Help Re-Imagine

Owen Park at June 16 Community Event

Drone photo, courtesy of Nick Levine Photography, shows Owen Park and the Swannanoa River in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

This past March, nearly 1,000 community members gave input on the future of Owen Park through an in-person workshop and a virtual survey — and now it’s time to see the designs those ideas inspired. Buncombe County Parks & Recreation invites residents to a drop-in style workshop from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16, at the Bee Tree Fire Substation in Swannanoa, 510 Bee Tree Road. Attendees will be able to review two different conceptual ideas for bringing the storm-damaged park back to life, share feedback, and meet with staff and project designers. Spanish-language interpretation will be available. 


As most residents are painfully aware, our beloved Owen Park experienced the worst Helene damage of any Buncombe County park. The raging Swannanoa River destroyed the fishing ponds, and cut a new path through the park. The floodwaters caused extensive damage to the park’s infrastructure, including fields, pavilions, and play equipment, as well as dramatic changes to the landscape and stability of the land. 
  

The large-scale project to rebuild Owen Park is unfolding in two phases. Led by design firm Hoerr Schaudt, the first phase has already begun, with land surveys and site inventories complete and plans for elements like stormwater management and riverbank restoration in development. Phase two will include production of detailed construction documents and plans, permitting, a public bid process to select a contractor, and, ultimately, construction of a new Owen Park. The construction process is expected to take 18-24 months, with a hoped-for completion in spring 2028.


Community input is an integral part of the project, and will play a significant role in the final design of the park. If you're unable to attend the in-person event on June 16, you can take the Redesigning Owen Park survey online through Friday, June 26, at engage.buncombecounty.org/owenpark. Visit that same site to stay in the loop about progress on Owen Park and sign up for email updates.

Bounty & Soul Closes on 6,000-Square-Foot Food Hub to Meet Surging Community Need

Bounty & Soul, a community-driven food and health equity organization established in the Swannanoa Valley in 2014, recently completed the purchase of a 6,000-square-foot building directly across from its existing operational hub on Old US Hwy 70 in Black Mountain. Renovations are expected to begin this summer, with the facility becoming operational by winter. The expanded campus will feature drive-in refrigeration, commercial-grade equipment, and enhanced space for community education and coordination of the organization’s 450 volunteers. 

The new building will greatly increase storage and refrigeration capacity, supporting Bounty & Soul in receiving and processing large quantities of healthy produce to be transported to its weekly, no-cost fruit and vegetable markets. Bounty & Soul’s ten markets across Buncombe County serve people from five counties. In Swannanoa, they include a 12:30 p.m. Monday market at Alexander Place in Beacon Village and a 4:00 p.m. Wednesday market at 216 Whitson Avenue, led by and co-created with community partners.  

Since Helene, Bounty & Soul has stretched its operations to meet growing community needs precipitated by many households’ long-term lack of reliable access to healthy food, harsh losses caused by Hurricane Helene, cuts to SNAP and other federal benefit programs, and rapidly rising prices for food and other essentials. In 2025 alone, Bounty & Soul served 289,562 individuals from 87,807 households, distributed over 2 million pounds of produce, and invested $1.08 million in the regional food economy through partnerships with 65 regional farms and businesses. The organization also delivered 4,744 healthy food boxes to homebound residents and offered 202 health and wellness classes, along with 42 cooking classes.


"This expansion represents more than additional square footage. It's a commitment to our community's long-term health, resilience, and dignity," said Ali Casparian, Founder and Executive Director of Bounty & Soul, a founding member of the Swannanoa Grassroots Alliance, and a resident of Swannanoa. “This new facility will allow us to dramatically increase our capacity while maintaining the trauma-informed, community-centered approach that defines our work.” 

To learn more about Bounty & Soul’s classes, programs, and produce markets, and to find out how you can get involved, visit Bountyandsoul.org. Photo courtesy of Bounty and Soul.

Beacon Park On Track For Fall 2026 Soft Opening

Despite significant May rainfall, work at the new park being built on the 40+-acre site of the former Beacon blanket mill in Swannanoa has continued on schedule for a soft opening later this year. Crews are finishing the major site grading and will begin work soon on utility infrastructure, landscaping, paving the greenways, and preparing the site for the next phase of development. As part of that next phase, the pine trees along Whitson Avenue have been removed, and approximately 150 native trees — many of them mature — will be planted throughout the park. A wide variety of other native plantings will also be installed to create a healthier, more diverse, and more resilient landscape over time.

