On the bright side, “the team” working on Asheville’s $170,000 downtown master plan is advocating a measure to reduce the city’s 25% planning penalty. Research indicated that Asheville was the only North Carolina city of any size to have five levels of design review for certain projects. Some suggestions included getting city council to relinquish its review of development to a board with technical expertise. Council would retain the power of setting guidelines. In addition, it was recommended that public comment occur before developers pay for renderings of their proposals.