Thank you for taking the time for a drive-through of Olivette Riverside Community and Farm. We appreciate your interest and look forward to your feedback!
In the meantime, here are a few things to note on your drive-through:
Olivette is a 346 acre planned community and historic farm located just 6.9 miles from the heart of downtown Asheville on the beautiful French Broad River. We boast a fully operational commercial, organic farm as our central amenity with connection to food, nature, neighbors and the arts as essential elements of our design concept.
Navigate to the Olivette main entrance at 1069 Olivette Road, then turn right onto French Broad River Way.
The Olivette Farm Annex can be viewed on the left as you approach the main entrance on French Broad River Way.
Take a minute to stop at the kiosk on the right to grab a copy of the most recent site map, which includes homesite availability.
You will note a significant area of construction activity as you cross the first bridge. This area will be home to the Green Mind Trailhead, which starts on the left-hand side of the bridge and extends to Olivette Farm; and to the right, you will see the site work for our community gardens, dog park, boulder playground and picnic area in the Lee Creek Commons. The Lee Creek Commons extends along Lee Creek all the way to the French Broad as serves as an important wildlife corridor.
The community Asian Pear orchard is on the left at the top of the hill.
Turn right onto Olivette Crossing, the community blueberry patch is immediately visible on your right and left. The Blue Mind Trailhead is on the left, right next to one of our Free Little Libraries. The Blue Mind Trial skirts along the French Broad and loops around to the farm. Eventually, the trails will form an interconnected loop of approximately 7 miles of well maintained interior hiking trails.
Pause as you approach the second bridge. The Lee Creek Trail leads to Rosebay River Park on your left, and to the Lee Creek Commons on your right.
Turn left after the bridge and drive to the top of the hill. As you crest the hill, the French Broad River and Rosebay Park will come into view. Continue down the hill and park at the no trespassing sign. You are welcome to continue your tour of the park from here, just tell anyone who inquires that you are my guest! As you enter Rosebay Park, walking to the right is a great point of river access for kayaking and canoeing, or walking to the right you will approach the open-hearth pavilion and fireside amphitheater. as you can imagine, a lot of community activity happens in this area! Continuing on over the footbridge onto Azalea Island you will find a ceremonial circle and a beautiful labyrinth for walking meditation. This part of the park is generally very quiet, regardless of activity in other areas.
Continuing on, to access Olivette Farm:
Olivette Crossing (the road that connects phase one to the farm) is under construction so please use the farm entrance by navigating to 172 Old Macedonia to access the farm.
The main production fields are behind the Olivette Farm Packing Facility and newly-expanded Olivette Farmstand. While this structure is complete, we are holding off with the interior finish of this space until the pandemic passes and allows for us to maximize the use of this space for the Olivette community.
Some general notes:
Infrastructure provided includes state-maintained roads, city water, city sewer, underground electric, and state of the art fiberoptic internet access.
Here is a link to some additional information about the different neighborhoods and the latest site plans and pricing. If you have any questions while you are exploring the area please feel free to give us a call at 828-4070040. We look forward to hearing from you soon!