“By expanding the blitz to four counties and making a game of it, we hope to be able to engage more people and find more species,” said MountainTrue Public Lands Biologist Josh Kelly. “We might even find some that have never been recorded in our region.”
Botanical Bones receives a $50,000 grant for its expanding dog treat business. Also: North Carolina Craft Beverage Museum launches its traveling exhibit; Brews & Bears celebrates its latest gathering; and more!
When complete, the document will be a nonbinding, advisory blueprint of where residents and county officials want the county to be in 2043 and will outline the goals, objectives and policies needed to achieve that vision.
Supporters of medical marijuana and the local hemp industry want to see the state allow the use of cannabis as a treatment option for debilitating medical conditions. But there are disagreements with Senate Bill 711 as written.
The inaugural AVL Honey Fest debuts at Salvage Station Sunday, June 5. Also: Livermush Festival returns to Marion; Well Played Board Game Café reopens; and more!
Innovative approaches such as land restoration and private-public partnerships, as well as revisiting tried approaches such as herd grazing and indigenous land management, offer partial answers to the challenges of a changing climate in WNC forests.
The Buncombe County Board of Elections won’t officially certify the results until Friday, May 27, and the N.C. Board of Elections will issue its own certification Thursday, June 9. But even with those steps still to come, there’s plenty to learn from the unofficial results.
When lawyers, planners and elected officials get into the weeds of jargon and legal minutiae, it can seem like they’re no longer speaking English. Here’s a list of some of the most commonly encountered — and commonly confused — terms that come up in development discussions.
People who go to a meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment might not realize the bland room where the board gathers is a first cousin to a court of law. Learn more about how quasi-judicial bodies work to govern development in North Carolina.
While Asheville city and Buncombe County leaders govern the bulk of local development, other municipalities set zoning rules and approve projects within their own borders. Here’s the key information about when and where those decisions are made, as well as how you can weigh in.
Buncombe County is a relative newcomer to land use regulation, and many outlying areas still remain under open use zoning. For parts of the county where development is more regulated, these three boards have the greatest say.
Learn more about the different types of development review in Buncombe County and the government boards responsible for each.
Three governmental bodies are critical to the fate of large-scale development in the city: Asheville City Council, the Design Review Committee and the Planning and Zoning Commission. Find out more about what each group does and how to weigh in on its decisions.
Learn more about the different types of development projects in the city of Asheville and how local government reviews each of them.
Both Asheville and Buncombe County offer a number of tools to help residents avoid getting caught off guard by development. The following resources give early notification of development proposals and provide more information about each project’s movement through the overall approval process.
The following guidelines are best practices for getting public officials to tune you in if you are involved in a development issue. Each piece of advice is based on interviews with people who used to turn thumbs up — or thumbs down — on development projects and others with experience in the field.
Court rulings and state laws sometimes mean local governments can’t adopt zoning rules their constituents might like — and in some cases, it’s uncertain just how much authority municipalities have, say Asheville City Attorney Brad Branham and other lawyers working in the field.
Mountain Xpress, with support from the American Press Institute, is excited to offer a fully linkable online version of the Development Guide — your companion to local government land-use planning.
Watch this space for the latest 2022 primary election results for Western North Carolina and commentary from the Mountain Xpress news team. The post will be updated regularly throughout the evening.
Requests outlined by Buncombe County Schools Superintendent Tony Baldwin and Asheville City Schools Superintendent Gene Freeman sought county government spending increases of up to $27.9 million, representing a nearly 32% jump from the county’s current contribution.
Since COVID-19 emerged in early 2020, local nonprofits dedicated to meeting the needs of food insecure citizens have been engaged in what feels like an endless game of Whac-A-Mole, no sooner subduing one obstacle before another rears its menacing head.
