Asheville City Council approved several changes to the city zoning codes at its March 11 meeting to make it easier, cheaper and faster to build regular and affordable housing along certain major thoroughfares. But it wasn’t without conflict.

Asheville City Council approved several changes to the city zoning codes at its March 11 meeting to make it easier, cheaper and faster to build regular and affordable housing along certain major thoroughfares. But it wasn’t without conflict.
Asheville City Council had its annual retreat to focus on a post-Tropical Storm Helene recovery plan. As Council members plotted a course, staff laid out a bleak fiscal landscape the city will have to navigate post-Helene.
For Xpress’ annual Wellness Issue series, we spoke with Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley about early morning runs, a hidden nook in downtown Asheville and the power of Beyoncé.
Flood ordinance updates keep the city in compliance with insurance guidelines and staff revisions to the housing plan keep zoning as is in legacy neighborhoods.
A group of Black women City of Asheville employees were lauded during the Sept. 10 Council meeting, after they raised concerns over hiring and compensation practices. The City of Asheville says it’s taking steps to address the concerns.
“We’re creating a budget that has recurring expenses,” Mayor Esther Manheimer said. “You’ve got to have a source of revenue that continues year after year.”
“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.
During Council’s last scheduled work session for the fiscal year 2023-24 budget on April 11, some members appeared to reverse course on a previous push to freeze residential water fees.
Complete Democratic control of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, a better-than-expected performance by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara and $70 million in new spending for county initiatives all emerged from this year’s midterm election results.
General election candidates for the 2022 Asheville City Council race share their positions with Xpress.
Before the noise ordinance was passed last September, most noise complaints were called in to the Asheville Police Department nonemergency line. While APD still handles nighttime noise complaints and those that might come with safety risks, the city’s Development Services Department resolved 71% of complaints over the past year.
Mayor Esther Manheimer and climate change consultant Maggie Ullman Berthiaume have raised the most campaign funds so far in this year’s race for Asheville city government positions, according to reports filed by candidates’ campaigns. Manheimer had raised $19,550 as of mid-July, while Berthiaume had taken $29,442 in donations.
Of 80 microhousing units, 16 would be designated as affordable for people earning at or below 80% of the area median income. However, developer David Moritz confirmed that market-price rent for all of the project’s units would be about $1,000 including utilities, meaning that the city-subsidized units would not immediately be cheaper for their tenants.
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.
Buncombe County’s latest Point-In-Time count — meant to record every resident sleeping on the streets, at a shelter or in transitional housing on a single night — found 232 unsheltered residents in January 2022, up from the 116 people counted a year before. Overall homelessness in the county increased by about 21% over the same period.
Primary candidates for the 2022 Asheville City Council race share their positions with Xpress.
Members of Asheville City Council discussed transit, parking revenues, personnel costs and weighed funding options for the newly approved updates to Memorial Stadium.
Neighborhood residents had been asking for a new track as part of renovations to Memorial Stadium since 2017, after Asheville voters approved a $74 million bond issue in 2016.
The number of complaints filed under nondiscrimination ordinances with city and county governments has yet to top 25, and it appears that no one has been found in violation of the rules so far. According to public records obtained by Xpress, Asheville had received five complaints as of January, and Buncombe County had gotten 17 as of early March.
With only Antanette Mosley opposed, Asheville City Council members voted Dec. 14 to approve the conversion of an East Asheville Ramada Inn into permanent supportive housing for at least 100 homeless residents — a project first floated to the public less than two weeks earlier.
During its June 22 meeting, Asheville City Council voted 6-1 to approve the $201.67 million operating budget for fiscal year 2021-22, which includes an effective property tax increase of 2 cents per $100 in valuation and $8.7 million in new spending. Kim Roney was the sole vote against the budget, arguing that the tax increase would harm poorer residents.