Update from ABYSA Jan 2026 (In case you missed it)

The City of Asheville is sharing this update on behalf of our partners at ABYSA. They originally sent the update Jan. 16, this resend is just in case you missed it over the holiday weekend.

January 16, 2026

Greetings Gashes Creek/Azalea Road Neighbors:

As described in our communication on November 13, 2025, we are beginning to increase programming at the park to serve more of our spring season soccer players. Our observation over the last few months has been that November, December, and early January use levels did not cause significant traffic issues. It is now time for us to increase programming and work with our neighbors and the City of Asheville to mitigate the impacts of increased park use.

We have taken measures to instruct soccer families at JBL to enter and exit via Tunnel Road, not Swannanoa River Road. These efforts have included frequent direct communication and signs at the park entrances. We continue to work to identify the program levels that will require professional traffic control services. Suffice it to say that it is not a simple equation and that experimentation and observation is ongoing. We will learn more over the next several weeks and we appreciate your patience as we determine the most effective and efficient solutions.

There are two traffic control strategies we will try first.

1. Use traffic control to enforce exiting JBL field entrances toward Tunnel Road. This strategy would minimally impact Gashes Creek residents as traffic across the bridge would not be managed. We experimented with this on Wednesday, January 14^th, with reasonable success.
2. Use traffic control at the field 1 entrance, bridge, and traffic circle area to reduce outgoing traffic on Azalea Road toward Swannanoa River Road (SRR). With this strategy, only Gashes Creek residents, and some through traffic, would be permitted to go toward SRR. Gashes Creek residents will be provided a “hot pink” Gashes Creek thru pass to place on dashboards so that traffic control can use discretion to allow access to SRR. This second strategy, while potentially more effective, might also impact traffic flow in the immediate area of the bridge. The soonest day that this second strategy would be implemented, based on programming levels, would be Wednesday, January 21^st. ABYSA will distribute two “thru passes” directly to each resident mailbox before the end of the day on Tuesday, January 20^th. Residents needing more than two may pick up extras at the Nature Center ticket booth following the initial distribution.

Both strategies should work, in theory. We won’t know if one is better than the other, if tweaks are needed, or that we need to go back to the drawing board, until we experiment on some high-volume days.

We will continue to work with the City of Asheville, and you our JBL neighbors, to bring this important facility back to full service for the community as painlessly as possible for all stakeholders, While we all anxiously await installation of the temporary bridge, our top priority will be the ability of emergency vehicles to access the Gashes Creek neighborhood and everything on Azalea Road. 

Thank you for your patience as we maintain safety of our community and recover together from Helene impacts.  Contact the City of Asheville by replying to this message.