This is supposed to make you happy. The City of Asheville is going to “kick off” a new form-based code process for the River Arts District. We are told the process will help newcomers know what the community wants. Actually, meetings I’ve attended by planners asking what the community wants go like this: We brainstorm, we play dotocracy, and then things get lumped into groups that look like the same Smart Growth we’ve been seeing all along. My ideas usually get lumped in with the antithesis on the basis of a key word or something. A variation on the theme would be the City of Asheville’s approach of asking: How do you want us to do what we are telling you you like?
/