City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning. My name is Esther Manheimer. I'm mayor of the city of Asheville, and I'd like to welcome you to the June 18th, 2026 agenda briefing work session. All council members and staff are participating virtually. This meeting is intended for discussion purposes only. No formal actions or votes will be taken. In addition, no public comment is taken during this meeting. The live meeting will be streamed on the city's YouTube channel, accessible through the YouTube icon on the city's website or via the live stream. You also have the option to listen to the meeting live via phone by calling 855-925-2801 and entering the meeting code 6515. Council and staff, when I call your name, please say a quick hello. Vice Mayor Antoinette Mosley. Good morning. Council Member Maggie Allman. Hey, everybody. Council Member Kim Bruni. Good morning. Council Member Beau Hess.

Good morning, everyone.

Council Member Sage Turner. Good morning, everyone. Council Member Shanika Smith. Good morning. City Manager DK Wesley. Good morning. Assistant City Manager Ben Woody.

Good morning.

Assistant City Manager Jay Dundas.

Good morning.

Deputy City Attorney Janice Ashley. Good morning. And City Clerk Maggie Burleson. Good morning. Okay, and I'm gonna turn it over to the city manager to proceed with the work session or agenda briefing.

Thank you, Mayor, and good morning again, everyone. We are here today in preparation for Tuesday's meeting. I want to foreshadow that June 23rd will be a long day for staff and council. At 10 a.m. on June 23rd, we will have a joint meeting between the people and environment and infrastructure RECOVERY BOARDS. THEN AT 3 P.M. WE'LL HAVE A WORK SESSION OF THE COUNCIL, OUR POLICY, FINANCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE WORK SESSION. AND THEN 5 P.M. WE WILL HAVE OUR REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL. SO ON TODAY WE WILL WALK THROUGH ITEMS FOR THE WORK SESSION AT 3 P.M. AND THEN THE 5 P.M. REGULAR MEETING. ACM JAY DUNDAS WILL BE FACILITATING THE CONVERSATION TODAY.

Thank you, manager Wesley. Good morning, council. This is a healthy agenda. Lots of topics on here. A lot worth mentioning as well. So as I go through, as normal, please MENTION ANYTHING, STOP ME IF I MISS A TOPIC. I'M GOING TO COVER MOST OF THEM. SO THERE'S NOT MANY I'M GOING TO LEAVE OUT. SO AS MENTIONED EARLIER BY THE STATE MANAGER, WE'RE GOING TO START THE COUNCIL'S DAY AT 3 P.M. WITH THE WORK SESSION ON POLICY, FINANCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE. WE'LL REVIEW THAT AGENDA LATER IN THIS BRIEFING. AND THEN WE'LL START THE REGULAR MEETING AT 5 O'CLOCK THAT AFTERNOON. First item on that agenda is a proclamation for July 2026 as Asheville Parks and Recreation Month. So celebrating our parks and recreation staff and all the good work that they do. And then we'll move into a very full consent agenda. As I said, I'll go over most of these items, but please stop me if I miss something that you'd like to talk about. I'm going to start with item B. This is a resolution. to sign an amendment for regional air quality program interlocal agreement with Buncombe County. Just point out that this is a termination of the current agreement, but what important to note here that this does not change the services related to air quality in any way. And it is allowing air quality to be moved into the permitting inspections department for the county. Items F and G are financial essentially reconciliations. One is for the general fund for funding health insurance and workers' compensation claims expenses. And then the other item G is for the water resources fund. And this is a budget amendment in the amount of $16 million to account for refund and up debt. Items H and I are just amendments to contracts for heavy equipment, which we use through these local providers for our needs in the field. Item J, this is a really good news story, is that we lost our skating rink as part of Helene and Parks and Recreation staff have been working diligently to restore a lot of the things that we were lost as part into the storm. In permanent and temporary fashions, item J is the award of a contract to be out in construction to construct a temporary skating rink. This is located in the parking lot that the city owns next to the transit facility between Ashland and Cox Avenue. Yes, Councilwoman Rowney.

Yeah, a couple of questions about this one. One, the skating activities that the city has been hosting pre-Haleen and Carrier Park and then post-Haleen at Civic Center have been really well attended. Having family-friendly, affordable events is certainly welcome. The price tag, I think, will hit some folks a little funny. But I did notice that some of the infrastructure is portable. So can you say a little bit about how that works? like capital investment might be reused in other facilities?

That was a great question. I think I might have to call on D. Tyrell McGirt to help us with that answer.

Hey, good afternoon or good morning, everyone. D. Tyrell McGirt, Parks and Recreation Director, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, Councilwoman Roney. Yes, the rink that we are purchasing is a temporary ring that is planned to be stood up next to the transit center. This will allow us to move the ring to another location whenever we build back the permanent structure, which is still stated to go back and carry apart.

Great, because I know that for folks who are following the story, we are planning for that lot to eventually be used for housing. Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah. And my question was about the ladder. What's the we could have a status update on the transit oriented development project there.

That would be great.

