Brevard City Council Reverses Rule That Allowed Controversial Parking Lot at new Aldi
The vote at Monday's meeting restored an old rule that requires parking be placed to the rear or side of some new stores and restaurants. Some Council members said it should just be a first step.
BREVARD — The Brevard City Council voted 4-1 Monday to reverse a six-year old exemption to its land-use code that allowed parking lots in strip commercial zones to be built in front of stores and restaurants.
The issue came up at a meeting in May, when Council member Gary Daniel questioned why the Aldi, then under construction, was building a large parking lot in front of its grocery on Asheville Highway.
After he was told about the 2015 exemption created for projects in such Corridor Mixed-Use zones, he asked that the issue be revisited by the city’s planning staff and Planning Board, which recently recommended eliminating the exemption.
The “no” vote was cast by Council member Geraldine Dinkins, who said the parking standards should be considered as part of a larger plan that includes increased accessibility for cyclists and pedestrians.
“People on foot and people on bikes eat fast food, too,” said Dinkins, who repeatedly referred to the stretch of the highway northeast of downtown as “fast-food mile.”
She had criticized the lack of accessibility and the parking arrangement when the store opened earlier this month.
Daniel also said he favored a larger reconsideration of planning in the commercial strip zone, which had been the original intent, said Assistant Planning Director Aaron Bland.
When Council created the exemption it viewed it as part of the creation of a “form-based code” that would create comprehensive new design standards, Bland said Monday. “That project never came to fruition and we were left with this kind of quick first step.”
He emphasized that adopting the new language on Monday was a limited action. Restricting parking to the rear or side of buildings does “not guarantee that no parking will be allowed up against streets such as Asheville Highway, that parking lots will be behind principal buildings, or that new buildings will be located close to the street,” he wrote in a supporting document.
At the meeting he showed several examples of projects that conform to the standard but featured highly visible and expansive parking to the side of buildings.
He said the Planning Board is also considering a more comprehensive update to the city’s parking rules.
Mayor Pro Tem Mac Morrow said that the stretch of Asheville Highway is due to be improved by the state Department of Transportation, and that the planned renovation of a McDonald’s restaurant that will improve bike access to the Aldi.
“That whole stretch is going to be an NCDOT project in three years, and it will have grass medians and sidewalks,” he said. “It will have a totally different look than it has now.”
When that happens, Dinkins said after the meeting, Aldi should relocate the bike rack, which is now placed to the side of the store and near a loading dock.
“I’m very excited about (the future improvements),” she said. “But I do think the bike rack needs to be moved to the other side so people are safe when they go into the store and leave the store.”
Future design standards, Daniel said, could change the look of a stretch that is a poor representation of the city, telling a story about a visit from his parents several years ago.
“They said, ‘I didn’t like Brevard. Brevard is an ugly town,’ and it took me a few years to realize they never got to Brevard,” he said. “They were just driving on the corridor.”