Greenway discussions prevalent in December town council meeting
Board approves engineering contract for Riverwalk Phase II, considers Greenway Commission ordinance
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
January 6, 2022
An engineering contract approved by the Black Mountain Town Council, Dec. 13, marked a significant moment for the development of the second phase of the Riverwalk Greenway, which, once completed, will the connect the town’s existing network of trails. Photo by Fred McCormick
Town Council’s approval of a $375,000 engineering contract, Dec. 13, for two sections of the Town of Black Mountain Greenway System between Sutton Avenue and The Oaks Trail at the southern end of Vance Avenue, marked a significant moment in the development of Phase II of the Riverwalk Greenway.
The greenway system, which once completed will provide pedestrians and cyclists with a network of trails connecting the town, was at the center of multiple discussions, as the board gathered for its final meeting of 2021.
Town council unanimously approved a contract with Asheville-based Michael Baker Engineering, Inc., which will provide engineering services for the two sections that will eventually become the centerpiece of the trail system. Section A of the Riverwalk Greenway Phase II project will connect the Flat Creek Trail, which currently runs from Charlotte Street to East Cotton Avenue, to the railroad crossing at Sutton Avenue and N.C. 9. Section B will provide a route from the railroad crossing to The Oaks Trail, a paved path that begins at the end of Vance Avenue and continues to Veterans Park.
Upon its completion, the Riverwalk Greenway will serve as a link for the Fonta Flora State Trail, which will connect Morganton and Asheville.
“This is pretty exciting,” Town Manager Josh Harrold told the town council in its December regular monthly meeting. “It’s on paper, but this finally puts us in the place we need to be. We have both of these contracts now, and these contracts are really the last things we need to get started on the whole thing.”
The $6 million project, 80% of which is funded through federal grant money, has been a “long and tedious” one, Harrold said in a Jan. 6 interview.
The original design for the second phase of the Riverwalk Greenway proposed a mostly off-road route to connect Flat Creek and The Oaks Trails, but the plan was abandoned in October of 2020 when designers told officials they could not meet floodway regulation standards.
Town council, in April of 2021, unanimously approved a plan to separate the proposal into two sections, as they considered alternate routes for Section A, the northern segment of the project. The board approved an engineering contract for Section B, known as The Oaks Connector, last October. An updated contract for services on Sections A and B was passed two months later.
Section A of the project will include sidewalk improvements to meet the American with Disabilities Act compliance and add bike lanes along N.C. 9, south of the railroad tracks to Vance Avenue. Sharrows will be placed along Vance Avenue to Black Mountain Avenue, which will connect to Terry Estate Drive. On-road bicycle treatments along Terry Estate Drive to Vance Avenue will connect to a shared use path that leads to The Oaks Trail. Crosswalks and intersection improvements are included in both sections.
“The next step will be getting approval from the (N.C. Department of Transportation),” Harrold said. “That can take a couple of weeks, or a couple of months, but at this point we have everything we need to have into the state to formalize the agreements with them.”
A detailed timeline for completion of the project will be developed upon receiving a Notice to Proceed from the state, according to the engineering contract.
“From a procedural perspective, you can’t do anything until you get approval from the DOT,” Harrold said. “So, getting these contracts approved really gets the ball rolling on this entire project.”
Discussion of ‘competing’ Greenway Commissions ordinances tabled until January
The process of updating the ordinance that governs the town’s Greenways Commission, a citizen advisory board that promotes orderly and efficient administration of town business related to the greenway system, resulted in two proposals that were presented to the town council, Dec. 13.
One draft was developed by town staff, while the other was a revised version that included edits from the Greenways Commission. Town attorney Ron Sneed called the proposed ordinance updates “almost competing” versions of each other.
Both documents establish the body under a new title of the Active Mobility Advisory Committee, while the draft submitted by the commission requires a representative from the town council to represent the board at all town council meetings. The draft submitted by town staff requires the committee to hold regular quarterly meetings, but the proposal from the existing board would require monthly meetings.
“Staff’s version tried to tightly follow the N.C. School of Government’s description of an advisory board,” Sneed said. “Then we have the former Greenways Commission, which will now have a new title and a broader scope, that’s accustomed to doing a little brainstorming on its own. We didn’t want to take that away, but we needed to create a flow of information.”
The ordinance recommended by staff requires members of the committee to live within town limits, which differs from the current requirement that those serving on the board must reside within the East Buncombe Fire District.
“I wonder why you are recommending that,” town council member Pam King asked planning director Jessica Trotman.
“We can’t do anything outside of our physical boundary,” Trotman responded. “I’m not accustomed to bringing people to sit on boards to make recommendations for things that are not where they reside.”
Residential requirements for members of the Active Mobility Advisory Committee would ultimately be up to the town council, according to Sneed.
“That’s more commonly found in towns that exercise extra-territorial jurisdiction, which we do not,” Sneed said. “The version I submitted was town (residency), but you’re not locked into that. This board can define the limits any way it wants.”
Council Member Bill Christy pointed to inconsistencies in the drafts that were presented for review.
“They need more time to have a good, clean version of this,” Christy said, before the town council voted to table the discussion until January’s meeting.
Members of the Greenways Commission met with town officials before Christmas, according to Harrold, in an effort to align both versions of the draft.
“We were able to come to a consensus on a single version, which is kind of a hybrid of both,” the town manager said. “We had the same end goal in mind, but we had some different opinions on how to reach that goal.”
Former mayor appointed to Greenways Commission
While a new ordinance for the Greenways Commission is considered, a vacancy on the body has been filled by former mayor Michael Sobol. The town council voted 5-0 to appoint Sobol, who served as mayor from 2013-2017, to fill a 3-year term on the advisory board.
Sobol, a longtime advocate for the town’s greenway system, served on the town council for 10 years. He launched a campaign to return to the board in 2020, but bowed out of the race a month prior to the election.
Sobol, who was one of two applicants for the vacant Greenways Commission seat, was recommended unanimously by the advisory board.