Xpress took a look at the hardest-hit departments at the city of Asheville and Buncombe County to learn how job openings might be impacting residents and what governments are doing to hire staff amid nationwide recruitment challenges.
Tag: City of Asheville
Showing 1-21 of 579 results
Merrimon ‘road diet’ to move forward after Council approval
The plan would reduce the section of the avenue between Midland Road and W.T. Weaver Boulevard from its current four-lane, two-way configuration to one lane in each direction, along with a center turn lane and bicycle lanes.
Council to consider rezoning for Patton Avenue Ingles
During their meeting of Tuesday, May 24, members of Asheville City Council will consider a conditional zoning request that would allow Ingles Markets to construct a grocery store, gas station and other retail space on the 14.45-acre site of a former Kmart.
Letter: Saving the city’s participatory democracy
“We believe that this extreme attempt at dismantling this worthwhile system … will result in a less inclusive, less transparent, top-down form of governance that’s not in the public’s best interest.”
How to request development records
Development projects leave obvious marks on the world around them. But every building that goes up in Western North Carolina also leaves a paper trail in local government archives that, as public property, residents have the legal right to inspect.
High-level land-use discussions shape neighborhood decisions
Deciding what gets built on an empty lot down the street should, according to state law, begin with decisions about what gets built across an entire city or county. Counties and municipalities that want to have zoning in their jurisdiction first need to write a comprehensive plan that looks at big questions like which areas are best for growth.
City of Asheville development boards
Three governmental bodies are critical to the fate of large-scale development in the city: Asheville City Council, the Design Review Committee and the Planning and Zoning Commission. Find out more about what each group does and how to weigh in on its decisions.
City of Asheville development process
Learn more about the different types of development projects in the city of Asheville and how local government reviews each of them.
How to keep abreast of proposed development projects
Both Asheville and Buncombe County offer a number of tools to help residents avoid getting caught off guard by development. The following resources give early notification of development proposals and provide more information about each project’s movement through the overall approval process.
Development Guide
Mountain Xpress, with support from the American Press Institute, is excited to offer a fully linkable online version of the Development Guide — your companion to local government land-use planning.
Development roundup: Airport expansion up for county approval
The Buncombe County Board of Adjustment will consider a special use permit for a proposed terminal expansion at the Asheville Regional Airport Wednesday, May 11.
Spring clean: Asheville organizations, volunteers clean up downtown
After more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city of Asheville was due for a spring cleaning. City government, along with area nonprofits, kicked off the first of four community cleanup efforts downtown April 18.
Parking not a lot
Want affordable housing? Get real
“Until the professed advocates of affordable housing and assistance for the homeless get off their BUTS and honestly attack these issues, nothing significant will happen.”
Development roundup: Ingles to redevelop Patton Kmart site
The company intends to construct an 89,000-square-foot Ingles Market at the former Kmart location on Patton Avenue, along with a 6,500-square-foot Ingles pump station and 55,000 square feet of additional retail space.
Letter: Open-space proposal costs too much to bear
“So development will continue unabated in the county regardless of what the city does, but we have a say in how development will be regulated within the city limits.”
Letter: Speaking out after city COVID policy firing
“As an employee, I discovered that the processes put in place that are supposed to serve as a countervailing force to organizational incompetence have merely become an extension of it.”
Council outlines priorities in annual retreat
An exchange between protesters and Asheville City Council member Sandra Kilgore marked the start of Council’s March 17-18 retreat, where the elected officials heard feedback from top city staffers and plotted their approach to the coming year.
City Council to discuss ‘community cleanliness’
Listed on Council’s agenda for Tuesday, March 22, is a presentation about Asheville’s “community cleanliness strategy.” The discussion comes two weeks after the Asheville Downtown Association released its annual survey, in which respondents gave the city’s core a 2.2 out of 5 in terms of cleanliness.
Asheville board upholds employee firings over vaccine mandate
The volunteer Civil Service Board, which has authority over employee grievances, agreed with the city’s argument Feb. 22 that five workers had shown insubordination by refusing COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing in October. Asheville has since suspended its “test-or-vaccinate” policy effective March 2.
Asheville seeks to restructure citizen advisory groups
In February, Asheville unveiled a plan to reduce the number of advisory groups from 20 to four. Each of those boards would be capped at 11 members, meaning the number of residents who serve in a regular advisory role would be cut by roughly 80%.