January 2024
The property subject to development was purchased by a consortium of neighbors on January 12. CRLU encouraged the most impacted residents to pursue a resolution with the developer and they were able to succeed with that effort. We will share more information when it is available, but the important thing is the Robinhood Residential condominium project is no longer a threat to the mountain slopes and our neighborhoods.
May 2023
May 27 - We have filed a petition with the Superior Court of Buncombe County requesting judicial review of the Board of Adjustment order. This is a route available to parties who wish to appeal quasi-judicial decisions under North Carolina land use law (§ 160D-1402. Appeals in the nature of certiorari). Our petition cites several grounds for appealing the Board’s order, including: 1) errors of law, 2) failure to determine contested facts and accurately reduce determination to writing, and 3) decision not supported by the record (of the hearing). Here is a link to our petition.
Woodfin has combined the Planning Board and the Board of Adjustment into a new, single Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustment effective this month. An explanation is available on the Woodfin website. The agenda for the first meeting (June 6) of this Board has been posted and does not include review of the Robinhood Residential master plan.
May 9 - The Robinhood Residential administrative hearing of the Woodfin Planning Board continued to May 2 was continued again to June 6 at the request of the developer. This hearing is the venue required for approval of the zoning permit for the project.
At their April 27 meeting, the Board of Adjustment approved a written order concerning their decision on our appeal. For the record, we filed a formal objection to the order as written, noting (among other points) that it did not accurately reflect the deliberations of the board in making their decisions.
March 2023
March 31 - The Robinhood Residential hearing that was continued to April 4 will likely be postponed to at least May 2. We understand that a continuance was requested by the applicant. This hearing is the venue required for approval of the zoning permit for the project.
The March 9 decision of the Board of Adjustment has not yet been formally approved. The Board did not meet at its regular date on March 23.
The Town of Woodfin is moving forward with an ordinance amendment to combine the Planning Board and the Board of Adjustment into a single appointed board. This change could be enacted in April.
March 10 - The Woodfin Board of Adjustment voted to deny our appeal during its meeting last night, concluding the hearing. While we are all disappointed with this outcome, we are confident our appeal has a strong basis.
The Board’s action does not become effective until it has been reduced to writing and the written order is approved in a subsequent meeting. That could happen later this month or next. We look forward to reviewing the order and evaluating our options at that point.
Meanwhile, the Robinhood Residential project is on the agenda for the April 4th meeting of the Planning Board. We will update this item when more information is available.
February 2023
We are in the midst of our appeal hearings with the Woodfin Board of Adjustment. So far, over five, 4+-hour evenings, CRLU has been granted “standing” to argue the appeal, the town has presented its story, and we have presented our arguments and evidence. The Respondent (developer) has started to present its side.. The format allows for each party to cross-examine witnesses called by the other parties in each phase and give rebuttals.
The next session will be Feb. 22, 5:00 pm at the Woodfin Town Hall. The town live-streams public meetings on its Facebook page. You do not need to be a Facebook user to watch.
The recorded video of the first five sessions is available via links on the agenda page for the Board of Adjustment.
Both Mountain Express and the Citizen-Times have published articles on the appeal this month. The latest C-T article (2/19) covers the most recent hearing session. The previous C-T article (2/3) goes into some depth and is a good orientation to the process. The MountainX article hits some of the key points in a shorter format (scroll down to see the relevant section).
A new page with information on contacting public officials is on our website here.
January 2023
The posted agenda for the January 25 special meeting lists only the CRLU appeal. The STR appeal from the developer will thus probably not share the docket for this meeting.
The Woodfin Board of Adjustment scheduled three evenings in January, Jan 25-27 from 5-9 pm, for appeal hearings. We understand that the “Robinhood” appeals (see November notes below) will be heard in these sessions. A strong presence from CRLU members will be important for these meetings.
Neighbors saw and heard heavy equipment accessing the site in the last week of December. This was apparently to perform a geotechnical survey. In such surveys a drilling rig is used at multiple locations to drill cores into the ground to determine the properties of the underlying materials.
December 2022
The Woodfin Board of Adjustment will meet on December 15 but only for organizational and planning purposes. There will be no appeal hearings on the agenda. Presumably they will take up appeals beginning with the January 26, 2023 meeting. They also have the option to call additional meetings when needed. We will know more after the 15th.
November 2022
The Woodfin Planning Board met November 1 and voted to continue the review of the Robinhood Residential plan until the February 7, 2023 meeting. Allowing a reasonable time for resolution of the pending appeal was the reason for the continuance.
Our appeal (see below) will be heard by the Woodfin Board of Adjustment in a quasi-judicial hearing. CRLU’s attorney, John Noor, will argue the appeal. The next regular meeting of this board is December 15 but the agenda for that meeting has not yet been set (as of 11/10).
The attorney for the developer filed an appeal challenging the Town’s determination that STRs are not permitted in the Mountain Village district.
Sept-Oct 2022
Woodfin planning department determined the plan submitted in August met the definition of a “Group Development” and thus required review under the Special Use category of applications. Put simply, this category requires that factors concerning the impact of a plan on the surrounding residents be considered by the board reviewing the application.
Woodfin determined that short term rentals (STRs) are not permitted in the Mountain Village district (see Zoning Determination Letter)
The developer submitted a new plan, intended to avoid the Special Use review process, to be considered at the November 1 Planning Board meeting. See the Robinhood Residential page for details of this plan.
Through our attorney, CRLU and other affected parties filed a formal appeal, contesting the Town’s decisions to accept the most recent site plan for ministerial (“checkbox”) review by the Planning Board. This appeal is the legal avenue for challenging land-use decisions made by Town staff and is heard by the Town’s Board of Adjustment. Decisions of the Board of Adjustment may be appealed to the Superior Court.
August 2022
Facing a deadline from the Town of Woodfin to keep their application active, the developer submitted a revised plan on 8 August. They requested it be on the agenda for the next Planning Board meeting. See the Robinhood Residential page for details [this plan was superseded by the one submitted on October 18].
July 2022
The Town of Woodfin moved to rezone all the former Coleman property (shown below) as well as two adjoining individual lots, one at 100 Robinhood and one at 53 Beaverbrook. The rezoning would change these parcels from Mountain Village (high-density urban) to R-21 (low density residential). The two parcels used in the current development application could not be included.
February 2022
The owner of the 16 acre parcel (Lot 1 on map below) has submitted a series of development plans to the Town of Woodfin. The most recent one calls for a 64-unit condominium development. For details see the Robinhood Residential Development page.
July 2020
Sherwood Heights Inc., the Coleman family company that developed much of the property between Lakewood Park and Elk Mountain beginning in the 1950s, sold its remaining holdings to Robinhood Property Company, LLC (RPC) in December 2018. In December 2019, RPC subdivided the acreage into three lots for potential development (of approx. 16, 7, and 5 acres) and one large “remainder” parcel of 95 acres, comprising most of the steeper and less accessible land. Later in December 2019, RPC deeded this large parcel in a Conservation Easement to the Barn Group Land Trust of Brooks, Georgia. Subsequently in June 2020, RPC deeded the three developable lots to three new entities. Single-family residential development plans for lots 2 and 3 (see map below) have been submitted to the Town of Woodfin.
