News

County options land for HHS parking

By Bill Moss, Published: February 24, 2017

Henderson County has a plan to provide more parking at a new Hendersonville High School, and it will add to the overall cost.

The county has an option on a 1.32-acre lot at Fassifern Court between Oakland and Fleming streets, county officials confirmed. The lot contains a 3,360-square-foot house built in 1940, once the home of attorney Monroe Redden Sr.
A site plan that Henderson County filed on Friday shows a 123-space parking lot on the property. The house, which is boarded up and in poor condition, has zero value in tax records while the property is valued at $690,000. The property is owned by Hunting Creek Associates LLC of Morganton.
The county won’t close on the purchase unless the Hendersonville City Council approves a development permit and the closing of Ninth Avenue between Oakland Street and U.S. 25.
Last week, the Board of Commissioners authorized architects ClarkNexsen to move forward on any work needed to win the rezoning and special use permits. The board did not authorize more detailed design work. Wyatt said the county has spent $530,000 on the plans so far and doesn’t want to incur more costs if the city kills the project.
“However, (commissioners) did say they were willing and probably would revisit the issue in March,” he said. The consulting architects say the county is pushing the envelope in how long it can wait to finish the design and engineering so construction can start. The new school was scheduled to open in August of 2020 when commissioners first approved it last spring. The City Council is expected to get the rezoning request and street closing request at its May 4 meeting.
“If we delayed from now until May that would necessarily change the opening from August to January” of 2021, Wyatt said. “So the question arose, how late can we wait to kick back in (on construction plans) and still make the August opening. You might have 30 days of wiggle room. They didn’t say it was going to be on the agenda, but they left the door open.”
The next meeting of the Board of Commissioners is Monday, March 6.