Yes, we'll include that in the in the follow up document or at a later briefing. So yes, thank you for that question. So moving on, items K, L, and N are all related to the capital project at the municipal building. Walter Ear has recently provided information to council about this project in a quarterly update. This replaces the slab that we have large fire apparatus parked on. We've been pursuing this project for years. This is a necessary structural improvement to that facility. The item K is the award of the construction manager at risk or authorizing amendment to the construction manager at risk contract for the guaranteed maximum price for construction of that project. Item L is an amendment to the Terracon consultants. They've been helping us through all of the phases of this project and we need to keep them on through the construction. And then item N is the relocation of a, it's actually the construction upfit of the 179 South Charlotte previously used as the ABC store as a temporary use for accommodating the fitness facilities that are under the slab. There is going to be a a protected area through all the floors of the building. The fitness area currently is underneath the slab and so that has to be temporarily relocated during this project. So all three of those items are associated with community building. Item M is a professional services contract for Perkins and Will, North Carolina Inc. And this is for the design of Eagle and South Market Streets. This is anticipated to take 12 months for design and be in construction in the calendar year of 2027. So exciting news to see that project moving forward. Item O is a contract, authorization of a contract with Axon Fleet for the purchase of mounting hardware and cameras for our new APD police vehicles. use this technology and we've been installing this. The change is that previously with our purchasing policy, we've been able to buy these through state contracts on a purchase order. The purchasing policy has changed where we have to issue a contract now. So we have, we're still using the state contract, but we have to come to council for authorization for the contract. This is standard equipment and really just helps us to continue the consistency with the upfit of our vehicles.

Jay, that's what I'd call like a dash cam. Is that right?

Yes. Yeah. It's just more of an elaborate mounting hardware system. But yes, exactly what that is. um item q uh another good news story with a lot of construction in this i think this is the time of year but also you know we're seeing uh the results of some of the the grant funding that has become available as far as part of helene this in fact is part of the that uh those those efforts. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Blueprint Project, they're issuing grants to government entities to make stormwater improvements. We have identified Burton Street neighborhood as a good candidate for investment in stormwater. They've got a lot of issues over there. And so we want to focus on that area. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THIS $1 MILLION ENHANCES OUR INVESTMENT IN THE BURTON STREET AREA. WE HAVE PLANS TO INVEST IN THAT AREA IN THE STORMWAR CAPACITY ANYWAY. SO OBVIOUSLY IF WE DON'T GET THE GRANT, IT WILL BE A SMALLER PROJECT BUT WE'RE REALLY HOPEFUL THAT WE'LL BE ABLE TO EXPAND THIS TO AS BIG AS WE CAN MAKE IT. YES, COUNCILWOMAN RUNNING.

Yeah, I visited with a couple neighbors in the Burton Street community over the past few years that are dealing with stormwater issues that are eroding foundations. And it's just it's been a real hard spot over there. Are we tracking where the Asheville app concerns have been and where we've already visited with some of those folks to make sure that this is going to fix those problems?

Yeah, certainly the staff is aware of a lot of the problems out there. If there are other problems that we may not be aware of, I'd encourage folks to email us or submit Asheville app requests. But we're certainly trying to program all of those improvements to make sure that we're addressing as many of the issues as we can.

I think the Asheville app will help us with the prioritization part.

Yeah, and I know stormwater is very much plugged into that. Thank you for that suggestion. Again, our items R, S, T, and U are all related to the storm recovery, Helene recovery. These are design efforts for landslides and sidewalks and streets that were damaged as a result of Helene. These projects will be eligible for the FEMA public assistance. assistance funds which we've been working for towards through the last since the storm. So good to see these advance to the design phase and getting closer to construction. Item V is a contract with HDR Engineering. This is associated with our street resurfacing. As you all are aware, we all, as part of the resurfacing project, we try to address Sidewalks that are adjacent to the road sections that are being resurfaced were required if we hit an intersection or touch an intersection to do improvements to all of the sidewalk ramps. And so this project, sometimes in the past, we've done a lot of field work design, but those have its challenges because some of the topography of the mountains makes ramp construction pretty complicated sometimes. So being able to have a designer actually give some intentional design effort to this prior to actually going out in the field, we feel like is going to be helpful to our efficiencies and our cost effectiveness when it's all said and done. So that's just an additional effort onto the resurfacing projects. Item W is a contract amendment with Hagerty Consulting for roughly $4.5 million. This is one of the multiple amendments that we've made up to this point in time. You'll see in the staff report that we will continue to make amendments to this contract as we need their services. I would say just having been involved in recovery, it's been invaluable for us to be able to not have to learn all of the The challenge or the nuances of FEMA public assistance is having Hagerty there with their experience has really brought us along and helped us to advance our recovery efforts much more than we would have been able to do without their assistance. Eventually, we will work away and take on all these things to the extent that we can by ourselves. But We are continuing to work with them in moving these projects forward. Again, I just talked about four projects where they've been helpful in helping us understand, like I said, the nuances of how to package these projects and really advance them through the public assistance system. And then item X is the last item on the consent agenda. This is a resolution in support of Leonard Antonelli and Jacob Hill Bicycle Safety Zone Act of 2025, otherwise known as Lenny's Law. This is a resolution to support coordination and collaboration in traffic safety and implementing laws that will help those that are the bicyclists on the road to be safe have to have better safety precautions so that concludes the consent agenda we will also talk about uh as i'll mention here in a minute lenny's law on the pfi All right, so public hearings, and as usual, I get out of my depth pretty quick in the public hearing room. So item A is a public hearing to rezone 99999 Deaver View Road from RM8 residential multifamily medium density to RM16 residential multifamily high density. I have Stephanie Dahl here. to help us with the explanation if there's any questions on that topic. Hearing none, Item B has been continued to the July meeting, July 28th. Item C is a public hearing for a moratorium on new data center development. Again, I'll ask, Stephanie's been doing a lot of work with Brad Branham on this topic. And so if there's any questions or discussion around this, I would ask Stephanie again to help provide any kind of answers to those questions. Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on to unfinished business. This is a resolution authorizing the substantial amendment to the CDB, the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Action Plan. This has been talked about quite a bit over the last couple of months. If there is any questions on this part, I would ask Bridget and other staff to comment have been working closely on this to help with those questions. I'd open up for discussion or questions. Okay, hearing none, the new business item is a resolution to authorize the city manager to enter into the development and sales agreement with 29 Oak Hill for sale of city-owned property and development of 42 affordable townhomes. And so, again, not reading all of that. If there's any questions on this, look to Nikki Reed, who's on the call to answer this. Yes, Councilwoman Turner.

