News

Seventh Avenue ideas draw mixed reviews

By Bill Moss, Published: June 23, 2014

Carson Calton has heard talk about what it takes to revitalize Seventh Avenue all his adult life. He's uttered a few ideas himself. In recent weeks the talk has taken on a new vigor.

"Since being named to the committee and being named chairman, I've had a lot of people come by that are in the district and even people that don't have property, giving ideas and suggestions," he said.
The Hendersonville City Council formed the new Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee and named Calton chair. The owner of City Tire in the 600 block, Calton said he is hopeful that this time the council will follow through with a strong commitment to the district, which was home to a train depot for 100 years and once bustled with retail stores and services.

Seventh Avenue Board members Terry Kethcham, Carson Calton and Jim Kastetter talk about redevelopment ideas.
"We can't afford with this opportunity in front of us to go small," he added. "We've got to look at big ideas. Some are going to be controversial, some are going to be outside the box."

Expand or no?

The City Council hired urban development specialists from the UNC School of Government to study the Seventh Avenue District and recommend a strategy for a rebirth. Their report recommended expanding the district to take in property on the margins and designating the neighborhood between Seventh Avenue and Four Seasons Boulevard as an urban redevelopment area.
"I don't like the idea" of expanding the district, Olde Market owner Margaret Woods said. "The historic Seventh Avenue was Seventh Avenue. It's just going to spread us too thin. We need to develop Seventh Avenue from Lowe's to here," at U.S. 64.
Like most shopkeepers, Woods said she is waiting to see if the city does more than add flower baskets and trashcans. Seventh Avenue now has a billboard, paid for by the business owners. "I went up and down the street till I got six people that would share the cost," she said.
People in town make remarks about the men who wait outside the mission, behind her store.
"If anything happened to us, they'd be the first ones here to help," she said. She moved her furniture, art and jewelry consignment store from Locust Street into the 300-block space where Sandra Walker operated her Southern Traditions flower shop.
"We love it," Woods said. "It's so much better for visibility and for parking."
She rattles off numerous projects or improvements to spark a rebirth, from a gospel sing to more restaurants.
"There's not enough hours in the day to do everything we want to do," she said.

'A total transformation'

Calton said he likes the proposal to expand the focus of the redevelopment because he believes a bigger perspective would help. He also agrees with the recommendation to buy and clear blighted housing east of Seventh Avenue.
"I think everyone feels like if that area doesn't get addressed it will hinder develop on Seventh Avenue and throughout the area," he said. "It has to be total transformation in that area. If that doesn't get addressed, it's going to hinder trying to redevelop Seventh Avenue. That is the kickstart we need and the rest will take off."
James Mast is just the opposite of Calton.
A transplant from Houston, Mast is a new property owner and new resident of Hendersonville. He bought the old Louis Williams & Son property across the street from City Tire and bought a retirement home in Haywood Knolls. He thinks the consultant's report was too government-oriented.
"The chances of getting 44 property owners who really don't have much incentive to do anything" to sell, he said, are not great. "As just a normal citizen, I'm going, 'Why? What's the point?'
"Ultimately, I know it's to increase the tax revenue and but at what price and what millennium is that going to take place in? My personal view of it is the city needs to stay out of the property owners' way, not hinder them."
Mast said he's already had two negative experiences with the city.
A farmer wanted to rent his warehouse to grow mushrooms.
"The city wouldn't let him do it," he said. Planners told him, "We don't have any agriculture inside the city limits."
He is renting part the old Louis Williams storefront to a ministry serving homeless people. The city is making the ministry pave the driveway and parking lot. (City Planning Director Sue Anderson said paved parking lots are a city code requirement in commercial zones.)
Mast, who has watched urban redevelopment happen in Houston, favors a market approach. Property values would go up, he said, if the city would actively police open-air drug dealing.
"Rather than spending million of dollars to buy property why don't you spend $100,000 and hire some more cops," he said. "More tax is not the answer. They have my building appraised at like $450,000." He paid $225,000.

Seventh Avenue Redevelopment
A team from the UNC School of Government investigated revitalization of Seventh Avenue. The report recommended that the city:
• Designate the area between Seventh Avenue and Four Seasons Boulevard as an Urban Redevelopment Area guided by the City Council.
• Buy and sell property, provide incentives for redevelopment, issue bonds to finance activity, condemn and clear blighted property.
• Expand the Seventh Avenue tax district (12 cents/$100 valuation) to take in 36 new properties. The city property tax bill would go up by $276 a year on average.