ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) – Thirty-two years since its founding, the Asheville’s Civic Center Commission might get a new name and expanded mission.
The Asheville City Council on Tuesday night will consider an ordinance renaming the panel as the “Community Entertainment Facilities Commission” to serve an advisory role on a longer list of city-owned facilities and programs encouraging the promotion of sports, recreation, entertainment and cultural events.
The issue is on a lengthy consent calendar for the council’s meeting at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, at the banquet hall of Harrah’s Cherokee Center, 87 Haywood St., Asheville.
According to a staff report, the board was established in 1992, with a primary focus on the Asheville Civic Center and Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. After a restructuring of departments in 2022, the city created a Department of Community and Regional Entertainment Facilities.
That department oversees the civic center (now known as Harrah’s Cherokee Center), plus the WNC Nature Center, Municipal Golf Course, McCormick Field, Aston Park Tennis Center, J.B. Lewis Soccer Fields and special events outdoors.
But according to the staff report by Chris Corl, the department’s manager, “no City board or commission is reviewing or advising on the operation of the overall Department’s facilities operations and programs.”
Since so many components of the new department relate to the commission’s focus, the panel voted unanimously earlier this year to recommend amending the ordinance, to change the name and expanded the role to advise in those areas, Corl wrote.