Richmond Hill & River RESCUE

SAVE RICHMOND HILL. STOP THE BLUFFS.
Help us fight the Bluffs at River Bend, a proposed mega-development that would be built on 92 acres of intact forest directly next to Richmond Hill Park. If we don’t stop it, this project will devastate the river quality, wipe out an important Southern Appalachian sensitive ecosystem, and put thousands of additional vehicles per day on small neighborhood roads.

Make a donation today! Any donation of any size is appreciated. We are volunteers and local residents, and your contributions will allow us to hire the legal representation and experts we needed to preserve our area of the sacred Appalachian Mountains. Local conservation nonprofit MountainTrue has agreed to be our fiscal sponsor, so your donations are tax-deductible.

For those of you looking to make larger donations and want to avoid the Go Fund Me fees, please consider making a check out to: MountainTrue Attn: Richmond Hill & River Rescue I 29 N. Market Street I Suite 610 I Asheville, NC, 28801

TAKE ACTION!
Here are three more things you can do to help STOP THE BLUFFS AT RIVERBEND.

1. Attend the February 1 Woodfin Board of Planning and Zoning Virtual Meeting and voice your opposition to the Bluffs at River Bend project. Details will soon be posted here . 
2. Send a message to Asheville City Council  asking them to join the fight against this development. The City owns Richmond Hill Park, and the roads that would be impacted by the development are in the City. The City needs to get involved to protect its interests and the interests of its residents.
3. Send a message to Woodfin Town Commissioners  asking them to oppose the rezoning of this property as Multi-use High Density.

IN THE NEWS:
Neighbors Upset abc13NEWS forest set for development 
Woodfin neighbors cry foul over $500M mixed use development 
Woodfin neighbors organize to fight planned development 

MORE DETAILS AND IMAGES:
They almost snuck this proposal through. The Town of Woodfin sent out public notice over the holidays and scheduled a public meeting for January 4. This was an OUTRAGEOUS attempt to suppress and keep the public silent in order to push this Mega Development through. The community spoke up and the hearing has now been rescheduled to February 1. 

Despite having no studies done on the potentially catastrophic environmental impacts, the Florida developer and current property owner are trying to rezone the property and push their project through against the wishes of the neighboring community.

Our community just discovered the proposed location is very steep and borders the French Broad River with 4000 feet of frontage.

There will be a tremendous amount of runoff from the impervious roofs and pavement associated with 545 luxury residential condo units, a 250-room hotel, a 59,000-square-foot office space, 30 1,000-square-foot buildings, and more.

The runoff will lead right into the river. The development will pollute the French Broad River. Removing trees and ground cover, grading steep slopes, and paving roads and parking lots will lead to polluted stormwater runoff into the French Broad River.

The Bluffs at River Bend would pollute water just upstream from a planned whitewater wave park.

Increased storm water runoff would endanger river recreation and public health for all us who love playing on our wonderful rivers. Fishermen, swimmers, water sports enthusiasts, river outfitters and others will suffer.  The project would be just upstream from a proposed $18 million whitewater wave and recreation park — a significant public resource and investment.
  
Richmond Hill Park would be dramatically impacted.Richmond Hill Park is beloved by local nature enthusiasts for its picturesque hiking trails and by the disc-golf community for its renowned course. The park is a quiet, safe place to enjoy the outdoors. IF seven 5-story luxury apartment buildings and an office/retail center are erected adjoining the park, the entire area would be drastically transformed for the worse. What's more, in the wake of our ongoing pandemic and surge of people working remotely, a comprehensive study must determine whether or not such a center is needed at all. (image Davis Gammill)

The 92 wooded acres directly adjacent to Richmond Hill Park and the French Broad River is known as an “impact forest” with its own ecosystem made up of mature hardwoods and native flora, sensitive amphibian species, and wildlife important to the shrinking Southern Appalachian biodiversity.

There will be  irreversible loss of established forest and displacement of wildlife, but also the astronomical impact this would have on our roads due to increased traffic, as well as and on the river quality due to the significant run-off on a very steep location. 

We intend to STOP this development and fight for the safety of our community and we plan to preserve our irreplaceable forest and the threatened wildlife within.

Located on the river near the proposed development is OM Sanctuary, a wellness education center that placed a conservation easement on their 42 acres of urban forest in 2015 to protect the river and natural ecosystem. 

Help us prevent this bullying attempt to bulldoze community opposition and foist this development on the public.

Help us prevent the pollution of the French Broad River and save the fragile local ecosystem.

All funding will go towards legal representation and experts needed to preserve our area of the sacred Appalachian Mountains.

We appreciate you and your financial support and hope you will share this campaign to help the cause.