Bring back Charles D. Owen Park, several Swannanoa residents asked the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
Before Tropical Storm Helene struck in 2024, “Owen Park was a meeting place,” resident Jerald Pope said. “We walked there ‘most every day, met hundreds of people.”
The nearly 30-acre park off Warren Wilson Road in Swannanoa contained walking paths, two fishing ponds, ballfields, basketball courts and other facilities. It adjoins the Swannanoa River and county government says it sustained the most damage from Helene of any county park. It has been closed since the storm…