Asheville City Council holds Jan. 26 affordable housing work session, regular meeting

Press release from the City of Asheville:

For safety and to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, Asheville City Council meetings remain virtual at this time. That includes the 5 p.m. Jan. 26 City Council meeting. Prior to the formal meeting, City Council will hold a 3 p.m. virtual City Council work session on affordable housing. The work session agenda is located here.

At the work session Council will hear from staff about:

• What is affordable housing and how is it defined in Asheville;
• Success stories over the last 18 months since the last work session in September 2019; and
• Pipeline of affordable housing projects for 2021 that could add as many as 500 new affordable units in the coming years.

For more information about the City’s affordable housing initiatives, please visit the City Property Development webpage.  

Here’s what you need to know to watch/listen and/or to participate in the Council meeting or watch/listen to the work session, which is not open to public comment.

• People can leave a comment about the work session via email: affordablehousingworksession@PublicInput.com.
• Both meetings can be accessed through the City’s Virtual Engagement Hub.
• The City Council meeting agenda is posted at this link.

To watch: You can watch the meetings live by television on Charter Cable channel 193 and on AT&T U-Verse channel 99 or by live stream through the City’s  Virtual Engagement Hub or via the City’s YouTube channel.

By phone: Listen live by calling 855-925-2801, then enter code 7941.

Public comment

Because the upcoming City Council meeting will be a remote participation meeting, and to allow staff time to assist community members in preparing for such a meeting format, persons wishing to speak during the meeting must sign up in advance using this online form, ashevillenc.gov/comments or call the Clerk’s office at 828-259-5900 no later than 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, to add their names to the list of speakers.

Each speaker will need to listen to the meeting through the live phone application by calling 855-925-2801, meeting code 7941. Callers who have signed up to speak should press “*” and then “3” to join the speaker queue during the meeting. To best ensure staff can support you in the case of technical difficulties, we ask that you join the queue no later than the beginning of the agenda item before the agenda item on which you have signed up to speak.

Additionally, if you have joined the speaker queue and need to disconnect before your time to speak, please hit *4 before hanging up. You can then call back in using the same directions listed above and staff will enter you back into the speaker queue if 1) you signed up to speak for the agenda item and 2) public comment is still being accepted for the agenda item.  Each speaker is allotted 3 minutes to speak for up to one hour for each agenda item. The Mayor or presiding officer may, at his/her discretion, increase or decrease this time allocation depending on the number of speakers.

 

To leave prerecorded voicemail comments for the agenda (including public hearings) by calling 855-925-2801, enter code 7941.  The deadline to sign up for prerecorded voicemail comments is 9 a.m. Jan. 26.  

 Please submit written comments for the agenda (including public hearings) by emailing  AshevilleCityCouncilJan262021@PublicInput.com.  The deadline for written comments is 9 a.m. Jan. 26.

Written comments for public hearings only can be submitted to the City Council until 24 hours after the public hearing by sending comments to: AshevilleCityCouncilJan262021@PublicInput.com.

These remote format City Council meetings are a temporary measure for the health and safety of everyone, as we collectively work through social distancing techniques to prevent the spread of COVID-19, taking into consideration guidance from the CDC, N.C. Department of Health and Human Service and Buncombe County Health and Human Services.

The top priorities are the safety of our community and to slow the spread of COVID-19.

We continue to coordinate city response with Buncombe County and State officials. These actions are all designed with public health in mind, as we pull together to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.