While the pump track and paved bike park have gotten a lot of attention and were the first major components of the park to be completed, they’re just one part of a much larger community gathering space that will include greenways, bouldering walls, a playground, pavilions, a large lawn, and a variety of pocket parks and green spaces. The majority of park amenities will be free and open to the public. The bouldering walls and bike park will be fee-based, but no one will be turned away because of inability to pay. The “zero barrier to entry” model will allow people to pay it forward, pay what they can, or pay nothing at all.  


Beacon Foundation, the nonprofit entity that’s building the park, plans to hold another community drop-in event for residents and neighbors to talk with their team about the park, ask questions, and offer input. The Foundation is also working to schedule some “sneak preview” community nights at the bike park for later in the summer. 

To stay updated on progress and upcoming events, follow Beacon Park on Facebook and Instagram, @beaconparkWNC. If you have questions, or would like to connect with the Beacon Foundation team, send an email to: connect@beaconfoundationwnc.org.

Riders try out some of the more advanced features of the bike park during a recent test evening. Photo courtesy of Beacon Foundation.

State Funding Enables Purchase of Former Woodmen Site for Flood Resiliency Project

The NC Department of Environmental Quality's Flood Resiliency Blueprint program has awarded $822,780 to RiverLink to purchase the former Woodmen of the World property and lead a flood resilience project on the 4.45-acre site, which borders the Swannanoa River just upstream of the Whitson Avenue bridge. The site was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene, and has been identified as a strategic opportunity to reduce flood risk while improving the health of the river corridor. 


The proposed project will slow flood waters, create 1.6 million gallons of flood storage to reduce risk along Old Highway 70 and downstream areas, and use natural stormwater infrastructure to capture and filter polluted runoff while stabilizing a small tributary stream. Beyond flood protection, the project also has the potential to provide economic, recreational, and educational benefits to the community. 


The Woodmen site was identified as a priority property for flood mitigation during the 2025 Middle Swannanoa River Damage Assessment spearheaded by RiverLink. Renee Fortner, RiverLink’s Director of Programs, says the organization has made a multi-year commitment to post-Helene restoration for the Swannanoa River, and that this is just the first of many similar projects emerging from the damage assessment, which covered seven miles of the river through Swannanoa. 

"Using nature as our guide, we will be working with our partners at Wildlands Engineering to restore a series of features that enhance the ecological recovery of this riverside property, especially its capacity to absorb stormwater and release it slowly back to the waterway. The more natural resilience we can return to the river and associated lands, the better off the human community will be as the area's recovery continues," Fortner said. RiverLink is also working on restoration of the stream that flows through Beacon Park, which is currently under construction on the former Beacon blanket mill site.


The DEQ Blueprint funding represents a significant investment in Swannanoa. It’s an important step toward reducing future flood risks while reimagining a key riverfront property to better manage floodwaters, improve water quality, and support community resilience.

Representatives from FANS, RiverLink, and NCDEQ gathered at the Woodmen property shortly after the Blueprint funding was announced.

Swannanoa Greenway Feasibility Study

Officially Underway

The momentum from March's Rising Strong: Greenways for Connection and Resilience event is translating into real action. Over 100 community members gathered at the Rising Strong event to explore how greenways can help shape Swannanoa’s future — and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Every participant said the event deepened their understanding of how greenways build community, and 87% left more likely to take action. Experts and guests from communities with established greenways reinforced the message that, with the right planning, greenways can be a win-win, stimulating economic growth while achieving critical flood mitigation and community connection goals.


The energy generated at the Rising Strong event is now fueling progress on the Swannanoa Greenway Feasibility Study, which officially kicked off in April when Friends and Neighbors of Swannanoa (FANS) signed a contract with Equinox Environmental to complete the study. FANS will be guiding the study’s development in partnership with Friends of Fonta Flora State Trail (F3ST), the County, and other stakeholders.

The feasibility study will look at variety of possible greenway routes in a roughly 7-mile corridor from Warren Wilson College, through the heart of Swannanoa, to the western edge of Black Mountain. It will emphasize safe pedestrian connectivity and resilient greenway design, exploring how this corridor can support active transportation, flood mitigation, ecological health, river access, and recreation. Having a completed feasibility study is a necessary first step in the long process of actually building a greenway. Any final greenway route will be dependent on using public land, where available, and obtaining the necessary rights of way and permissions from NCDOT, willing landowners, and others.


The study will integrate with several concurrent planning efforts shaping Swannanoa's recovery and future, including Buncombe County's Swannanoa Small Area & Resilience Plan, Owen Park’s redesign, RiverLink's Middle Swannanoa River Restoration Study, MountainTrue's Swannanoa Recovery Plan, and the Beacon Park development. The study is expected to be complete by April 2027.


