Black Mountain Fire, Police Departments Relocate After Safety Building Flagged Unsafe

Black Mountain's fire and police departments have vacated their shared home at 106 Montreat Road after consultants told the Town Council on March 9 that the building is unsafe for continued occupancy, citing bowing brick walls, floor cracks, ongoing basement flooding, and active foundation settlement.

The assessment, presented by McGill Associates and Moseley Architects, calculated a Facility Condition Index of 0.77. The FCI scale places anything above 0.30 in the "high-priority" category, meaning the building ranks more than twice that threshold. The report estimated $2.2 million in total deferred maintenance, with roughly $1.85 million in critical repairs needed within the next year alone. For context, Buncombe County's 2021 appraised replacement value for the building was $1.2 million. Replacing it entirely with a comparable 12,000-square-foot facility would run approximately $6.6 million in construction costs, or roughly $8 million as a full project.

"We do know there's something happening to the building," said Kevin McDade, an architect with Moseley Architects who presented the findings to council. "We don't necessarily know what. We would need further active investigations."

The council convened an emergency meeting on March 12 and voted to relocate both departments, authorizing town staff to move forward with purchasing a triple-wide modular home from the Hendersonville Fire Department to serve as temporary living quarters for firefighters.

Police Chief Steve Parker said he and Fire Chief John Coffey reached out to several organizations before landing on Ridgecrest Conference Center as the most viable short-term option. Ridgecrest offered a hallway with 14 rooms for office and sleeping quarters and has committed to a two-and-a-half-year arrangement, though Parker and staff believe the actual need will be closer to three to four months.

Fire Chief Coffey underscored why proximity matters: the fire department is required by state regulations to maintain response times that dictate it cannot stray far from its service area. Keeping apparatus warm is an additional concern, particularly heading into colder months.

For the firetrucks themselves, Parker pointed to a potential base on Honeycutt Street. "Putting the base on Honeycutt Street keeps the firetrucks safe, gives the police department access to all of its equipment and already has power, water and sewer nearby," Parker said. The town has also reached out to Ingles about using the former Bi-Lo location in Black Mountain, which Ingles owns, though no response had been received as of this week.

The building at 106 Montreat Road dates to the mid-1950s, when it was originally constructed as a grocery store. Town officials said they have long been aware of potential issues, but the March 9 assessment made clear the problems are more serious than previously understood. What is still unknown is the precise cause: McDade said further geotechnical investigation, including core sampling, is needed before engineers can determine what is driving the settlement and structural distress. Town officials plan to obtain a proposal from a geotechnical firm and bring it before the council at an upcoming meeting.