Any updates since our meeting with them this week?

I'm sure I'm happy to share. So, and thank you, Council Member Turner. HCD had a robust conversation about this. We talked a lot about the affordability. I think that was the major issue in hopes to look at how some of those units could be available to the 60% AMI income bracket, which of course means additional subsidies. So just to share more on that, we met with the developer this morning to look at the potential of adding smaller units to the site in hopes to accomplish that. We also are hoping to convene a meeting with the Housing Authority in the next couple of weeks to really think through their homeownership program and seeing how that could possibly align, which would allow us to target deeper affordability. um and so right now you know i think the motion that we have written and updated in the staff report is flexible to allow us to have um the the baseline pretty much of how we've determined with the 80 percent um but if there is is is the desire to look at um meeting those smaller units we may need to take a look at that down payment assistance and really kind of toggle with that lever So I'll just share that it is in process. We're going to continue to have those conversations and then hopefully come to council next Tuesday, report out and see where we can land on that. So I do believe the project will be coming back for a conditional zoning. So can follow up at that time as well if we want to have some approval at the next meeting and then also have additional conversations around affordability once this project comes to conditional zoning. So all for now, but just wanting to share that out.

So, Nikki, are you saying the motion that's going to be included in our papers will be the motion that SAGE made and that we pass unanimously? Or is it going to be a different version of that motion?

Right now, we have looked at the motion and... Let me take a look at that because what I believe we have worded now is to do the up to 80% language as we're still trying to quantify if we can keep the same financial terms that are offered to meet the 60% AMI. So that's the slight edit that we make, but we can continue to look at that in preparation for Tuesday. I think it's just going to take us a little more time.

Nikki, I can clarify. It's not the exact motion that was made at HCD because typically it will be discussed what HCD discussed, but the slight change was that Sasha added 80% and below. 100% and below. And so you have these minimums, at least 10 at 80% and below that could incorporate that 60%. But as Nikki said, there was a good conversation with a developer this morning who really thinks that they can make, create additional units, 60% if you do smaller units. And he will be at the meeting to discuss that as well. Does that make sense? That's great. Thank you.

We had a really great talk at HCD, y'all. And it's a very detailed proposal. It's very creative. I highly recommend maybe watching it or I'm happy to talk to you about it ahead of the meeting, just so you're not like trying to absorb the amount of information we tried to absorb at HCD. But it's awesome. It's exciting. Hopefully they can achieve some of these little tweaks. But yay for Oak Hill finally having a promising project. with homeownership.

All right.

Thank you, Nikki and Janice. Well, that concludes our review of Tuesday's regular council agenda. That went much quicker than I anticipated. So we can move on to the PFI agenda, which, again, starts at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. THE FIRST ITEM ON THAT AGENDA, AS I MENTIONED IN THE REVIEW OF THE COUNCIL'S CONSENT AGENDA IS THE LAW RESOLUTION. SO WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS THAT EARLIER IN THE DAY BEFORE VOTING ON THAT AT THE REGULAR MEETING. um this is well item number two on the pfi agenda is the cdbgdr planning allocation uh there is a second round of uh grant require that grant request um and that will be presented to council uh on uh at the pfi meeting Item number three, which has been an effort that Ben, Woody, and Dawah, Hitch, and a lot of other staff and community have been working on for a couple of months now, is the Anti-Displacement and Affordable Housing Project. I know council is looking forward to hearing an update on that. And that will be presented on Tuesday. uh item number four on that uh policy finance and infrastructure agenda is the french broad unified park design this is the next step in the in presenting the information that has been collected over MONTHS NOW WORKING TOWARDS A CONCEPT PLAN FOR ADVANCING THE DESIGN OF THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER PARK SYSTEM STARTING AT CARRIER PARK AND MOVING ALL THE WAY UP THROUGH CRAVEN STREET. AND STAFF AND DESIGNERS HAVE DONE A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF WORK AND HAVE SOME REALLY INTERESTING CONCEPTS TO PRESENT TO COUNCIL AND THE PUBLIC. SO LOOK FORWARD TO THAT. And then item five is routine business with board and commission appointments, and that will be presented by Alex Smith. Any questions on the PFI agenda? Okay. Hearing none, we will move to the eight-week look ahead. And the look at June 23rd agenda is pretty full. We are hitting our summer schedule after next Tuesday. And so June 30th, July 7th, July 14th, and July 21st, there will be no meetings, regular meetings for council. And then on the 28th, council will convene for their one July meeting. There are some interesting topics on that. The contract for the comp plan and the UDO project is anticipated to be on that agenda. We will have a French Broad River parks demolition project. This is early demolition pre-project of some of the structures that have been fenced off. So that includes the restrooms in the French Broad area. BULLET PROOF BEST PARTNERSHIP WITH A GRANT FOR APB. AND THEN A CONTRACT AMENDMENT FOR STATE OF THE NC RENEW, STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA FOR RENEW NC PROJECT. SORRY ABOUT THAT. A COUPLE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS ON THAT AGENDA. And then new items would be home repair policy for use with city funds and allocation of the 2024 GO bond funding for home repair. And then no August 4th meeting. So that concludes the review of all of our upcoming agendas. And are there any questions or comments before we move on to the other items and updates? Thank you. Hearing none, we will move on to the comprehensive plan and the UDO update process. And I'm going to hand this over to Stephanie.

