City pulls Asheland Avenue affordable housing proposal from Council agenda

Press release from the City of Asheville:

City Council has agreed, at the request of the City Manager, to pull the proposal to sell the land located on Asheland Avenue between Phifer Street and Morgan Avenue to the Haywood Street Congregation to build affordable housing. The proposal was initially scheduled for City Council’s Tuesday, Feb. 23, agenda.

Building new affordable housing remains and will continue to be a critical need and one that we will continue to focus on for our community. The decision to pull the Asheland proposal from the agenda was based on the community feedback related to the history of the parcel being acquired through urban renewal and the proposal’s impact on the surrounding community in terms of design.

We would like to thank the community for their input and engagement on this topic. Stay tuned for more updates on the status of the proposal by visiting ashevillenc.gov.

Background information

Haywood Street Congregation had proposed to build 42 permanently affordable apartments on a 1.09 acre, city-owned site located on Asheland Avenue between Phifer Street and Morgan Avenue in the South French Broad neighborhood. The proposal requested the city enter into a contract to sell this parcel for $1 to Haywood Street Congregation for affordable housing development.

In 2019, the city passed its “Policies for Implementing Affordable Housing on City-owned Land.”  This set of policies established goals and procedures for the development of city land for affordable housing, including the sale of land at low or no cost to subsidize the cost of building affordable housing.