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County planners prioritize sidewalks, lighting and Woodson Bridge safety in transportation chapter revisions
Summary
Buncombe County staff reviewed proposed sidewalk requirements for new development, added requests to tie transit partnerships to route and facility improvements, and flagged the Woodson Bridge area for multimodal safety and a potential flood study; staff will add actions for lighting and transit facility improvements.
Transportation and public‑safety items drew detailed attention during the plan review. Staff recapped actions to improve multimodal connections, call out dangerous crossings near the Woodson Bridge, and propose partnerships with the town of Black Mountain and the city of Asheville to enhance transit routes and facilities.
Participants requested explicit references to school connections in multimodal planning and asked that community lighting, and protections for the night sky, be included in safety actions. Staff said lighting can be referenced in Action 1.1.7 and that sidewalk and pedestrian crossing requirements could be pursued either through developer requirements on major redevelopments or via map‑based priorities tied to the plan’s walkability map.
The Woodson Bridge area was identified as a site with two potentially dangerous crossings; staff noted the bridge is already flagged on the transportation improvement map for pedestrian and multimodal improvements and said they would add a corresponding action to reference it explicitly. Staff also mentioned a planned or recommended flood study for the bridge area as a pathway to federal grant eligibility.
On utilities and resilience, participants asked about incentives or requirements for undergrounding power lines. Staff responded that undergrounding is common in new subdivisions but can be costly and topography sometimes prevents it; they said the county could recommend undergrounding and/or incentivize it rather than mandate it.
Staff said they would revise transportation actions to incorporate school connectivity, community lighting, transit facility improvements (shelters), sidewalk priorities, and an explicit reference to the Woodson Bridge safety and flood‑study action.
