ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Costco sought a modification to Asheville’s tree-canopy requirements as part of revised plans for its proposed Enka store, but the company is making more changes before the project goes before city boards next month.
City staff said they have been working with Costco’s development team and expect another submission with revised tree-canopy and landscaping plans and updated conditions for the project.
The latest plans call for a roughly 168,000-square-foot Costco with 914 parking spaces on about 25.5 acres at 264 and 274 Enka Heritage Parkway.
That’s a change from the earlier proposal, which called for a roughly 161,000-square-foot store and a 32-pump fueling station. The revised proposal increases the size of the store while cutting the fueling station to 16 pumps. It also removes a large access road.
The project is scheduled to go before Asheville’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Oct. 7. A City Council public hearing on amendments to the site’s conditional zoning, including the site plan and project conditions, is scheduled for Oct. 13.
Landscaping and tree canopy are separate requirements
Questions about the project surfaced during public comment at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, when resident Sharon Summerall questioned the tree-canopy provisions and why the revised proposal was not returning to the city’s Technical Review Committee.
The city’s development rules treat landscaping and overall tree canopy as two different requirements, city spokesperson Kim Miller said.
Section 7-11 of Asheville’s Unified Development Ordinance covers individual landscaping requirements such as street trees, parking-lot trees and landscape buffers. Section 7-19 deals with overall tree-canopy preservation and installation.
The distinction is important because the Costco plans include substantial landscaping.
The plans call for hundreds of trees and shrubs to meet parking-lot and building-impact landscaping requirements. They show 252 trees and more than 1,100 shrubs for parking-lot landscaping, along with additional trees and shrubs associated with extra parking and the building footprint.
Trees preserved to satisfy the landscaping requirements, or trees planted beyond what those rules require, can also count toward the separate tree-canopy requirement, Miller said.
Costco requested a canopy modification
Costco initially requested a technical modification from the requirements of Section 7-19 because of site constraints and what the applicant described as a lack of planting opportunities, according to the city.
But that request is now being revised.
Miller said city staff has been working with Costco’s team and expects another submission that will account for portions of the property that are not eligible for planting while giving the project credit for trees planted beyond the landscaping requirements.
That means the tree-canopy provisions ultimately considered by Planning and Zoning and City Council could differ from those in the plans that prompted questions this week.
The plans currently on file also call for a tree-canopy preservation plat complying with Section 7-19-2 to be recorded before the city issues a certificate of occupancy.
Another question is whether Costco will have to pay the city instead of meeting some of the canopy requirement through planting or preservation.
Miller said paying a fee in lieu of planting or preservation is an option under Section 7-19, but Costco is seeking not to make those payments.
Whether a fee ultimately will be required — and how much it might be — has not been determined.
“The need for any fee in lieu payments may be reduced by the upcoming revised plans and conditions,” Miller said.
Staff has not yet reviewed the final version of those documents.
Why no second TRC review?
Summerall also questioned why the revised proposal isn’t returning to Asheville’s Technical Review Committee.
The TRC is made up of city staff and reviews large development projects for technical compliance with the Unified Development Ordinance.
The Costco proposal previously went through that review. Miller said most of the subsequent changes involved removing a large access road.
Because removing the road reduced technical requirements rather than adding to them, staff determined the changes did not affect the project’s technical compliance enough to require another TRC review, Miller said.
The project isn’t finished changing, however.
Miller said the timing of Costco’s next submission is up to the applicant. The revisions are being made in response to city staff comments intended to increase compliance and reduce or change the technical modifications the project would need.
The city has not yet provided the percentage or acreage of tree canopy the site ordinarily would be required to have before any modifications or credits are applied.