County commissioners to create STR ad hoc committee

After several work sessions, hours of public comment and the clock ticking down on a 100-day pause, Buncombe County commissioners said at their July 16 briefing meeting that they planned to create an ad hoc committee to address sticking points in a proposed short-term rental (STR) ordinance. 

“It seemed like everyone was supportive of that idea when the commission discussed it, but there may have been a lack of clarity on what was the next step to go forward,” Board of Commissioners Chair Brownie Newman said during the meeting. 

The county’s nine-member Planning Board released a draft of proposed changes to the ordinance in December, which was met with both praise and criticism, sparking months of debate. During a public hearing April 22, the county Planning Board voted to table the issue for 100 days after board Chair Nancy Waldrop and others said that the process had moved too quickly. Several board members also said that they supported creating a task force that would bring together community stakeholders on both sides of the issue to work through disagreements.

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners is now accepting applications for the ad hoc committee and is looking for representation from Realtors, community groups, short-term rental (STR) operators, affordable housing advocates and other interested parties, through Wednesday, July 31. To apply, visit avl.mx/dy8. 

Reaching an impasse

Few issues are more contentious in Buncombe County than short-term rentals, says county Planning Director Nathan Pennington. Since it began in 2008, the STR business has grown exponentially both within the U.S. and abroad, with an estimated 7.7 million listings worldwide, according to Business of Apps, a media and information research company. A consulting firm hired by the county identified 5,268 STRs in Buncombe as of 2022, representing roughly 4.5% of the county’s housing stock. Local proponents of STRs dispute this figure, saying there are 3,250 short-term rentals which account for 2.42% of the county’s total housing stock.

Using either figure, the explosive growth has led to impassioned sentiments both for and against the business model.

“Having worked in multiple communities where this is a predominant issue, I can tell you it’s probably one of the most controversial topics I can think of in the planning field these days,” Pennington says. “The hardest thing about planning sometimes is that people want the black and white, but there’s so much gray. It’s just a very, very emotional topic for a lot of people.”

Over the last six months, the county Planning Board heard a range of voices on the issue — from personal experiences depicting how short-term rentals negatively affect neighborhoods and contribute to Asheville’s housing crisis to others who said income from short-term rentals builds generational wealth or keeps people in their homes when experiencing economic hardships.

Dozens of members of the PODER Emma community group attended all of the public meetings and shared the concern that affordable housing, including mobile home parks in the area, were being converted to STRs. 

“For many years, our community was able to achieve stability and well-being due to the affordable housing the mobile home parks in our community provide,” said Andrea Golden, co-founder of PODER Emma Community Ownership and a resident owner of Dulce Lomita Mobile Home Cooperative, during the Jan. 22 listening session. “We recognize that short-term rental restrictions alone will not solve the housing crisis, but it is an important piece of the puzzle.”

Representatives from PODER Emma did not return several requests for comment before press time. 

Meanwhile, Chip Craig, who chairs the short-term rentals advocacy group the NC STR Alliance and owns of Greybeard Realty and Rentals that operates more than 285 vacation rentals across the state, disputes the assertion that a ban on STRs would have a meaningful impact on available housing.

“The whole premise of [STR’s impact on] affordable housing just made no sense to me. And I care about affordable housing — we have a huge affordable housing issue,” Craig explains. “Look at Asheville. They banned short-term rentals and they have among the highest cost of living in the state. So I don’t think banning STRs is a solution.”

Other STR owners and operators emphasize the need for rental income to help afford their homes and question the legality of the proposed restrictions. Craig acknowledges that there were many proposed changes that he and other STR proponents agreed with, including the need for increased fire safety regulations, a ban of STRs in mobile home parks and an enforcement mechanism for quality-of-life issues. 

“We agree that there’s some occasional bad actors out there, especially when people try to manage it remotely or are otherwise absent owners. And we would be supportive of regulations that address issues like that,” says Craig. “We agree that there are some issues, which is why we want to be involved.”

The long and winding road

Buncombe County isn’t alone in its struggle. The City of Asheville grappled with its short-term rental laws for more than a year before voting to approve its ordinance in 2015 and has added several amendments in the years to follow, most recently in 2021. 

The City of Brevard voted to approve short-term rental regulations in 2023 after establishing a task force on the issue in 2021. And, the Weaverville Planning Board narrowly approved STR recommendations after working on the issue for more than a year, according to a report from Blue Ridge Public Radio. The Weaverville Town Council has not yet set a date for a vote on the recommendations.

Buncombe County began working on its short-term rental ordinance long before the proposed text amendments came to the Planning Board, says Chris Joyelle, director of the Healthy Communities program at Asheville-based nonprofit MountainTrue. He served with other stakeholders on the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, which collected community input on the issue and helped craft recommendations for the Planning Board. 

“It would be great if the county were to coordinate with community organizations and stakeholders on whatever provision they’re going to bring forward because it felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of coordination leading up to bringing this provision on STRs,” he explains. “I definitely have a lot of empathy for county staff because I feel like they’re kind of caught in the middle.”

Craig, of the STR Alliance and who was not involved in the Comprehensive Plan Committee discussions, says he would appreciate the opportunity to weigh in and that slowing down the process should help in creating the best policy possible while hopefully avoiding unforeseen consequences. 

While Joyelle says he’s also open to participating in an ad hoc committee on the issue, he maintains that the county’s decision to further delay new restrictions on STRs will only exacerbate the existing housing crisis and displace families. 

“All we’re doing right now is ensuring that we’re going to lose even more [housing] units between now and whenever a decision is made. We’re certainly not going to gain more units in the process; we’re only going to lose them,” he says. 

In the meantime, Pennington says that staff and the Planning Board will begin to work through other updates to the county’s comprehensive plan related to design standards, missing middle housing, transportation and more. Asked when that process might be completed, Pennington says that remains to be seen.

“You saw how long and drawn out the process was for us to really not get to a conclusion on short-term rentals,” he explains. “I don’t anticipate other text amendments to be controversial. But whenever we are talking about changes, you know, people and change, they don’t always go together.