At the Asheville Planning and Zoning Commission meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7., Alex Cole of the city’s Planning and Urban Design department will share new details on the African American Heritage Resource Survey and Burton Street Architectural Survey.
With a unanimous vote during their Nov. 15 meeting, Asheville City Council members approved their fourth land use incentive grant of 2022. The award to South Carolina-based Orange Capital Advisors LLC brings the city’s spending on the affordable housing program this year to nearly $5.4 million.
In partnership with the WNC Farmers Market, the Asheville zoo launches its Educational Farmers Market Garden starting Wednesday, Nov. 16. The new exhibit focuses on sustainable relationships between agriculture and nature.
“Take what’s left of the money to stop this endeavor now and use the funds to repaint the lines on Merrimon to their former, workable configuration.”
City officials and selected artists discuss the initial stages of the public art project.
Currently, Asheville prohibits the replacement of any manufactured home by another after its spot has been vacant for 180 days. City planners want to ease that rule and others to “stop the slow attrition of affordable housing units that are desperately needed in our community.”
“If you want candle power for Asheville, go for it.”
“We need more trees, not less!”
While current city ordinances place some restrictions on panhandling, in most instances it is a legal means of making money. Bill Davis, spokesperson for Asheville Police Department, says police had received 95 calls for panhandling this year as of Aug. 17, the majority of which were requests for wellness checks out of concern for those in need.
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.
“Asheville peace activists are guided by MLK and many others who were often threatened and imprisoned for their acts of civil resistance.”
Six years after a 196-unit development on the Elk Mountain ridgeline in Woodfin was abandoned following public dissent, a new project on the same site will likely come before the Woodfin planning board Tuesday, Oct. 4.
“What may have initially made sense on a map fails completely in reality.”
Both Buncombe County and the city of Asheville have resolved that, by the end of 2030, government operations will be powered entirely by renewable energy. With less than eight years until that deadline, what progress has been made toward the energy goals?
Enka Partners of Asheville requests an amendment to the conditional zoning on 45.5 acres on Enka Heritage Parkway to allow for new site plans. Because a tenant expected to lease the space — widely suspected to be online retailer Amazon, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times — backed out, the plans have been redesigned to call for over 585,000 square feet of spec space.
Better known as LUIG, the initiative aims to entice developers to include affordable units in their projects by offering property tax rebates. Asheville City Council is next slated to consider such a grant Tuesday, July 26, for a 186-unit development on Long Shoals Road.
“The thinking used to be, you put some architects on there. And you’d want to have a real estate investor, or a developer, or someone who’s a real estate agent, or you’d have some prominent business owner,” says Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer. “We’ve recognized that you need a Planning and Zoning Commission that’s more reflective of your community.”
“Of all the housing models, housing first, a version of permanent supportive housing, has the imprimatur of research demonstrating its effectiveness at ending homelessness.”
As residents cope with Asheville’s red-hot housing market and rising mortgage rates, some low- and moderate-income families are turning to local and national down payment assistance programs to overcome one of homebuying’s biggest barriers.
The plan, to be considered by Asheville’s Planning and Zoning Commission July 6, contains ten key initiatives, including a gateway to reconnect McCormick Field and Memorial Stadium with downtown, public art installations, commemoration of the neighborhood’s African American history, affordable housing and transforming Coxe Avenue into a tree-lined “green Main Street.”
Fairhaven Summit Apartments would bring a 77-unit multifamily affordable housing complex to 7.68 acres off Sweeten Creek Road. All of the 12 one-bedroom units, 25 two-bedroom units and 40 three-bedroom units planned for the development would be guaranteed as affordable for households earning between 30% and 80% of the average median income for a minimum of 30 years.