Thank you, Jade. Thank you council members and mayor for your time today. Staff wanted to do a touch point with you well in advance of coming as Jade mentioned to city council to ask you to consider a contract that would kick off the comprehensive plan, technical update and UDO rewrite. Today we're going to talk about where we're at in that process. We're also going to kick this off by having a little bit of a reminder of what this project is. Next slide, please. I'll say I'm Steph Monsendahl, Planning and Urban Design Director, just for the record. What is this project? There's three main components of work that we're going to get done that will look like deliverables. The first part is the comprehensive plan update, which includes the updating in an administrative way of just the data policies and implementation strategies that we have, recognizing that it's been, at this point, more like eight years since the comp plan has been reviewed. So this can be done pretty quickly. We'll integrate recent plans and information about our recovery initiatives at the same time, make sure that we're incorporating a focus on climate resilience and hazard mitigation, and then update our future land use map, which is part of what is needed for us to move forward with a total UDO rewrite. That piece of the project and that task is much larger in scope, and it is intended to modernize our zoning and development standards, improve legal defensibility and efficiency in the document, simplify the procedures for actually getting development through the pipeline, and also reduce the number of districts and make it easier for people to understand what's allowed. And then, of course, it'll align with the updated comp We'll also take a look at the other documents that support all of our UDO. We have a lot of different development regulations. Our SSDM, that stands for our Standards and Specifications Manual. That tells us how people have to build sidewalks, for example. We'll be making sure that that is up to speed. Our downtown guidelines, our river district design guidelines, and then any other documents that connect to the UDO will be a part of this. Next slide. In addition to those things that pretty much result in deliverables, our scope of work also includes focus on community engagement, data analysis and resiliency, and just modernization and implementation. These are kind of our lenses and priorities as we move forward. So for community engagement, this really needs to be something that the community feels like is theirs. So we need to, at the top of the project, develop and execute a citywide engagement strategy that is transparent, inclusive, and facilitates conflict resolution and consensus building. If you read our RFP, it's something that's a non-negotiable, is the ability to have the skills to work together to bring people to some decision-making so that this project can be done in a timely manner and result in something that everyone can live with. We'll make sure that we engage traditionally underrepresented populations and that we're also looking at statistically valid public input and reporting on that input. A focus on data and some technical analysis means taking a look at how our growth, our housing has changed, our demographics have changed and and the development trends that we're now seeing moving forward. We've actually already started kicking this off with some of our permitting data with our friends in DSD. We'll be looking at some build-out analyses. Spoiler alert, there are not a lot of lots out there anymore. But there's lots of room for infrastructure improvements, and we're going to try to analyze where that can happen. And it will help us connect the dots when we're asking council to consider projects for fairly dense multifamily housing, for example, in areas that might not actually be able to support it. We're going to assess the impacts of natural hazards using a lot of the work that we've done recently and of course integrate that resiliency information into our regulations. The modernization piece means that we're going to rely more on interactive digital tools and online resources for people to be able to access. not only the project, but any of the deliverables that come out of the project. The UDO is going to be a graphics first plain language document for our community members to better understand it. We're going to have annual reporting on how these changed regulations have impacted our built environment and maybe also impact more than that. And then of course, we were gonna be looking throughout the project to do some testing to make sure that the things that we're proposing actually work here in Asheville. Next slide. So it's a big project. That's the takeaway on that. It's a fairly big and comprehensive project. And right now we are on track with our timeline. You may remember that we had leased a request for proposals and we had received eight fully qualified proposals. And at this point we are, we have just finished our selection process. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this. So we have a nine-member interdepartmental selection team. The process was completely remote. The decision to do that was made in order to facilitate kind of an equal process. These teams have a lot of subs and other firms that are working with them. And we also wanted to be able to get people to us and work with our nine member team as quickly as possible and not rely on flight scheduling and hotel availability to get this process on the road. The selection team was led by Will Palmquist, who is the principal planner in our planning and design department. And he has just been named officially the project manager for the overall effort. So we're really excited. Yes, we're really excited that Will has agreed to take this on. So three of the eight firms were chosen for the final selection process, and they all had really great track records. All of them had worked in Asheville before. All of them had team members or subs that also had worked in Asheville before and that actually lived in the region. or in literally within the city. So they're very familiar and also accessible. I mentioned that these are really high quality respondents. They're nationally renowned experts in their field. And we were, I mean, pretty much blown away with the level of expertise and professionalism that they showed in the interviews themselves. Next slide. So as I mentioned, we actually have completed that evaluation process this week and our top ranked firm has been notified. We start negotiations next week. And during that time, we're gonna be doing some scope refinement and assembling a contract. We're not gonna be naming that top ranked firm publicly until negotiations on several deal points have been substantially completed. And at minimum, we will name the selected contractor at the PEDE meeting a week before city council is asked to consider authorizing city manager Wesley to sign this contract. So this is the timeline here, and I anticipate fully that we'll be able to deliver this to you at the end of July. Next slide. So a few things about our negotiations. Just a top priority, of course, for the city is making sure that we meet all federal funding requirements. And this project is funded through some recovery funding. As you know, right now, the primary source of funding is coming through CDBGDR planning program funds. So it's really important that we... meet all of the administrative requirements for that funding source and any other funding sources that might come along, but also that we meet the stated timeline. So that's really, you know, large in our eyes. Two other things that we wanted to mention. One, I mentioned it a little bit at the out front, but it bears repeating, especially with a comprehensive plan. This is the time for us to renew community ownership of that plan. There were there were many, many people who participated in the creation of that plan. And we hope to get a quick method of reconvening people even through a lot of places where they already meet to lay the foundation for the UDO project and get them refreshed on what our goals as a community, large level goals and vision are so we can start moving forward with the code rewrite. And also, again, noting that it's very important to integrate what is new and maybe what we missed. So in the comprehensive plan, an important thing to know is that it did not really address the housing crisis in any way, shape, or form. It addressed housing in a small way, but luckily we have new reports and documents like the affordable housing plan, the missing middle study and anti-displacement report, and a lot of other data that's going to help guide us. We don't have to redo any kind of wheels here. And so for the code rewrite, I mentioned that it will be rooted in plain language, and there will also be standards throughout that entire project for engagement. It's going to be very clear to the public how they can tap into that, how regularly they can tap into that, and also for you all. So council members will have a regular cadence of check-ins, and we'll make sure that that happens. is part of our negotiations so that it's just written right into the contract. Then housing and anti-displacement and resiliency are going to be priorities that are stated right in the contract. Next slide. So high-level project timeline, just want to make sure that everyone knows that all the project tests are going to run concurrently. While we are starting out with the comp plan refresh, we are actually going to be kicking off the UDO rewrite just a couple of months into the process. So we're not going to be complete with a comprehensive plan before we get going on the UDO. That's going to allow us to do completion of all deliverables by the end of 2028 so august the project will kick off internally and we'll have a more public kickoff in september and then fall of the following by fall of the following year we'll have the completion of the update to living asheville comprehensive plan That plan will probably actually be done in draft form quite, you know, quite a few months in advance of fall 2027. But as you know, you know, we have a required review process and trying to get through a public review in the summer is sometimes challenging yet worthwhile. So we're saying fall 2027. And Yes, end of 2028, calendar year 2028 is where we will be able to bring all those deliverables. I did want to note for you that it is possible that we will be able to bring some UDO amendments to council throughout that time. We absolutely acknowledge that there are going to be needs that come up. And we're also going to be talking with a top-ranked firm about what it looks like to have different modules or pieces that can plug and play with each other, if that is possible. So some of the firms had talked about being able to do some work like that in other communities. And is there a next slide? Let's see if there's a next slide. Okay. That's the last one I have. That's what I thought. Okay. I didn't have a question slide. But I'm very thankful for your time to be able to, you know, refresh your knowledge and update your knowledge on this topic. If you have any questions, hear for it. If you have any input, I'd love to hear it. Thank you very much.

