News

Road bond issue would fund repaving of 25 miles of streets

Hendersonville voters will decide on March 3 whether to approve a $10 million road bond issue that would repave about a third of the city-maintained streets and fund safety improvements and sidewalks. [CITY OF HENDERSONVILLE]

By Bill Moss, Published: December 10, 2025

Improvements that motorists, pedestrians and bicyclist would see if city voters approve a $10 million investment came into sharper focus when the Hendersonville City Council finalized the March 3 referendum on the bond issue last week.

If the bonds are approved, the city would add another $4.5 million from its general fund to finance $14.5 million worth of improvements over five years.

The city’s goal is to raise the overall Pavement Condition Index, a measure of roadway quality, to 79 over five years. Under the plan, “all road segments with PCI scores of fair and below will be repaved,” the city says in a Q&A. “This equates to approximately 24.84 miles, or about 37 percent of all city-owned streets.” 

The plan appropriates $8.3 million for repaving, $2.42 million to fix dozens of curb ramps that are not ADA-compliant and $3.7 million for traffic, pedestrian and bike safety improvements.

Safety and walkability improvements include:

• Blythe Street multi-use path from U.S. 64 to N.C. 191. A joint project with the NCDOT, the $4 million project would cost the city $560,000. “This is a pretty good connectivity project that ranked really highly in the Walk Hendo plan to connect 191 and 64 and the rest of the city,” said Deputy City Manager Brian Pahle, who presented the so-called GoHVL plan.
• Grove Street sidewalk from Caswell Street to Spartanburg Highway, at a cost to the city of about $800,000.
• Orleans Avenue-Ninth Avenue, serving Hendersonville elementary and middle schools. “This would be focused on improving the walkability and the infrastructure around that school intersection,” Pahle said.
• Washington Street, fill in missing sidewalk segments.
• King Street sidewalk improvements. “I do believe this may generate some match from DOT, but we’re working through that at this point,” Pahle said.

The bonds could also cover smaller projects such as bulb-outs, bike lanes, sharrows and crosswalks.

“We have a lot more Ecusta intersections that are demanding some attention so the city would be looking at what we could do to make safety improvements in those areas as well,” Pahle said.

Tax increase can be avoided

Although one resident during a public hearing on the bond issuance expressed concern about a possible property tax increase to support the debt service, Pahle said the city’s financial forecast suggests a tax increase can be avoided. The city would repay the $10 million plus $5,611,200 interest at a rate of $900,000 a year. The bond resolution the council adopted says the debt could cost homeowners and businesses $20 per $100,000 of assessed taxable value — $100 for a home valued at $500,000. Pahle called that a “failsafe” projection.

“If the economy were to go bad or if we were to lose a major economic player or major assessed value on the tax books, we wanted to give ourselves some cover in a tax rate that would support that bond issuance over time,” he said. “And we felt two pennies (on the tax rate) was the appropriate number. We don’t think we’re going to have to raise taxes at all to support this based on our growth model, but we just want to be safe.”

City Manager John Connet said without the bond issue, drivers would experience ever-worsening pavement conditions.

“If we did nothing, if we didn’t add any additional money, we would go backwards,” he said. “To stay where we are and to get to any improvement, we’d have to add more money, which was going to require more tax money, maybe even 4 cents if you did pay-as-you-go.”

"If the bond referendum does not pass," the city's Q&A says, "the projects are unlikely to move forward in the near future. Pavement conditions would likely deteriorate due to the lack of adequate funding for repaving … Curb ramp repairs and replacements would be completed at a slower rate, and the Complete Streets projects would be unlikely to be completed in the near future."

Chrisopher Dannals, of BikeWalkHVL, a bicycle-pedestrian safety advocacy group, spoke in favor of the bond issue.

“If you’re a pedestrian, if you’re on a bike, if you’re trying to get through our city without a car, it’s dangerous and it’s difficult, and a lot of people just give up,” he said. “Frankly, I would love to pay an extra $20 per year so that I could be more confident that my kids are not going to get hit when they’re biking through our town.”