On June 15, the Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County (PSABC) received an offer from the developers of 101 Charlotte Street.
The developers are willing to donate the twelve homes proposed for demolition if PSABC can both find land and move the homes. The developers have also offered to donate $25,000 per home for the move, however, this is significantly less than the expense to move these homes.
The expense and logistics of moving twelve homes makes this a very challenging offer, however, PSABC’s staff and board of directors seriously considered it. Ultimately, they have concluded that accepting this offer would not be in keeping with PSABC’s mission.
Below is PSABC’s full response to the developers. The organization will continue to search for a solution that will benefit all involved.
Thank you for making an offer on June 15, 2021. Before responding to the offer, we need to clarify some prior communications. While PSABC did receive an email from Councilwoman Sage Turner on March 9, 2021 regarding the possibility of relocating the homes, PSABC did not consider this to be a binding offer of any kind, especially since it did not originate from your client or an authorized agent, but rather was an email that came directly from Councilwoman Turner to Jessie Landl. Given the convoluted nature of that communication, please request that Andrew Zimmerman and anyone else affiliated with the Charlotte Street development immediately cease alleging to members of the public that PSABC, via Jessie Landl, rejected an offer from RCG over three months ago to relocate the homes.
Our mission is to conserve Asheville and Buncombe County’s heritage and sense of place through preservation and promotion of the region’s historic resources. It is our job to advocate for the preservation of historic places, including these homes on Charlotte Street. While keeping the individual homes in tact is important to us, this offer does not mitigate the impact the proposed development would have on the neighborhood and the Chestnut Hill National Register District. Therefore, we respectfully decline your offer to put the money you would otherwise spend to demolish the homes towards their transfer, and counter with our previous offer to purchase the homes in their current location, made to you on May 7th.
As a reminder, we are offering to purchase the homes on Furman, Baird and Charlotte street. Eight of these homes would be resold. For the four remaining homes (two on Furman and two fronting on Charlotte at the Baird intersection), we would partner with an affordable housing non-profit to deed 16 units permanently affordable.
This would leave over 4 acres on the site for development. Of course we would be devastated by the possible loss of the home on East Chestnut, however, we offer this compromise as a way of saving most of the homes while still allowing for significant space for development.
Please understand, it is our job to advocate for the preservation of historic homes and places, and we have no opinion or opposition to development on Charlotte Street. In fact, as you have seen in our submittals and renderings, we support development at the Charlotte Street corridor that embraces and incorporates the historic homes. Again, we hope you will fully consider a unique approach to development at this site.
Thank you for your consideration of this offer.
Visit the PSABC website for additional information on the development and demolition plans.