Steph, that was a great presentation. So just to reiterate, the hiring of a contractor to do this work, this very large piece of work. we are funding through our CDBGDR or disaster relief dollars. Do you, you know, we always get these questions about, you know, why are you guys hiring consultants? Why are you hiring consultants from outside the city or outside the state? Tell us, you know, my sense of this is that these organizations, massive projects that don't occur very often necessitate hiring a firm that specializes in this because alternatively, you're ramping up the number of city staff you have for an isolated project and then you're ramping back down and that doesn't really make a lot of sense. So, So talk to us a little bit about the types of firms that provide these services and do they do this in other cities? Is this an unusual practice what we're doing here around this rewrite?

Great question. It's very much not an unusual practice whatsoever. I would say that 85% of communities who are looking to revamp their ordinances, an entire UDO, are going to be going out and hiring firms that specialize in this work. For a city our size, creeping up on 100,000 people and also a city that's as complex as ours with an increase of a daytime population, You know, a really unique culture that's rooted in arts and entertainment and nature. There's a lot of specialties that we need to bring on. The mountainous region means that we need to not only extend our staff from the standpoint of planners, but to have people like stormwater engineers who can come in and help us think about new stormwater regulations and floodplain regulations without distracting our amazing team that works in public works from their steady state day-to-day operations. So, yeah, it very much helps us extend and not inadvertently bring in too many people to work on a project and then not be able to sustain them later on. That's the first part of it. It's quite a good bang for your buck. Long term, it doesn't cost the city more money. And then... While we are highly trained professionals at the city of Asheville, these folks have worked. They've worked in small towns, they've worked in large cities, they've worked in other cities that have just faced disasters. And they have the ability to do something, honestly, that we don't, which is be able to compare and contrast what has worked in other places. from a practical perspective instead of from a research perspective. So we're really excited and think it's well worth bringing in these folks for the two-year period. I just want to stress that they're not just planners. There's a lot of different expertise that's coming, including people who wake up every day and do nothing but write code.

