I-26 and What’s Next for the Burton Street Community

Clifford Cotton’s home is located on Burton Street. Photo: Urban News
Clifford Cotton’s home is located on Burton Street. Photo: Urban News
By Johnnie Grant –

Clifford Cotton, grandson of E.W. Pearson – one of Asheville’s early civic leaders from the African American community, and whose home sits on Burton Street – is at odds with the I-26 Connector project and deeply concerned about what will happen to the Burton Street Community.

“I remember growing up when Patton Avenue was only a two-lane street,” he says. “Before that, the West Asheville community was connected to the Emma Community – way past Violet Hill [African American] Cemetery,” said Cotton.

Cotton is worried about the impact the highways will have on West Asheville neighborhoods. “On my street alone the church my grandfather attended and was memorialized in (Wilson’s Chapel), now Community Baptist Church, stands to lose the church building.”

West Asheville Greenway Overview. Image: NC Department of Transportation
West Asheville Greenway Overview. Image: NC Department of Transportation

“Expanding Interstate I-240 in West Asheville to eight lanes, or adding more lanes to I-40 on the west side of Asheville, will create larger highways than needed,” said Cotton. He wonders if the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NC DOT) studied how larger metropolitan cities like Atlanta, with its 275 Highway project, and Washington, DC, with its Beltway, skirted traffic around established neighborhoods, instead of through them.

“This highway expansion will come up to my back door nearly, and putting a sound-barrier wall will not alleviate the traffic noise I already hear 24-7. It’ll just make it worse.”

A recent NC-DOT study of the connector route suggests that highway projections are roughly in line with traffic counts in Asheville dating back to 1998; however, traffic increased expansively in 2014. According to NC DOT statistics, the number of cars per day on Jeff Bowen Bridge rose from 92,000 in 1998 to 102,000 in 2014; a 10.9 percent increase over 16 years. Over the same period, traffic on I-240 between Haywood Road and Amboy Road rose from 45,000 to 59,000 vehicles per day (a 31% increase).

Big issues are redlining, property values, and health implications

To African American communities, major urban renewal projects almost always mean gentrification and displacement, usually of entire neighborhoods. Through subtle forms of redlining, property values are systematically decreased; after gentrification, values increase, reverberating through minority neighborhoods long afterward.

In the United States, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was passed to fight the practice. The act also makes it unlawful for any person or other entity whose business includes residential real estate-related transactions to discriminate against any person in making available such a transaction, or in the terms or conditions of such a transaction, because of race or national origin.

Zanie and Thomas Davidson are worried about the future of the community. Photo: Urban News
Zanie and Thomas Davidson are worried about the future of the community. Photo: Urban News

Like Clifford Cotton, retired educator Zanie Davidson and her husband Thomas live with the constant reminder of what’s yet to come. “My biggest issue is displacing elderly community members from their homes, and relocation,” said Mrs. Davidson. “They’ve been here so long this will impact their health, and they probably can’t find property that’s affordable. That will be an issue.” Similarly, Clifford Cotton said, “I am retired and if I have to give up my property I want a fair market value.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social and economic impacts of residential displacement have long been recognized. Their findings are summarized (in part) here:

“Displacement has many health implications that contribute to disparities among special populations, including the poor, women, children, the elderly, and members of racial/ethnic minority groups. These special populations are at increased risk for the negative consequences of gentrification.

“Studies indicate that vulnerable populations typically have shorter life expectancy; higher cancer rates; more birth defects; greater infant mortality; and higher incidence of asthma, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In addition, other health effects include limited access to, or the availability of affordable healthy housing; healthy food choices; quality transportation choices; quality schools; bicycle and walking paths, exercise facilities, etc.; [and] social networks.”

Julie Mayfield
Julie Mayfield

Asheville City Council member weighs in

Newly elected Asheville City Council member Julie Mayfield spoke in Council’s December 8th meeting about the I-26 project’s impact.

“I want to explain to people why this (I-26 road project) is so important. This will be the largest infrastructure project we will likely ever see in WNC, and it will dictate the character and feel of our city for decades to come. It is enormously impactful to homes and businesses along the corridor. The thing to remember is until now, we have not fully known the relative impacts of the different alternatives. The DEIS that is out now is the first complete report we’ve ever seen. Regardless of how any of us feels about this project – where we are in the process demands a constructive response from the City.”

Mayfield went on to say, “So while we’ve been talking about it for a long time, we have not had a full understanding of the project’s implications for our city. DOT has issued a draft EIS and is accepting public comment, so the city has an opportunity to provide feedback to DOT on what it wants. What we would like to see is no different from what our predecessors told DOT they wanted to see back in 2000, which is: matching scale of project to character of community; reunification and connectivity of community; minimization of neighborhood and local business impacts; and separation of local and interstate traffic.

She added, “I also think the City’s relationship with DOT has evolved to a point that we can work together more constructively than in the past on these ongoing thorny issues – and reach resolution on them – so that the very real problems we have in this corridor can be fixed while the integrity of our city can be maintained.”

Asheville City Council voted 7-0 at the December 8 meeting to tell NC DOT officials how they prefer to have the estimated $700 million I-26 Connector routed through Asheville. A resolution was submitted, along with comments from the public. A copy of the COA Resolution can be viewed here.

Public Comments Sought

The NC DOT wants to make a decision on the I-26 Connector project in 2016. DOT’s environmental impact study of alternatives for the I-26 Connector and accompanying maps are online at www.ncdot.org/projects/I26Connector.

Hard copies are available for public viewing at Pack Library downtown, the West Asheville Library, DOT offices at 55 Orange St., the Buncombe County Law Library in the county courthouse, and the transportation office in City Hall.

Public comments may be submitted by December 16 to Drew Joyner, NCDOT, 1598 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, 27699-1598, via email to [email protected].