Joining the Family Justice Center in the building would be tax collections, tax assessment, election services, permits and inspections, planning, air quality and environmental health.
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CountySeal-330x330.gif)
Joining the Family Justice Center in the building would be tax collections, tax assessment, election services, permits and inspections, planning, air quality and environmental health.
Asheville Police Chief Mike Lamb wants to increase the number of places designated as High Traffic Zones, areas where it is illegal under city code for a person to verbally solicit and/or panhandle. Solicitation with a sign is still permitted in these areas.
“This is a straight rezoning, not a project,” Mayor Esther Manheimer said. “A sidewalk is not a requirement we can make.”
Commission member MZ Yehudah cut right to the point at a recent meeting of the Community Reparations Commission. “Are reparations for Black Asheville legally defensible?” The answer, according to city and county attorneys, is complicated.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 on June 18 to approve a $440 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2024-25. Chair Brownie Newman said the decision to raise taxes is not easy, and this was the toughest budget season he’s been through in his 12 years on the commission.
If passed, the new rate — 52.35 cents per $100 of value — would mean the owner of a home valued at $400,000 will pay $2,094 in taxes to the county, $102 more than last year.
As the pandemic-era backlog of emergency vehicles continues to delay new trucks from reaching Buncombe County, paramedics are left driving aging ambulances longer than they should just as they are needed more than ever before.
According to a staff report, the new pay raise proposal includes a flat dollar increase of $4,053 for beginning on-shift firefighters, which will boost the lowest paid firefighter pay by 8.8% to $50,309 annually.
More than half of Warren Wilson College’s 1,100-acre campus is on its way to permanent preservation after the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners agreed to chip in county funds to make it happen.
“We’ve been out of compliance for 14 years,” Housing Authority of the City of Asheville President and CEO Monique Pierre told a May 22 meeting of the HACA Board of Commissioners.
The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority unveiled its proposed $34.3 million budget budget for fiscal year 2025 during its May 29 board meeting.
Your chance to address the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners on its proposed 2024-25 budget, including a 2.55-cent property tax hike, has arrived. Commissioners will hold its annual public hearing on the budget at its meeting Tuesday, June 4 before voting on the budget later in the month.
The Council chambers and overflow room were at capacity during the Tuesday night meeting where all of the speakers who commented on the proposed budget advocated for increasing pay for city employees.
The proposed budget includes a 4.11% salary increase for all permanent city employees.
County manager Avril Pinder’s proposed $441.9 million general fund budget, which still has to go through a public hearing and final vote next month, includes a 2.55 cent property tax increase next fiscal year.
Project Aspire — a vast mixed-use, mixed-income venture slated for downtown Asheville — would have occupied 10.5 acres in downtown Asheville.
For this month’s “Around the Region,” Xpress talked to six area police chiefs about how smaller law enforcement agencies address crime, public safety, recruitment and retention, community relations and other issues.
Three candidates for Buncombe County Board of Commissioners gathered at the May 10 Council of Independent Business Owners meeting to lay out their vision for the county’s future direction.
The last time the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners met on May 9, it was facing an almost $14 million spending gap and the possibility that it would have to raise property taxes to fill it.
A proposed downtown business improvement district passed the first round of voting despite concerns about how it would operate. The vote defined the boundaries of the district and set a tax rate, but a second vote is required to establish the business improvement district, or BID.
The Community Reparations Commission of Asheville and Buncombe County passed three education-centric recommendations May 13, adding to the four endorsed earlier this month, informing how the city and county can make amends for generations of discrimination towards Black residents.