All right. Thank you, Stephanie. Great presentation. Really exciting project. Any more questions from council before we move on? All right. All right. Thank you, Stephanie. All right. Next and final item on the agenda is the opportunity zone 2.0 program nomination. And Rachel Taylor is going to present this from our economic development division. Rachel.

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Rachel Taylor. I am the Economic Development Division Manager in the Community and Economic Development Department. I'm here today to present an overview of the updated program and speak feedback on our nomination recommendations. Next slide. so as i mentioned we're seeking feedback on these recommendations that were provided to the city manager for state nominations which are due this sunday june 21st so that is a very tight deadline constraint and there has not been sufficient time to do public engagement around this process therefore we are pursuing a conservative approach to nominations for this program The background of the program is that it was approved by Congress in 2017, and the program is designed to attract private investment in low-income designated census tracts. It does this by adding an additional development financing tool. And in Asheville, these types of programs and financing tools have aided urban infill development because of the lower cost of capital. And despite the opportunities that it affords, the tool may contribute to displacement pressures in these eligible tracks. There have been some key changes to the program. So the first major change is that it was renewed in 2025, which essentially makes the program permanent. And it allows the program to establish new maps and eligible tracks every 10 years. So what we're talking about today will result in a new map that is effective on January 1st, 2027. So again, the next opportunity to nominate eligible tracts will be at that 10-year mark. Other changes include a change in income eligibility, which dropped from 80% AMI to 70%. This reduced the total number of eligible tracts in the program for nomination to the program by about a quarter. It also made some changes to nominating adjacent tracts and then opened up some opportunities in rural areas as well. Next slide. So the process for nominating these tracks start at the state level. The state can submit a total of 202 tracks to the treasury for certification and approval. The county as a jurisdiction, as an area may submit a total of four nominations. This number is based on our population size and the number of eligible tracks within our area. The nominations must include the entire census track and cannot be subdivided. So we'll kind of look at some maps and understand a little bit more why that's important to note. Existing eligible tracks must be re-nominated to be included in the upcoming designation. So we'll kind of talk a little bit about existing eligible tracks and then how the map differs for next year. If we would like to resubmit them, they must be nominated again. they do not automatically get a designation. And the city manager may submit the nominations on behalf of the city. The state provided three kind of key guidelines for evaluation criteria that we can use at the local level. So the first criteria is business development and job creation. So how well does that track align with that goal? Are there existing economic development projects perhaps that need additional investment? strategic local revitalization. So we can kind of see that through local plans, redevelopment, community revitalization, presence of mixed use projects and other similar initiatives. And the last criteria is the presence of pathways to increased housing supply and high need areas. again looking at the proximity of those areas to major employment centers, transit corridors, and any investments in public infrastructure or housing. So we have five designated census tracts under the first iteration of the program currently in the City of Asheville. There are now seven primary eligible tracts under this 2.0 program. There are two additional tracks that sort of overlap with city limits, but those are located primarily outside of city limits. So again, we can nominate up to four tracks within sort of the county boundaries. Next slide. So this is a map of our current Opportunity Zone designated census tracts. These will remain eligible through the end of this calendar year. And you'll kind of note how some of these census tracts have changed. And then you'll note that the East End Valley Street is no longer eligible for the program moving forward. So next slide. Here you have the eligible census tracts in the sort of shaded areas. Again, noting that that Easton Valley Street tract is not eligible. You can also see in the 14.02 tract around the Emma community that has been reduced in size compared to the existing census tract. On this map, you'll also see boundaries in a sort of pink, purple line. Those represent legacy neighborhoods. So this is where the nominating the entire census track, we don't have the ability to sort of subdivide the track or go into census block groups. It's sort of an all or nothing nomination. So you'll kind of note how these intersect with the different neighborhoods there.

Can you help me figure out what I'm looking at? Because I see various shaded ones, but can you spell it out to me which, like I see Shiloh, then I see 002102. Is the purple part the opportunity zone? I don't know what I'm looking at, sorry.

Exactly, yes. And it is a little, it takes a little bit of parsing. So both are eligible census tracts. So both the sort of orange shade and the sort of purpley pink shade, they sort of split that Shiloh neighborhood. Both are eligible census tracts. for this program. And that's kind of where, you know, these aren't sort of neat and tidy outlines for this program here. We can kind of, we'll kind of talk through about a little bit about the considerations for each of the census tracts and the considerations, opportunities and risks and what that sort of means for this program.

Just real quick, am I understanding correctly, East End is no longer in 2.0 because the AMIs in that area have increased so much?

So two things are going on. It could be that AMI has increased in that area. It can also be the AMI changed for the program as well. So we would have to kind of look specifically at the synthesis block groups better understand the exact rationale for why it is not eligible.

Rachel, this is counterintuitive to me. So following up on what Sage just said about the AMI increasing, and then earlier in your presentation, you noted the I don't know, likelihood, maybe that's not the right word, for displacement. So are we saying then that the fear of displacement may very well have been a reasonable fear in that the displacement for Easton has already substantially occurred?

I don't know, I don't wanna speak too much on the eligibility for East End. I don't wanna misspeak and provide incorrect information there. What we can do is kind of talk through some of the concerns and the risks around displacement and talk a little bit about what we saw in the first iteration of the program. And I'm happy to kind of go into that as we break it down for these considerations.

As you're going into that, I believe you said earlier in the presentation that the maps have changed because we're leaning into even lower AMI areas. So that seems to me, if you're leaning into lower AMI areas, the opportunity for displacement also increases.

