The First Baptist Church of Asheville and the Asheville YMCA are collaborating to build a major mixed-use and mixed-income development with affordable housing, a hotel, retail space, office buildings and a new YMCA building, according to plans submitted to the city. Approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission on Aug. 2, the Greenville-based developer The Furman Co. is now seeking final approval from City Council at its Aug. 22 meeting.
City leaders are considering tightening Asheville’s panhandling ordinances — which may include new regulations as to how and when drivers can give to roadside solicitors.
APD says drones can be a force multiplier for the department, which is understaffed. However, privacy experts warn that the usage of such technology by the government needs to be proactively curtailed.
Tax Assessor Keith Miller and County Attorney Curt Euler are recommending commissioners deny the request for an almost $280,000 refund on the grounds that GE did not appeal its apparent listing errors after they were made and the county had legal authority to levy the tax based on the information provided, according to a staff presentation.
At a Downtown Commission meeting July 14, Assistant City Manager Rachel Wood said that portions of the 60-day downtown safety and cleanliness pilot have transitioned into ongoing services.
“Turnover, vacancies and an inability to fill the positions that we have available is leading to extremely high workloads, an inability to balance workloads and staff being more and more burned out and leaving the agency, which exacerbates the problem,” said Rebecca Smith, Buncombe’s social work division director.
Two teams — the Community Child Protection Team, which reviews deaths related to abuse or neglect, and the Child Fatality Prevention team, which reviews all other cases of child death — put together an annual report with recommendations on how to reduce fatality rates.
It took two tries for the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority to approve spending nearly $23 million over 20 years for Asheville’s McCormick Field Centennial Restoration & Capital Improvements Project at its July 26 meeting. The motion to fund the project failed 6-2 on the first vote and passed 7-1 after the board voted again 25 minutes later.
At its July 25 meeting, Asheville City Council awarded a $1.9 million tax abatement to Aston Flats, a 231-unit microapartment development. The funding is through the city’s Land Use Incentive Grant. The approval came despite staff recommendation to delay the project until new LUIG policies were established to address microhousing units.
Four months after approving up to $20 million for renovations to McCormick Field, Asheville City Council is taking another step to fund improvements to the home of the Asheville Tourists minor league baseball team. As part of the consent agenda for its meeting of Tuesday, July 25, Council will consider a $3.7 million contract with engineering firm Ewing Cole Inc. for the design of several improvements to McCormick Field, including a new sidewalk for safe pedestrian access.
Asheville-based Skyrunner Internet, the grant recipient, will expand service in the North and South Turkey Creek, Fairview Forest, Reems Creek and Ox Creek neighborhoods. The county will chip in an additional $500,000 to the project from its federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
While it has been over six months since the winter water outage that affected thousands of Asheville residents, several questions still linger over how such an incident could have occurred and how long the remedy will take. An independent review committee found that inadequate preparation for cold weather and a lack of training in crisis communication were the most critical missteps that amplified the effects of the outage.
In the wake of a Supreme Court ruling allowing businesses to refuse LBGTQ customers and an overall hostility from certain segments of the population, planning for this year’s Pride festival is a little more complex.
Xpress worked with Asheville-based data journalist Elliot Patterson to explore homestay permit data. The resulting analysis gives insights into how the market has changed over time, where homestays are located and who’s operating them.
Among the complaints Asheville residents have about their city, litter is one that most can agree on. A new pilot program initiated this spring by the city Public Works Department seeks to address an underserved population by the city’s Sanitation Division services: people who are unhoused.
A mixed-income housing project that’s been years in the making is now cleared for construction, following a unanimous June 27 vote by Asheville City Council. The conditional zoning approval will permit 221 units to be built at 311 and 319 Biltmore Ave., just south of downtown.
Members will vote on whether to temporarily ban LUIG grants for microhousing projects — those with individual housing units smaller than a studio apartment, or about 400 square feet — until the city can develop new standards for the category.
The $430.4 million general fund budget increases the property tax rate one cent to 49.8 cents per $100 of taxable value, or about 2%, resulting in the county’s highest tax rate since 2021.
Four firefighters compose the team — two primarily reaching out to people who may be unhoused or experiencing a behavioral health issue, and two primarily meeting with downtown business owners to address their needs and concerns.