Google Maps tells it all!

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner

These satellite images will be followed by a detailed analysis of the political history of Asheville and causes of the sudden rise in river waters, which destroyed millions of dollars of property, plus killed dozens of people in the City of Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County.

I was a Senior Planner in the Asheville Planning Department and first Director of the Downtown Asheville Revitalization Program. Afterward, I practiced architecture in the Asheville Area for five years, before moving to the Shenandoah Valley. I know secrets that very few people in the Asheville Area know today. LOL

However, anyone can Google “Asheville – French Broad River” or “Asheville-Swannanoa River” and see for yourself. Over the past 40 years, the city and county governments have allow intense commercial development within the Flood Hazard Zones of both rivers. The developed corridors extend for many miles along both rivers. Many of the parking lots extend to the bank of the river. Such a short-sighted land use policy has not been allowed in the Atlanta, Georgia Metropolitan Area since the mid-1960s!

Unlike almost any city in the United States, the rain water from these vast expanses of paving and roofs flow directly into the adjacent river. I was stunned to see no storm water retention ponds . . . even for office buildings, shopping centers and industrial buildings, constructed in the past five years. There are a few natural buffer belts adjacent to both rivers, but they are so small in comparison to the vast expanses of paving next to the river that they become meaningless.