IN THE ASHE STREET/MLK JUNIOR BOULEVARD/SEVENTH AVENUE EAST PLANNED NEW LOCATION      

7 TO 8 MILLION DOLLARS COMMITTED FOR IT   

THE H.P.D. COULD BE IN THAT NEW FACILITY BY JANUARY OF 2021   

in their August meeting on Thursday, Hendersonville city council approved zoning changes in the Historic Seventh Avenue East District that ckear the way for a new site for the Hendersonville Police Department.

In July, council approved an agreement to move forward with plans, with the architect, for the new city police department facility the city plans to build in the Ashe Street area.

The city has committed between 7 and 8 million dollars for the new police department, which will be moving entirely out of city hall.   

City Manager John Connet told WHKP News this week that there are no firm plans yet for the new facility. Connet said some basic ideas have been developed, but the city first wants to make sure exactly what size property will be needed for the new facility.

The city manager says the goal is to allow about eight months to design and plan the new P.D. That way, he said, construction could start in the February to March time frame of 2019. Connet says hopefully, the new facility can be completed late in 2020 with the police department moving into it by January of 2021.

When the Planning Board met earlier this summer. the board approved zoning changes in the area of the new P.D...around Ashe Street, Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, and other side streets across from the old train depot. The changes were then approved by city council Thursday night.

City Manager Connet says “With the city’s investment in the new facility and with streetscape and other improvement in that neighborhood, it is hoped the neighborhood will be stabilized to the point where it will be safe to invest there.” And he added, “We’ll let the private market drive it.”

“A public institution in there will give everyone financial security,” Connet told WHKP News. But “Time will tell”.

He stressed, “We (the city) want to show the community that we believe in that neighborhood.”   

That new location for the Hendersonville Police Department is also good news for customers of the City of Hendersonville. When the P.D. moves out of city hall, Connet says that space on the ground floodr will be committed for customer service, making it easier when city customers come to city hall with bills to pay. Customer service is now spread out over several floors in city hall. .

At a  public meeting about the new P.D. in that Seventh Avenue East/Ashe Street/Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard area earlier this summer, there was widespread support among those who attended for the city’s plan...and for its impact on growth and re-vitalization in that area.

By WHKP News Director Larry Freeman with Tippy Creswell