Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal featured a lengthy story on gated communities, putting Asheville-area debates in the national spotlight.
Reporter June Fletcher reviewed the recent dispute over plans for the Thoms Estate development, among other flare-ups over what is gained and lost when green spaces go behind a gate. At one point, she writes of Asheville: “This hillside town — best known for Biltmore, its famous Victorian chateau, and a lively bluegrass scene — has been discovered by outsiders in the last decade and the population is exploding. ‘We’re facing the largest building boom since the 1920s,’ Councilwoman Robin Cape says.”
Read the story here — and have a gander at a photo in the article by Mountain Xpress staff photographer Jonathan Welch.
— Jon Elliston, news editor
