News

Developers of proposed project on Upward Road hear from neighbors concerned about loss of farmland

Prescott Bailey, Stoagroup’s market president for the Carolinas, discusses the developer’s plans for property on Upward Road during a neighborhood compatibility meeting on Tuesday. He attended the meeting in city hall along with others from the company.

By Amy McCraw, Published: September 29, 2026

Developers of a planned a 288-unit, multi-family complex and commercial project on what is now a tomato field on Upward Road on Tuesday heard neighbors’ concerns about the continued loss of farmland in the county as the City of Hendersonville began considering whether it will annex the property.

Representatives from the Stoagroup, a real estate development company with offices in Charlotte, are seeking a rezoning of 27 acres along Upward Road from Henderson County's Regional Commercial zone to the city's Commercial Highway Mixed Use Conditional Zoning District, indicating that the landowner plans to seek annexation into the city in order to receive sewer service.
Prescott Bailey, Stoagroup’s market president for the Carolinas, told city planners and a small group of people who attended a neighborhood compatibility meeting in city hall that the company specializes in multifamily, mixed-use developments.
It wants to create housing units with a clubhouse, fitness center, game rooms, pool and pickleball courts along with a commercial, retail development along the 7 acres of the property that fronts Upward Road. Developers also plan to plant trees along a portion of the property near a creek and have planned for at least three access points from Upward Road.
“We put a lot of time and effort into creating something that is topnotch,” Bailey said.
But some people who submitted written comments to the city and some of those who attended Tuesday’s meeting expressed concern about the proposed development’s probable destruction of even more farmland in Henderson County.
“Please you say you want farmland preservation, prove it. No more neighborhoods, no more out of state big corporations taking over our land and town,” Samantha Branham said in a written comment while noting that more development leads to overcrowding and traffic congestion. “No one wants this except the people getting money from it. We desperately need to save what small amount of open land we have left in this town.”
Mattie Drake in written comments also questioned the project’s destruction of farmland.
“We do not have the infrastructure for more housing. We need farm land, we have already lost enough,” she said. “This is a slap in the face to the citizens of this town, especially those who are generational families!”
David Batchelder in his written comments also called the proposed development a slap in the face to people who have worked to preserve farmland in the county. He also questioned whether the development was appropriate for an area in the floodplain.
Two of the three people who spoke at the meeting also questioned whether the development was too close to the floodplain.
Ken Fitch questioned what happened in the area of the proposed development during Helene.
One of a group from the development company who attended the meeting with Bailey said they thought the area did not flood during Helene.
Lynne Williams, who lives in Hendersonville, expressed concern about the loss of more farmland due to the proposed project and asked whether developers could incorporate agriculture-related businesses into the commercial part of the property or involve agriculture students from nearby Blue Ridge Community College in the development.
“For many of us, it is the last piece of farmland on Upward Road,” she said. “There is a lot of us that don’t want to see this developed.”
Bailey said he thought involving the community college was great idea.
The land is currently owned by the Brian James Easler Trust and trustees Jewel Jacobs Easler and Brent Easler, the late Toyota dealer's widow and son. It's valued on the tax books at $3,892,700. Online real estate services for commercial land sales show that the vacant business-zoned property is under contract for $7.9 million. Brent Easler on Thursday confirmed a conditional sale was in the works depending on development approval.
A request for a change from county to city zoning typically indicates that the landowner intends to agree to annexation in order to receive city sewer service, as city policy requires.
A pitch for the sale described the vacant commercial property as an "exceptional large-scale development opportunity" with a quarter-mile of frontage on Upward Road, close proximity to I-26 and "outstanding visibility, accessibility and connectivity within the highly desirable South Asheville-Hendersonville growth corridor."
The Upward Road area in recent years has been ground-zero of an apartment construction boom and jobs, with numerous complexes opening on South Allen Road and the new Jabil plant in Garrison Industrial Park atop a hill northeast of the Easler property.
Depending on when developer’s submit applications for the project, the earliest the city’s planning board could begin considering the proposed zoning change would be at its meeting on Nov. 12. The earliest the proposed development could come before city council is Dec. 3, according to the city’s planning staff.