Xpress wraps up its “On the Record” series with current council member Sage Turner, who is running for reelection. Unlike the other five subjects in the limited series, Turner opted to walk and talk, as she meandered through West Asheville on a recent afternoon.
City Council tables proposed changes to cottage clusters and “flag” lots ordinances pending an overall affordable housing strategy for the city.
“This is a straight rezoning, not a project,” Mayor Esther Manheimer said. “A sidewalk is not a requirement we can make.”
“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.”
With the general election six months away, Xpress asked each candidate about campaign strategy and lessons from the trail thus far.
“There are layers of government in Asheville that can make our management and maintenance understandably confusing and frustrating,” says Council member Sage Turner, who is up for reelection this year.
The project also includes 186 under-grade parking spaces, 10 off-street parking spaces, 10 bike racks and the installation of a signalized crosswalk on Hendersonville Road connecting transit routes to the site and to each other at Boston Way.
As the saying goes, “All politics is local.” At Xpress, we firmly believe this, which is why we’ve focused our primary election guide on local races that pertain specifically to Buncombe County. There will be a lot of new faces on local boards, offices, councils and benches. Asheville Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore is one of several […]
“I would give more weight to people who have invested sweat, money and time into enterprises that, should they fail, would mean disaster to them, their families and their employees.”
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.
The occasion typically sees dozens of residents making their cases for enhanced spending or budget cuts on a range of city services, but was uncharacteristically quiet during the May 23 meeting of Asheville City Council.
The decision comes after an extended back-and-forth between Council and staffers on whether the city could freeze rates for residential customers while still generating the revenue needed for water infrastructure maintenance and other expenses.
Asheville’s water may be restored, but the spigot of information from city officials is still clogged.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
“There are a lot of conversations that could have been had around this conversation that were limited — they were hindered, they were gaslit, they were triggered and electrified — just because bad information was released to the public,” said Vice Mayor Sheneika Smith.
During a presentation, Capt. Mike Lamb of the Asheville Police Department cited data showing that 10% of overall crime in Asheville from Jan. 1, 2020 to Jan. 9, 2022 — including 14% of violent crime and 8.5% of property crime — occurred within 500 feet of an encampment.