That's correct. This program sort of has that inherent opportunity and high risk for these areas. It is a program that is targeted at low-income census tracts. And so every census tract that is going to be eligible is going to have that that income kind of consideration at play. Yes, council member.

Did you have your questions answered? Yeah, just to get out loud, go ahead. If we get some follow-up information on the AMI of the program and the AMIs of the neighborhoods, could we also look at Burton Street? Because it seems to me that the same concerns may apply, that they have experienced a similar track as Easton Valley.

Mm-hmm. Rachel, I'm not sure if your presentation goes there, but I guess what I'm getting from all this is that we're just kind of looking for the impacts of 1.0. You know, how did it fare us in 1.0? What should we expect in 2.0? I don't know. I haven't seen your whole presentation, but I assume. Let's keep going.

Yeah, I'll just add on to that. How many projects in 1.0 leveraged the Opportunity Zone benefits would be something I'd want to know too. Like, has there been any? Was it massive? Were there thousands? Like, I don't even have a ballpark. So understanding that context on the scene of stages, like what was the impact there? And similar to Vice Mayor and Kim's question, Data requests, I'm curious to understand about the change over time and those neighbors that are no longer eligible and why.

But also keep in mind, Maggie, that it wouldn't necessarily had to have been events that resulted from Opportunity Zones. It could have been other additional factors that would have led to displacement. Of course, yeah. I thought the question was how many opportunity zone specific things had come through.

Sorry. It is. Like if we're being asked to review opportunity zones themselves, I just don't understand the starting point of what deals participated, right? Because there's specific benefits that can be leveraged based on that, right, Rachel?

Yes. And I know Nikki's got her hand up, so I'm going to kind of hop in and out.

Yeah, happy to, because I think we have some awareness of what projects have used Opportunity Zones, and we can share that. So I know that one example that came to light is the Duke. So the project that is on the former Duke-owned site at the corner of, it's downtown, I believe it's that Ashland, trying to think of the cross streets there, McDowell area area. I think it's Hilliard. Thank you. I'm a little fuzzy on that location, Cross Street, but yes, Hilliard. So that was a project. And in some understanding, really, from the developer's perspective, they believed that even though it was a market rate project, the Opportunity Zone funding was really what allowed them to make the overall project pencil and to move forward. And so when I pressed, I think what we understand is that had it not been for the Opportunity Zone funding, then that project may have not been built. But to fully acknowledge that that was a market rate project, other projects that we are aware of that received or utilized Opportunity Zone funding in their capital stack, I believe the project on Artful Way, which again is a market rate development, yet utilized Opportunity Zone funding to really have it fully penciled. I looked at some other research and it's been really quick putting this together. So we've had to glean what we can and that will further inform our recommendation as Rachel is sharing here. But overall, I found some work from the state of Ohio that one of the housing advocacy organizations had looked at the overall impact of opportunity zones in Ohio. So again, just a proxy, but just to understand that it has been utilized a lot in market rate development. And so understanding that and 1.0 shed some light in terms of how it's been used in Asheville. So earlier on, as Rachel said, we see that it's been used on some of these infill urban sites for market rate development, which could not have happened presumably without that source of funding. we'll see where 2.0 gets. I mean, I think that's what we're trying to ascertain. So happy to answer any questions, but that just gives you a sense. I don't think that's the whole picture by no stretch, but it is just a sense of what projects have used it just to keep that in mind.

That's really helpful. And I look forward to just kind of seeing that comprehensive, what was 1.0. And I think the inference I'm getting from hearing my colleagues' comments is as we're really digging into the fragility of several of our neighborhoods to anti-displacement. We want to be very thoughtful about what 2.0 looks like so that we don't exacerbate the work we're trying to do and protections for those neighborhoods.

Mm-hmm. I think, did Radloff's get mentioned? I think they were. Rachel, did you say something I hadn't heard yet about this 2.0, which is permanent, like maybe a 3.0, 4.0 coming?

Correct. So something to consider that won't be a one-for-one in understanding impacts of the 1.0 versus the 2.0 is that You know, there's a lot of sort of back end financials, but basically the program works by offering sort of tax benefits to investors. And so because the first version was set to sunset, you know, after a certain point, it didn't, you know, deliver as strong of a ROI for investors anymore. And so, you know, I would imagine if you sort of looked at the timeline of programs and investments, you would sort of see a slowdown in the latter portion of that program. Now that it's permanent, I think that gives some confidence, if you will, to investors. We're able to pull together some information on this for us.

I have been hearing, I've been getting requests, but I just really appreciate the time and effort. And I don't even think you're done, so.

