Buncombe County Seeks Public Input on Owen Park Rebuild in Swannanoa

Buncombe County Parks & Recreation is inviting Swannanoa residents to a March 30 Reimagining Owen Park community meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Owen Middle School gym, a page posted by the county on February 24, 2026 says. The event, co-sponsored by the Swannanoa Grassroots Alliance, will begin with a brief presentation by the project's design team and allow drop-in attendance during the two-hour window; Spanish-language interpretation will be available.

Charles D. Owen Park has been closed since Tropical Storm Helene flooded the site and caused the county’s worst park damage, county materials state. The Swannanoa River breached its banks, destroyed the fishing ponds, cut a new path through the park, and left extensive damage to fields, buildings and equipment, the county says, noting potential impacts on land stability that the project will need to address.

Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture is listed as the project’s design team; the Asheville Citizen-Times reports the firm was contracted in November, though the news excerpt does not specify the year. Buncombe County says the March 30 meeting will include staff and project designers leading conversations and hands-on activities so the community can share the park’s history, current recreation needs and ideas for the park’s next chapter.

The county has organized the rebuild into two phases. Citizen-Times reporting and county project text say Phase 1 is slated to run from fall to summer 2026 and will include public input opportunities, engineering studies to develop plans for grading, drainage, stormwater management and structural integrity of park amenities, and incorporation of accessibility standards plus sustainability and resilience measures. After those studies, the county will share a conceptual and schematic design for Owen Park.

Phase 2 is expected to last into spring 2028 and will cover production of detailed construction documents, permitting, a public bid process to select a contractor, and construction of a new park, the county’s project page states. The county’s project timeline tab is cited as the place to find a detailed breakdown of each step; the county also encourages people to subscribe for updates through the project page.

The Owen Park effort is framed within a broader recovery process that began after Helene altered the county’s planning timeline. WLOS noted the Systemwide Parks & Recreation Master Plan was underway in 2023 before the 2024 storm, and Buncombe County launched Envision Buncombe in April 2025, holding 28 in-person events across 13 zip codes and collecting 2,622 survey responses to set recovery priorities that included rebuilding parks, floodplain management and restoring streambanks.

County postings and press excerpts do not yet list an estimated project budget, identified funding sources, or the exact month and year Hoerr Schaudt was contracted; they also leave some Phase 1 start-date language ambiguous. Buncombe County’s project page and Project Timeline tab remain the primary places the county directs residents to track those details and future public-input opportunities related to restoring Owen Park.