Commissioners to hear update on Ferry Road development study

A year and a half ago, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners approved a nearly $221,000 contract with the UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative for an affordable housing development study. DFI was tasked with reviewing the 137-acre Ferry Road parcel, as well as three downtown Asheville properties. On Tuesday, Oct. 3, commissioners will receive an update on the development plan.

For years, commissioners have discussed multiple ways to include affordable housing and mixed-use development on the Ferry Road parcel, a mostly-wooded site between Brevard Road and the French Broad River.

The DFI was tasked with determining what type of projects might be feasible on the site, create financial models for public-private partnerships and arrange agreements with private developers, according to an Xpress report in 2022.

In other news

In June, commissioners raised property taxes by one-cent per $100,000 of taxable value, which is projected to raise an extra $5.1 million for county schools. Commissioners will consider officially allocating those extra funds to schools at the Tuesday, Oct. 3 meeting.

The funds are meant to increase teacher and staff salaries, and are split between Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools based on recorded attendance in the districts’ schools. BCS will get about 84%, or around $4.3 million, while ACS will receive about 16%, or around $800,000 to further supplement salaries. Those numbers are subject to change based on actual attendance figures.

Commissioners will also consider purchasing four new ambulances for roughly $1.4 million from Southeastern Specialty Vehicles. A shortage of ambulances has contributed to longer response times by first responders, as previously reported by Xpress.

Consent agenda

The consent agenda for the meeting contains 11 items, which will be approved as a package unless singled out for separate discussion. Highlights include the following:

• Approval of a contract with Virginia-based Milestone Towers to manage county-owned towers, including leasing space to cell phone service providers and building new towers on county-owned land. The five-year contract would include a revenue split with the county for existing and new leases with providers, leading to an increase of $14-$21 million in revenue for the county over the next 20 years if approved, according to Vance Bell, operations manager for Buncombe’s Information Technology department.
• Approval of a budget increase of $109,000 for Recreation Services’ master plan to expand the project to include development of a greenways master plan. The increase would bring the project total to $309,000, if approved. No new county funding is required.
• Approval of accepting an additional $19,847 to support two more months of community programs to prevent opioid overdoses. The funds will allow two contracted staff to continue in their role and increase access to care services.

The full agenda and supporting documents for the regular meeting can be found at this link. Prior to that meeting, the commissioners will hold a 3 p.m. briefing.

In-person public comment will be taken at the start of the regular meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. in room 326 at 200 College St., Asheville; no voicemail or email comments will be permitted. Both the briefing and the regular meeting will be livestreamed on the county’s Facebook page and will subsequently be available via YouTube.