Local business owner to run for Black Mountain Town Council
John Richardson cites longstanding dispute with officials in announcement
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
April 14, 2026
Local business owner John Richardson announced, April 13, he would seek a seat on the Black Mountain Town Council in November. Courtesy photo
A Black Mountain business owner who is disputing measures undertaken by the town regarding two of his properties will seek a seat on its governing board in November.
John Richardson, co-owner of property at 141 Richardson Boulevard, the former site of the RailYard, and Black Mountain Brewing, which operates at 131 Broadway Avenue, cited unsuccessful mediation with local officials when announcing his candidacy for Black Mountain Town Council.
Town officials, last August, erected a chain-link fence along sections of Sutton and South Ridgeway Avenues, around the site of the business that closed in August of 2024. The site was utilized as a large relief hub in the aftermath of Helene. Richardson received notice of 10 zoning violations in May of 2025, resolving nine of them ahead of the deadline, as staff found his measures to prevent people from parking on the property to be insufficient.
Planning staff deemed the placement of traffic cones and caution tape as ineffective measures to prevent parking on the property, before contracting a company to install the fence.
Weeks later, Richardson was ordered by the town to close the upper deck of Black Mountain Brewing, after the town building inspector issued an order to cease unpermitted work being done in office space on the second floor of the building. The Town of Black Mountain, according to a statement posted on its website last December, required the business to discontinue use of the structure, in operation since 2022.
The town planning director, in a meeting last December, told the town council previous town employees made errors when granting permits for the deck. Four days later, that employee sent Richardson a cease and desist letter in response to the business owner’s social media posts.
The RailYard, Black Mountain Brewing and the adjacent food truck SMOKE entered into a pre-litigation mediation session with town officials last month, but that experience prompted Richardson to announce his candidacy, according to his statement.
“We entered mediation in good faith. We asked for dialogue. We asked for common-sense solutions,” the press release stated. “What we received instead was silence, escalation and a system more willing to spend taxpayer dollars on legal battles than to support the small businesses that built this community.”
Hours after releasing the statement, Richardson addressed elected officials directly in public comment at the town council’s, April 13, regular monthly meeting.
“These are not policy decisions in a vacuum. These are actions that are destroying businesses, livelihoods and my family’s financial future.”
Richardson classified the town's willingness to allow the matter to be litigated as a point of concern.
“The town can afford to push this into a lawsuit…” he said. “It raises serious ethical questions about whether the town’s current approach is being driven by resolution or by process that benefits no one, except those billing by the hour.”
In the release announcing his candidacy for town council, Richardson added his campaign was not about politics.
“It’s about accountability, common sense and protecting what makes this town unique,” he said.
While the candidate filing period for even-numbered municipal elections in N.C. begins at noon, Monday, July 6 and extends to noon Friday, July 17, Richardson is the first to publicly announce candidacy for one of two council seats or the mayoral position, which will be on the ballot in the fall.