Asheville Small Home Advocacy Committee gets started

Posted on — Jeff Fobes

“One of the most common questions I’m asked is whether or not tiny homes are legal in our city or anywhere else around the country,” writes Laura LaVoie in a recent post introducting the Asheville Small Home Advocacy Committee . “Unfortunately, that isn’t a very easy question to answer”

LaVoie writes:

Asheville SHAC is a group of dedicated volunteers working together and with the city and Buncombe County to make micro homes a viable solution for affordable housing, urban density, and walkability of the city and surrounding areas.

We believe there may be two paths to tiny.

  1. Foundation homes which can be built as Accessory Dwelling Units, answer questions of density, and offer individuals an affordable way to live and work within the city limits.
  2. Homes on wheels which could be placed in a renovated mobile home park to improve the look and value of these abandoned areas within the city limits.

Asheville SHAC is just beginning discussions with the city government to answer some of the important questions surrounding the viability of tiny homes. We are also actively seeking individuals who are interested in starting a project and have the means to bring a development to the attention of the decision makers. We need to better understand the codes and zoning regulations as they apply to small houses. …

One of our primary missions is to use small houses to address the question of affordability in Asheville as it is currently one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. The very people who make up Asheville’s vibrant culture of artists, musicians, and individuals within the service industry are being priced out of homes in the city.

SHARE
About Jeff Fobes
As a long-time proponent of media for social change, my early activities included coordinating the creation of a small community FM radio station to serve a poor section of St. Louis, Mo. In the 1980s I served as the editor of the "futurist" newsletter of the U.S. Association for the Club of Rome, a professional/academic group with a global focus and a mandate to act locally. During that time, I was impressed by a journalism experiment in Mississippi, in which a newspaper reporter spent a year in a small town covering how global activities impacted local events (e.g., literacy programs in Asia drove up the price of pulpwood; soybean demand in China impacted local soybean prices). Taking a cue from the Mississippi journalism experiment, I offered to help the local Green Party in western North Carolina start its own newspaper, which published under the name Green Line. Eventually the local party turned Green Line over to me, giving Asheville-area readers an independent, locally focused news source that was driven by global concerns. Over the years the monthly grew, until it morphed into the weekly Mountain Xpress in 1994. I've been its publisher since the beginning. Mountain Xpress' mission is to promote grassroots democracy (of any political persuasion) by serving the area's most active, thoughtful readers. Consider Xpress as an experiment to see if such a media operation can promote a healthy, democratic and wise community. In addition to print, today's rapidly evolving Web technosphere offers a grand opportunity to see how an interactive global information network impacts a local community when the network includes a locally focused media outlet whose aim is promote thoughtful citizen activism. Follow me @fobes
View all posts by Jeff Fobes →

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.