This feature was written first hand by members of the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association.
Location and History of Oakhurst
The historic Oakhurst neighborhood is a small hidden gem nestled between Biltmore Avenue to the West, McCormick Field and Memorial Stadium to the North, Mission Hospital to the South, and Beaucatcher Mountain to the East. Planning for the development of the neighborhood began in 1923 and today, at 100 years old, it includes approximately 55 homes and about 150 residents who are both owners and renters. While most of the houses date from the 1920’s, infill growth slowly continues with the addition of 4 new homes in the past 10 years. Residents enjoy serene walks on the wooded slopes of Mountainside Park as well as the livelier activities available nearby: next door at McCormick Field and Memorial Stadium, within a short walk to the nearby South Slope, and with a slightly longer but still pleasant walk to downtown.
Oakhurst Neighborhood Association
In 2017, when Oakhurst was first profiled by the City, Oakhurst Neighborhood Association was a newly formed association who had come together due to emerging changes. It was becoming clear that in a rapidly growing Asheville, Oakhurst was in a location that would continue to see construction on all sides of us, and we needed to have a voice in these changes. Most urgently at that time, a new 105-unit apartment building was being built next door to our south and was cause for neighborhood traffic and pedestrian safety concerns. Oakhurst’s two narrow streets are situated on a steep hill with few sidewalks, and there were no stop signs or “no parking” signs at the time. In order to get ahead of possible parking issues, we had countless meetings with city officials and successfully had these signs installed before our new apartment dwelling neighbors moved in.
At the same time, we started having meetings with the city to discuss our “park,” a green space that was in the original 1923 plans for the neighborhood but that the Tourists baseball team had been using as a parking lot during home games – a sore sight indeed and very sad for the grass that lived there. We are ecstatic to report that we got our park! In 2020, when COVID had shut most everything down, the city surprised us with landscaping that included new trees, bushes, garbage cans, and a pathway to a couple of new picnic tables. Several months later, our park got an Oakhurst Park sign, letting everyone know that not only does our tiny neighborhood have a name, but it also has a park! Residents now have a place where we gather several times a year as a neighborhood for meetings or to just hang out with each other. Thank you Asheville – we LOVE it and hope that those who are in the area for a Tourists game, or to watch or play soccer or other sports at Memorial Stadium, enjoy it too!
Other recent efforts to sensibly influence proposed developments impacting our neighborhood have perhaps been less successful. Residents united in 2018 to actively oppose the proposed 7-story extended stay hotel at the corner of Biltmore Ave. and White Fawn Drive, which has yet to be started. Most Oakhurst residents believe the proposed building is too large to responsibly fit in this location; the height would loom over adjacent homes and the developer requested zoning variances to reduce building setbacks to shoehorn the building into this site. Unfortunately, the project was approved in a split vote just before the 2019 city hotel moratorium took effect.
Residents have also been engaged in providing constructive feedback on a proposed luxury condo development immediately beneath Oakhurst along our side of Biltmore Ave. While not opposed to the project, although we’d of course prefer it be affordable housing, our suggestions focused on minimizing building height, preserving tree canopy, and establishing noise and sight buffers. The project has received zoning approval but it is presently unclear whether our input will be considered when/if these condos are built.
Still, we remain optimistic and active! As a small neighborhood in a rapidly changing part of town, we have started working more closely with nearby neighborhoods on common goals. One example is our involvement in the city’s South Slope Vision Plan activity that has been in process over the past several years. Along with the East End/Valley Street (EEVS) and South French Broad neighborhoods, the other two historic residential neighborhoods adjacent to the study area, we have been working with city planners to help define the proposed transitional zoning between established neighborhoods and an expanded Central Business District. Such transition zones protecting our legacy residential neighborhoods are overdue given the rapid pace of development in this part of town. Their importance to Oakhurst is clear, as the recently approved hotel and condo projects lie precisely within the proposed transition zones. Had the transition zoning already been in place, its regulations likely would have addressed our concerns with these two large developments.
These growing collaborations with our sister neighborhoods and the City are further highlighted by recent activities involving stewardship of the wooded slopes of Beaucatcher Mountain in Mountainside Park. Oakhurst residents feel very fortunate to live beside this unique oasis in the city. For years, several Oakhurst residents, including one particular “trail angel” neighbor who prefers to remain anonymous, have worked to help maintain the trails, improve drainage, and build benches from repurposed stone found nearby. Now, along with our EEVS neighbors, we have won a Neighborhood Matching Grant from the City of Asheville, which will allow us to begin extensive work on removal of harmful invasive vegetation in the park and assist with regular park maintenance. Together with our EEVS neighbors we have also gotten actively involved in the Asheville Unpaved initiative to sustainably improve the trail network in the park while striving to also maintain the ecosystem and tranquility of this wooded preserve in the city.
Fittingly, the mission statement of the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association is:
Individuals coming together for the common good of their neighborhood to promote a safe, serene, and viable community by managing growth and development while promoting green space.