Asheville Crossroads: Photos from Condemned Land (UPDATED 11 Dec 2020)

One year ago today my coverage of the Crossroads development was a small fraction of the public outcry
that went unheard by anyone who mattered. The land where I learned to
fish was slated to become the largest housing complex in western North
Carolina. Controversy ensued, and everyone played to type. Establishment
media ignored the two aspects of the story that were most important:
The land itself and the fact that the bureaucracy is not designed to
consider that land or the people threatened most by the development.

I
didn’t want any part of either side, or of covering the story in a
traditional way. I wanted to act directly, outside the framework set up
by the government and the media. So I took photos that attempted to
convey how it actually feels to be there. I released these shortly
before a meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment that would
decide the fate of the land and the project.

I covered the meeting
live on my Twitter feed. I’d done the same countless times as an actual
journalist, but in that role I could never say what was self evident:
Such meetings are shams meant to convince the public that the
bureaucracy cares about their feelings. So this time, instead of
presenting a balanced, factual account, my goal was to highlight the
absurdity of this process. 

At the time, I worried I was being a
little too dramatic, and that my coverage was needlessly offensive. A
year later, the project has been approved and I wish I’d yelled louder.
It’s easy for such an issue to get lost in the madness of 2020. However,
Citizen-Times columnist John Boyle did take a direct approach
to the procedural con that is the county’s process of approving such
developments. It’s too late for Crossroads, but maybe not for the next
tract of land in the crosshairs.

Here I’m presenting my original
coverage from last year, beginning with excerpts from my live Twitter
coverage of the meeting. I hope you laugh a little bit. At this point,
there’s not much else to do.

December 11, 2019:

9:44 AM
Good morning #avl! I guess I’ll be attending the Board of Adjustment
meeting on the development … If approved today, the development will
be the largest housing complex in WNC and it’s totally controversial
and there’s definitely a chance public outcry will stop it. 

10:29 AM
Hardened #journo that I am, I’m a bit chagrined that photos aren’t
allowed during public comment, so I plan to undermine all the good work I
did documenting this land by documenting this meeting. 

11:23 AM
Can you believe it’s been 6 years since I covered a meeting in this
room? Since that time, the entire institution of journalism has
collapsed and words have lost all meaning, but for some reason I’m back
to help GovCo pretend your voice matters! 

11:39 AM Srsly
y’all, it’s fun to use satire as a coping mechanism, but this scene is
tense. In case of actual news, I will tag real observations with #srsly
because apparently I can’t turn the journo thing off long enough to make
fun of being a journo.  

11:44 AM Heavy police presence as APD arrives on scene to hold back the NIMBY hordes.

11:45 AM Flashbulbs going off outside, developers disembarking from their motorcade.  

11:50 AM #srsly the room is at capacity.  

11:54 AM Lead developer guy is currently unbuttoning his shirt to show off his Roger-Stone-esque back tat of Pat McCrory’s face.  

12:01 PM Here we go. Chairman bringing meeting to order. “HOW YA DOIN CHARLOTTE!”

12:10 PM I’ve decided to take a shot everytime I hear the phrase “quasi-legal.” 

12:12 PM
Chairman Moore says anyone speaking will need to be under oath.
Unrelatedly, it looks like 30% of attendees just remembered they left
something in the oven. 

12:14 PM Ok #srsly I’m pretty sure
the chairman just said no one can give an opinion on traffic if they
aren’t an expert. Literal hissing from crowd. #avltraffic 

12:23 PM There’s a lot of swearing and affirming going on in here. 

12:39 PM
Echoing Harry Truman, the president of Malvern Hills HOA says if 
proceeds their neighborhood will “wage a total war the like of which
Asheville has never seen.” 

12:44 PM Lawyers currently arguing for/against the standing of testimony. In other news, no one here knows what that means. 

12:48 PM
Attorney for developer #srsly arguing that because all properties in
the county have mountain views, mountain views do not impact property
values. 

12:56 PM County staff now explaining the land use plan to the public in what will likely result as the weirdest ASMR video ever.  

1:07 PM
So basically, when they say “public comment” they mean “comment from
members of the public who can’t be found faulty by the developer’s
lawyers.” 

1:19 PM Ok #srsly, NCDOT is here and wants to be
bumped up in the presentation because they are in a hurry. I guess they
want to get home before the construction backs up I26? 

