ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Transportation says the I-26 Connector will need 170 or more west Asheville parcels, a right-of-way push that is already relocating residents, artists and small businesses along the corridor.
Plans call for a wider I-240 through the west side plus a fresh interstate tie from Haywood Road over the French Broad River. NCDOT said more parcels could still be added as plans firm up, and that buying the needed right of way is a required step before construction advances.
Eligible owners and some renters may receive relocation help that can include moving bills plus replacement-housing payments, the department said. One west Asheville artist who had to leave a longtime Haywood Road studio described higher rent in a smaller space and worry that the wider highway will split the neighborhood and make it less walkable.
West Asheville grew around the Haywood Road commercial strip of independent restaurants, breweries and shops after the once-separate town was annexed into Asheville. That corridor sits beside residential pockets such as Malvern Hills and Bear Creek, so parcel takes along the interstate cut through a district that still functions as a walkable main street for the west side.
The French Broad River crossing is the other hinge. Riverfront blocks that became the River Arts District converted old industrial warehouses into studio space for more than 200 artists, and a new interstate span there will reshape how traffic, freight and neighborhood streets meet the water. NCDOT frames the Connector as a traffic-flow fix for the Asheville area even as west-side businesses absorb the land buys.
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