ASHEBORO – The City of Asheboro took a big step toward beginning a long-planned downtown green-space project.
At its regular business meeting earlier this month, the Asheboro City Council accepted a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant award totaling nearly $300,000.
The grant will be put toward the David and Pauline Jarrell Center City Garden project, a three-acre public, open space located in walking distance from downtown Asheboro, which has a total projected buildout cost of $1.4 million.
“This is a funding source that we began pursuing about two years ago,” assistant city manager Trevor Nuttall said. “That just shows you the complexity and the multiple layers that we were confronting as we went after project funds.”
The grant requires a dollar-to-dollar match from the city in order to access the funds, although Nuttall said the city is working toward reassigning $240,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for that.
In addition, city staff plans to continue petitioning for additional funding.
“We are hopeful that we are also able to add elements to this grant now that we have successfully cleared the review to potentially receive some additional funding toward elements that were not funded in this initial award,” Nuttall said.
The funding from the grant could be utilized for walkways, trails, a parking lot, perimeter fencing and a bathroom facility.
“This is something that in perpetuity, should benefit all of Asheboro and Randolph County,” mayor David Smith said. “They’re not making any more green space or land. This is a historic piece of property, right in our downtown, that will ultimately, when it’s complete, be a huge asset to our community.”
Nuttall said: “It’s also important to note that this would not initiate the project, but it would be the first step to securing funds as we work to figure out the mechanism to provide the funding match. Once we work through the matching element of this, we will have a significant first phase of construction which will lead to a project that won’t be complete, but will be usable and something people can be proud of.”
The council also held two public hearings for rezoning requests with the first being for 1.35 acres of property located at 1449 and 1453 Old Liberty Road to go from Medium Density Residential (R10) to Light Industrial Conditional Zoning (I1 – CZ).
The second hearing was for 0.4 acres of property located at 305 Old Liberty Road to go from General Commercial (B2) to R10 in order to construct two family dwelling structures.
Following the hearings, the council approved both requests. The council also approved a request for satellite annexation of 44.15 acres of property located near 801 Hub Morris Road.
The Asheboro City Council will next meet Jan. 9.