To stay updated on progress, follow FANS on Facebook and sign up for our newsletter at SwannanoaFANS.org. You can listen to a recent Exploration Local podcast about the Swannanoa Greenway efforts on

Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Community Weighs In on Small Area Plan Priorities

Hundreds of Swannanoa residents offered their feedback on the Swannanoa Small Area Plan through 13 in-person events and an online poll conducted by the County during a two-week period in May. This latest round of community input focused on the draft Future Land Use Map, sidewalks and bike priority areas, transportation improvement zones, and recommended policies and actions across eight topic areas: Hazards & Resilience; Growth & Development; Transportation & Connectivity; Economic Development; Health & Recreation; Infrastructure & Energy; Farms, Forests & Conservation; and Land Use. The draft maps, policies, and actions incorporated community input received during the four prior rounds of public engagement that began in May 2025.

While a number of specific suggestions for changes to the maps and priorities were received, those taking the poll overwhelmingly supported the policy directions reflected in the poll. The County summarized the overall public sentiment as a desire to “improve and rebuild Swannanoa thoughtfully, and preserve its character, natural beauty, and safety.” The following themes were identified from the general comments received across all of the poll questions:

• Widespread support for improvements and planning efforts, especially when focused on safer transportation, flood resilience, community amenities, and environmental protection.
• Caution about overdevelopment, poorly planned density, industrial-style growth, and losing the small-town feel.

The next step in the Swannanoa Small Area Plan process is to incorporate the latest community feedback into a first draft of the plan that will be reviewed by the Small Area Plan Steering Committee and other boards and committees beginning in July, before being presented for final community input in August. The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on adoption of the final plan in November 2026.

To read the County’s summary of the Policy & Action Poll Results, learn more about the Swannanoa Small Area Plan, and sign up for updates, visit: engage.buncombecounty.org/swannanoasmallarea.

Buncombe County

Seeks Funding for Commercial District Revitalization Projects 

Buncombe County’s Helene Recovery Team is kicking off planning for a new round of disaster recovery funding aimed at revitalizing commercial areas impacted by Helene. The three projects under consideration for the state’s Commercial District Revitalization (CDR) funding opportunity could have significant impacts on Swannanoa’s long-term recovery and economic revitalization:



• Swannanoa Commercial Corridor Revitalization: Pedestrian and sidewalk improvements along the U.S. 70 commercial corridor, including proposed sidewalks between Warren Wilson Road and Whitson Avenue to increase safety and access to businesses.
• Commercial Corridor Remediation and Revitalization: Cleanup and remediation of storm-damaged commercial properties, including debris removal, code compliance work, and mitigation of unsafe structures to reduce blight and support reinvestment.
• Commercial Corridor HMGP Property Activation: Activation of properties acquired through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (aka "buyout properties") for uses such as greenways, passive recreation, and agricultural activities that support surrounding commercial areas.

These proposals could result in substantial funding for pedestrian improvements in Swannanoa, and for revitalizing our heavily-damaged business corridor. County officials have emphasized that these are early project concepts that will continue to evolve through community feedback and state review. Resident voices are essential to the process. If you missed the community input period that ended on June 5, additional public comment will be taken during the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meeting on July 21 at 5 p.m. at 200 College Street in Asheville. 

Swannanoa Scenes 

The FANS Community Garden on Clover Lane celebrated the arrival of a new, and much larger, storage shed in May. With funding provided by a generous grant from Enbridge Gas, garden managers Sandy Drake and Maureen Dillow worked with Swannanoa's Pineview Buildings to select the design and features of the new 12x20-foot structure. The shed will securely house not just garden supplies, but also other equipment FANS uses for its many annual events. 

A student crew from Warren Wilson College joined FANS

volunteers to remove the much smaller, old shed from the site. A mini-excavator provided for a day at no cost by Home Depot in East Asheville was used to

prepare the site, and four tons of gravel was delivered by Hipps Stone in advance of the shed’s expert delivery and installation by Pineview. FANS is grateful for this significant upgrade to the Swannanoa Community Garden!

Be a FANS 

Newsletter Sponsor 

The FANS E-Newsletter currently reaches more than 3,000 subscribers (and many more via social media). Additionally, approximately 500 print copies are distributed through the library and local businesses. Sponsorships are available for as little as $30. It's a great way to promote your business and show your support for our community. To learn more about newsletter sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.SwannanoaFANS.org and click on the "Initiatives" tab, or write to us at SwannanoaFANS@gmail.com.