Putting the question Over a quarter of the meeting was taken up by questions and comments from the public during Council’s open comment time. ... Priscilla Ndiaye, chair of the Southside Advisory Board, called on Council to take seriously the need to renovate the historic Walton Street Pool and the concerns of the surrounding community. The group, formed to represent the concerns of the Southside neighborhood in the face of change and gentrification, has made the renovation of the complex a major priority and started an online petition that has attracted 845 signatures. “Going into the retreat I’m asking you to seriously consider and have a critical conversation about what you plan on doing with Walton Street park and pool,” Ndiaye said. “I remember, as a young girl, the fair being held there, going over to the park, learning how to swim, taking life-saving courses. That swimming pool, that area even now serves a lot of community members, community members who don’t have the transportation to go to a recreation center.” “We know there have been no repairs done, at least I haven’t heard of any,” so the time for renovation was at hand. The community heard rumors over the years about the possible removal of the pool, Ndiaye added. “There are no plans to remove the pool,” Manheimer noted, though at one point A-B Tech had broached using part of the property to build another access point but “that, from the Council’s perspective, was abandoned.” City manager Gary Jackson asserted that staff were assessing the condition of the pools and putting together a plan to potentially repair them. Last year, Ndiaye wrote a column in the Blade laying out concerns about the fate of the Walton Street complex and the need to save it. During the retreat a few days later, Council decided to make parks and recreation one of their major priorities in the upcoming year’s budget. At a meeting with members of the Southside Community the next Monday, Young reiterated the importance of parks and rec facilities. Young noted that he signed the petition. Ndiaye thanks Council for the clarification, and noted that the rumors of the pool’s closure amid its state of disrepair had “made the community angry” and she was glad to dispel the rumors. Williams returned to the podium and encouraged Council to consider community benefit agreements and similar measures to ensure that development left less communities behind. “All businesses operate with the permission of the citizenry,” Williams said. “Therefore, when they are in a capacity to benefit the community, they should be called upon to do so.” So when a developer comes forward for approval, Williams added, the city should ask “how is what you’re doing going to benefit the community, especially a community like Livingston Street, which is the only distressed census tract in Buncombe County?” Then, she said, it needed to try to get those developers to find ways to make what they build directly benefit underserved populations or help with projects like the Walton Street renovation.