At tonight’s meeting of Asheville City Council, Deputy City Manager Jeff Richardson provided an update on anti-Asheville legislation. He framed the matter more neutrally, of course. The first shocker was the announcement that Governor Pat McCrory had signed H488, after he said he wouldn’t. As it turned out, the NCGA web site had erroneously said so, when he in fact had not. H488 would gift the city’s water system, with its humongous, pristine water reservoir, to a regional authority.

Meanwhile, City Attorney Bob Oast was in Wake County to obtain a temporary restraining order. It was announced the attempt was successful, and so the city didn’t have to fork over the water system today in a massive train wreck. Time was purchased to make the General Assembly look graceful as the city learns to make bricks without straw.

The city intends to first sue to have the legislation declared invalid. That failing, they will sue for financial relief. The process is expected to be protracted.

Announced yesterday was a rider to a bill that would exempt properties annexed by the City of Asheville after 2005 from compliance with the municipality’s sign ordinance. This is clearly an attempt to address changes in health and public safety induced by big signs that became effective that year. I think it had something to do with sunspots. (At the time of this post, the updated text of the bill had not been posted on the NCGA website.)

The remainder of the threatening bills are more or less chilling in committee, for now.