been met. Yet as the accompanying photo shows, more than a spade of dirt has been turned. Construction has already begun on the proposed road shown on the conditional use permit site plan, in clear violation of the conditional use permit.

The road appears to be used for heavy machinery and dump trucks carrying fill dirt from the Target construction site into the main entrance of and through the Sayles site, to a portion of the Riverbend property which is not subject to the Conditional Use Permit. The new road appears to begin in close proximity to the buildings on the site, which should raise some concern, partly because the full extent and location of the toxic plume on the site has not yet been determined. It does not matter who is building the road or whose trucks have been using it — what matters is that the road is being constructed on the land which is covered by the Conditional Use Permit.

The road passes directly beneath I-240, between exits 7 and 8 along an old railroad bed, and earth-moving equipment and heavy trucks have been driving through the narrow space between the columns that support I-240. No barriers have been placed to protect the columns, which if struck by a heavy truck could damage or even collapse the road above.

In addition, the sediment and erosion control measures put into place in front of an open culvert on the west side of I-240 are inadequate and have collapsed. Sediment is flowing over the collapsed silt fences into the culvert, which leads downhill into the Swannanoa River. This is a violation of the city’s erosion and sedimentation control regulations and a threat to water quality.

On Jan. 13, attorneys representing local residents, neighborhood and merchants associations, and the organization Community Supported Development, who are legally challenging the conditional use permit and rezoning, asked Asheville city staff to immediately issue an order to halt all activity on the site.

City Attorney Bob Oast has continued to say that the matter is under investigation. Planning and Zoning Director Scott Shuford has still not yet issued an order to stop work.

“We were told in the interest of public safety there would be no activity on that site until all of the conditions were met. The public trust has clearly been violated and we want the city to take action to stop all activity now,” said Sharon Martin, President of Community Supported Development.