1:29 PM
Former #avl city attorney Bob Oast is representing the developer,
Catalyst Capital, which got its name from a B-rate dystopian future sci
fi novel.   

1:42 PM Meeting now in recess. Chairman Moore on the swings, Oast chooses monkey bars.  

1:44 PM
If this were satire it would be to point out the utter failures that
modern government and journalism have become, but it’s totally not
satire, so I don’t even know why you brought it up.  

2:00 PM Recess over. Naptime. 

2:05 PM Developer: “neighborhood village” will have a “mountain modern” theme. #srsly 

2:08 PM Developer lives in an “active, engaged” community … in Charlotte. #srsly

2:10 PM Developer bringing up story of small biz owner in Charlotte that was recently shot to death. For some reason.  #srsly

2:15 PM
Not sure why this is related. Neither is the crowd. Loud reaction
causes board member Keith Levi to tell the crowd to be silent “or your
green space is next.”  

2:25 PM Expert traffic witness says, under oath, that peak traffic happens during rush hour.  #srsly

2:29 PM
Traffic expert says roads will be widened to accommodate the project.
Outrage ensues from sector of room who say roads aren’t wide enough to
accommodate the project.   

2:37 PM Chairman slams gavel, reminds the public that this is definitely not a waste of time.   

2:39 PM Speaker from NCDOT approaches the mic. Underlings proceed ahead of him with orange cones.   

2:42 PM
Ok #srsly NCDOT guy did not bring “exact dates” to this quasi-legal
meeting, but there might be some major construction on Brevard road for
the next 4-5 years.  

2:51 PM Chairman Moore just stole my
joke about NCDOT leaving early to beat traffic. Room explodes in
laughter. I regret not going into standup.   

2:54 PM
Proceedings have stalled. NIMBY warriors offering ritual blood sacrifice
in the corner. Fire Marshall says no open flames but camp stoves ok.  

2:58 PM Developer currently reading news article about a sandwich shop owner that fell down a manhole in Charlotte.   

3:00 PM DOT spokesface outlines plans for widening Brevard Rd at I240. Maybe. Someday. #srsly   

3:02 PM Developer now reading from the Diary of Anne Frank.   

3:12 PM
#srsly the traffic expert has not modeled impact on traffic if the
NCDOT doesn’t complete their work on time. Good thing that’s never
happened before.   

3:14 PM Developer now singing a rousing rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”   

3:17 PM Someone from the Sierra Club is here. Her name’s not even Sierra. #wtf?   

3:20 PM
These people are #srsly deadass telling us that they have no reason to
believe that NCDOT will not complete the project on time.   

3:23 PM “Actually, my question was related to the pedestrian crosswalk” is the new “I am not a crook.”   

3:29 PM
Brd member George Lycan pinning down developer and traffic expert: is
it possible that construction could be nearly completed before the NCDOT
even starts traffic easing projects? #srsly   

3:30 PM Answer: no one knows. 

3:35 PM
We’ve all been in this room for 3.5 hrs. Not a single member of “the
public” has been recognized for comment. This is the reality of public
meetings. Those who are here are folks who can afford to take an entire
day off work.   

3:37 PM And the crowd is thinning.
Obviously all the attrition is coming from the NIMBY side, because the
folks from the developer’s side are paid to be here.   

3:44 PM Crowd down by half.   

4:11 PM
Back after taking a short break to eat a frozen powerbar from my car
cause I can’t afford any food in walking distance. #livingthedream #avl 

4:15 PM
It’s bitter cold outside. Clears the mind. Some thoughts: if you didnt
get here early, you didnt get signed up to speak. So it’s fair to say
that opponents have been here at least five hours. I took the whole day
off, but I am well versed in public meetings……Most ppl aren’t
prepared for this. And at this point I’m curious to see how the board is
going to handle the few ppl that try to comment but aren’t
“experts.”   

4:22 PM But back to the coverage, the NIMBY
warriors are now crafting ranged weapons from the sinews of the deer
that would have been displaced by the project. Smell of blood and rage.
It’s like a Cormac McCarthy novel in here.   

4:25 PM Developer’s counsel has taken a short break to shoot flagging workers in the fields from the Chamber balcony.   

4:30 PM Another recess. Establishment media folks are all checking their phones to see if they’ve been laid off.   

4:37 PM Board members filing back in, wiping cocaine from their noses. Empty Catalyst Capital briefcase visible behind the dais.   

