ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — UPDATE: 1:30 p.m., Feb. 16, 2025
In an emailed statement to 828newsNOW, Brian Hart, director of university communication for University of North Carolina Asheville, addressed the response the university has received from community members about potential development around campus.
“We have received feedback from numerous community members regarding UNC Asheville’s assessment of undeveloped, University property. As development options are being finalized, UNC Asheville will host listening sessions to share information about potential plans and to gather input from the community,” Hart wrote. “These listening sessions have not yet been scheduled. We are determining the priorities we will pursue to enhance UNC Asheville’s positive impact on students, employees, and the community.”
The listening sessions were previously mentioned in a statement UNC Asheville issued on Jan. 16. Read more in the story below.
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An Asheville Facebook group called Save the Woods has amassed nearly 2,800 members in support of preventing the development of a section of forest near University of North Carolina Asheville.
The woods are a 45-acre urban forest bordered by Broadway Street and the Five Points neighborhood in north Asheville.
The group has organized meetings, concerts and rallies in opposition to a potential demolition of the woods. The latest, an informational meeting, will be held at 6:30 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, Feb. 12 at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church.
The meeting will be followed up by a Rally for the Trees campus walkthrough at 10:30 a.m. this Saturday, Feb. 15, beginning at the entrance to Reed Creek Greenway at the intersection of Broadway Street and W. T. Weaver Boulevard.
“That urban forest has been there for about 20 years or so. It’s connected from UNCA to the Five Points neighborhood. Typically, UNCA students and faculty use it for classes and then folks in the neighborhood use it as basically a little urban oasis. Lots of walks, hanging out, dog walks,” said Save the Woods leader Alix Doddridge.
Doddridge said that the Save the Woods movement began in January.
“January 13, some excavation began and some clearing of trees and brush. Really with no information to the neighbors. We talked to the folks that were managing the machinery and they told us that UNC had plans to build four or five buildings on there,” Doddridge recounted. “We reached out to UNCA and didn’t get anything for weeks, and then they said after two weeks, a lot of neighbors called and wanted to know what was happening, they said we’re just doing some simple assessment. It’s nothing.”
In a Jan. 16 statement from UNC Asheville, titled “Statement from UNC Asheville Regarding Assessment of University Property,” the university stated that “UNC Asheville is taking steps to better understand the characteristics of 90 acres of undeveloped portions of University property.”
“This includes assessing boundaries, topography, land composition, and utilities,” the statement read. “To support this process, the University has authorized an experienced external vendor to conduct a thorough exploratory assessment, which will require removing a minimal number of trees and collecting soil samples. As we move forward, the University remains dedicated to working with environmental experts who bring deep knowledge of sustainable and responsible land use.”
According to the statement, no decisions about development of the wooded property had been made at the time, but the university planned to host listening sessions about upcoming plans and receive input from the community.
“What we’re doing is just trying to hold UNC accountable and get some transparent information. And also stop any development, any construction, any anything and just preserve the woods,” Doddridge said.
The upcoming Rally for the Trees will coincide with an alumni weekend at UNC Asheville.
“We’re going to gather and rally and do a walk through the campus,” Doddridge said. “Just share information with folks. Because a lot of people don’t know what’s happening.”
To Doddridge, the woods represent what makes Asheville so special, especially at UNC Asheville.
“I think that a lot of people that come to Asheville, including their students and their faculty, like one of the main focuses is the urban being outside, being outdoors, being this artsy college. There’s so much development in Asheville and selling out, and, I don’t know, I think that its draw is being an outdoorsy kind of community and caring about their students and their neighbors,” Doddridge said. “This is showing that they’re not being very neighborly.”
828newsNOW has reached out to UNC Asheville for comment.
For more information about the Save the Woods effort, visit www.saveuncawoods.org/home.