Election may refocus Asheville City Council
By Joel Burgess
AC-T
May 10, 2007
Tim Peck, the only newcomer to council elections, is one of many local activists known for opposing development they feel harms neighborhoods.
Peck, 50, of Oteen, is a former Atlanta Coca-Cola employee and small-business consultant. He now works for Wal-Mart. The Libertarian candidate said he worries local quality of life “is being threatened by the reckless big government approach of our current City Council.”
Like Hebb, he wants to reduce of regulations on business. But Peck said he would also push for “stiffer penalties for bad development” and put an emphasis on neighborhood-based zoning decisions.
Here's the text that I sent AC-T reporter Joel Burgess:
My name is Tim Peck. I am running for Asheville City Council. My political philosophy is libertarian in nature. I believe in free markets, limited government and individual rights. I believe that people, not bureaucrats, should be the drivers of a political community.
I am 50 years old and moved to Asheville from Atlanta over three years ago for a better quality of life. I believe that I have found that quality of life here in Western North Carolina.
However, that quality is being threatened by the reckless big government approach of our current city council. I believe that city council has gone off the rails and I am running to provide the citizens of Asheville with an alternative: Less government interference in the marketplace, a business-friendly economic environment, job creation, tax relief, rising market wages (which then means affordable housing), lower barriers to entry for entrepreneurs, respect for personal freedoms, stiffer penalties for bad development, preservation of natural regional assets, greater municipal autonomy through home rule, greater community participation of local government through neighborhood zoning authorities, continuous improvement of the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and its hard and fast enforcement going forward, and an end to the dictates of special moneyed interests in our community.
With your help and your vote I will work to return Asheville to its promise: The jewel of the state, if not the country. With your help we can finally "let Asheville be Asheville."
Thank you.