4:39 PM
Proceedings back underway. Developer calling witness to explain how
they will cut down on construction impact by straight piping sewer lines
into Hominy Creek.  #avl 

4:46 PM BREAKING: leader of the
NIMBY separatists killed by predator drone. Chairman Moore says the body
will be buried “in accordance with dirty leftist beliefs.” 

4:55 PM
New witness explaining how property values of adjacent communities will
“rise faster than the sea levels in the coming post-Trump
wasteland.”   

5:00 PM We are now “going through the
contents of the manila folder.” Also the opposition counsel just used
the word “tribunal.” Pretty sure someone is taking themselves too #srsly

5:05 PM Staff announces that the doors to the building have been locked from the outside. We’re in this together now.   

5:11 PM
Spokesman for Catalyst Capital confirms that there will be “a small
alien xenomorph breeding facility” on the property but that all safety
precautions will be observed. One board member raises hand, is quickly
silenced by the others.   

5:26 PM Developer: “ok, lemme see if I can explain. Have y’all ever been to Charlotte?”   

5:42 PM 5 hours 40 min in: opposing counsel begins its argument.   

5:42 PM Opposing counsel: “Your MOM requested a variance!”   

5:56 PM
The chairman #srsly just instructed a witness not to say that the
intersection at Sandhill/bear creek is misaligned, because only an
expert is qualified to say that. This lady lives there. Her HOA took
pics of the traffic jams but the board won’t accept them.   

5:56 PM
Correction: they accepted the photos after argument and say they will
decide what weight to give them “at the appropriate time.”   

5:56 PM
Alright. Tonight I’m going to do something I was never able to do as an
established media journo: Leave. After being here for 7 hrs I’ve
satisfied myself that the only thing more ridiculous than my coverage of
this meeting is the idea that anyone here cares how the public feels. .
. . Here’s the bottom line: None of us can do anything about this, and
reporting on it is just pretending otherwise. The headlines should read
“No Public Comment Heard in 7.5 Hour Meeting.” The real story is that
public opinion is *literally* not taken into account by this board.
That’s not how this system works. “The biggest project we’ve ever had in
this county” will pass or fail without us.  

Original statement and photos, Dec. 2019:

A
piece of land I’m personally attached to is slated for development. I
have no desire to join in any political advocacy on the issue, and I’m
not a conservation expert or a civil engineer. But I am a photographer,
and I’ve spent a lot of time on the land known as Crossroads.

The
land’s namesake, the Crossroads Church, invested in it decades ago and
has now partially sold it to a developer from out of town. Locals are
very unhappy with what they say will be an immensely out-of-scale
project, bringing 800+ apartments, as well as retail and commercial
space, to a two-lane road just outside the city limits.
Environmentalists are concerned the development will force out flora and
fauna, raze dozens of oak trees at the peak of their life cycles,
destroy wetlands on the property, and flood the already beleaguered
Hominy Creek, which the property borders, with waste and thermal
pollution.

Establishment media have covered the facts,
and to some extent the political quarrel, but there has been no in-depth
look at the land itself, nor a broad-scope look at how human beings
decide to do these sorts of things.

I’m not qualified to take
the broad-scope look, but I can show you what this land actually looks
like. I lived right next door for many years and I learned to fish in
Hominy Creek, a body of water most locals assume to be too polluted to
contain life. They’re wrong about that, and while no one is claiming
that Crossroads is a tract of pristine wilderness, it is a wild space,
full of animals and forest and meadows and wetlands. I did my best to
document what I could before it’s gone.

The fate of the land
will be decided by the non-elected Buncombe County Board of Adjustment
at a meeting at 12:00 noon on December 11, 2019. The Board will meet in
the third-floor County Commissioner’s Chamber at 200 College Street,
Asheville, 20881.

Some notes: The photos here are largely from
the first week of December, 2019, though some are from years past. I’m
not affiliated with any party involved in any of this, and I’m posting
pictures of advocates’ signs for informational purposes only. Here are
links to media coverage as well as information from advocacy groups (I
can’t find any statements/info from the developer and I haven’t reached
out to them - or anyone - for comment).

Asheville Citizen-Times: West Asheville meeting does little to gain supporters
FOHCG Statement Opposing Crossroads Development
Buncombe Citizens Concerned about Crossroads (Lots of info here)