Yeah, that's correct. And so we do acknowledge it's a big decision and in a long time frame here. So we'll move through to the next slide, Talia. So I just wanted to kind of lay out all seven of these census tracts in this table here. So what we're recommending is nominating tract one for downtown. This was not designated in the 1.0 version of this program. It really has strong alignment with the three criteria or guidelines put forward by the State Department of Commerce and so we support nomination of this. Again, like I mentioned, knowing that we have not had time to do engagement and provide a really full picture of impacts and opportunities from the first iteration of the program, We felt more comfortable with this one. We did want to tee up two tracks for your consideration and for your feedback. I think that these two tracks provide two different contexts to sort of think through and walk through some of the considerations there. There are four remaining tracks that, you know, would definitely require significant engagement and study. And so at this point, we're not recommending them for for recommendation or nomination, but we can kind of get into the considerations here. Next slide. So for the downtown census track, we believe that the opportunities really align with all three of the state's criteria for recommendation. First of all, I think that we are better positioned to mitigate the impacts of displacement downtown. There's strong alignment with these city adopted plans and alignment with current and planned plans. projects downtown from mixed use projects, housing projects, and commercial projects, and really supports that alignment with the mixed use and the density slated for this area. So has strong alignment with the Living Asheville Comprehensive Plan, which directs growth downtown. It prioritizes growth in existing transit supported areas. It has got the established infrastructure Similarly, in the downtown master plan with this promotes mixed use development, housing diversity and density to strengthen downtown's role as an economic and cultural hub. And like I mentioned, it aligns with the business development, the local revitalization and the housing aspects of the state's guidelines here. So I can pause here or we can jump into the two for consideration.

I'm still trying to get acclimated. So Hilliard, is Grove Street? I thought when we looked at the anti-displacement study, was Grove Street included in that? Or is that the Grove Street office, South French Broad that I'm thinking of?

I'll maybe ask Ben Woody to speak to the alignment and overlap with the anti-displacement specifics.

Thank you, Rachel. So looking at, in the anti-displacement work, it was part of the missing middle study. It too was based on census tract boundaries. So if you, I mean, just, Looking at Grove Street to me, you know, a portion of it is in the downtown census track. And of course, the southern portion is in a different track. Rachel, I guess that would be the south side track would be directly south of this. So again, the census tracks from the federal government perspective are very granular. From a local perspective, they're kind of not granular enough. So again, you're going to have these census tracks are going to, they're going to divide streets. They're going to divide neighborhoods. And we just don't have the ability to go to a deeper level of spatial analysis.

Yeah, because what I'm confronting is what the neighborhoods consider to be their neighborhoods.

Yeah.

But our maps say our neighborhoods, because I think East End would say that the block is in East End.

Right.

I would say what has now been called South Slope is actually South Slope.

And that's just going to be a challenge we're going to have because local identity around a neighborhood, we just kind of are where we are. As Rachel said earlier, these are kind of the boundaries we have to deal with through this program. A good question.

I saw Hillcrest area. I don't know enough about the program. I don't imagine that HACA can take advantage of this, but I wonder if like, if there's an intention to rebuild some of these facilities, like to review Hillcrest, and they might be in these zones, is that a benefit to us to help raise partnerships, funding, et cetera? Is that a reason to consider it? Just a thought. And then I'm kind of having this, like, this is really philosophical in sense, but like, it's almost like our vision, failures to achieve greater income variations in communities. Like when we really went all in on mixed income housing, what, 15 years ago as communities? Like we gotta go mixed income. Our failure to really do that is now leaving some neighborhoods vulnerable. Like if we had been better at achieving that, that might be like how East End got knocked out. This is so fascinating. So you guys need us to like make recommendations to like on Tuesday because of your timeline.

Yes, so nominations are due on Sunday by 1159 p.m. So I think we're looking for feedback and confirmation around these. And I see a couple hands up. So I don't know, Council Member Turner, if you have more questions.

Do you have any thoughts around like a HACA, like a benefit to having some of these communities that we know are facing redevelopment? Any thoughts around that?

I'll share. And this is, again, just really where we are. We are attending a HUD training this afternoon that was designed to talk about how opportunity zones are going to overlap or could presumably overlap with the CDBG and home funding. So we are very curious and we are hoping to learn more. um i did not confirm i did see um that arrowwood apartments might have used it but i've yet to confirm it so i wouldn't want to state that for the record without confirming it um so i'm not sure so that's something we don't know but again this afternoon we're hopefully going to learn more about the future and how it could be incorporated and i was going to add

Councilman Turner to try to answer your question. And again, we're learning more about this, but my understanding is that opportunity zones are intended to attract private capital. So capital investment from the private sector. So I think HACA is, I believe a tax exempt entity would not be directly eligible for opportunity zone benefits, but there are instances where maybe public-private partnerships could leverage that tax you know, exemption.

So again, it would have to be partnerships. So yeah, partnerships. Yeah.

Cause it's targeted towards tax paying.

We can't, but it's curious. It's just, I'm, I'd hate to omit that and then find out it could have really helped, but we're kind of down to the timing here.

I will note that we'll talk a little bit about the next steps, but community members, you know, and the public are, we all have the same deadline of June 21st. They are allowed to submit nominations and feedback, public comment to the process as well. So that is a tool that is available to the public. Next slide, please. So this is another census tract that is available for consideration. So again, acknowledging kind of put a name to these census tract numbers because it's really hard to kind of map onto what these are talking about without at least some kind of orientation. So this kind of deeper view area. The opportunities for the census tract are really aligning with the state commerce's housing guidelines. It presents moderate vulnerability, which indicates a lower risk of rapid displacement compared to some of the other census tracts that are eligible. As we've talked about, each of these census tracts is informed by a low-income designation. The risks associated with this are that the census tract lacks the dense commercial infrastructure and high-frequency transit. Attracting capital may require pairing with additional development financing tools. There are a number of city planned affordable housing projects out in this direction. So there is some overlap about that. As Nikki mentioned, we're still learning how some of these tools can interact. And so we'll be able to kind of think about those for these projects. So I'll pause here for questions. some questions and feedback around consideration of this and subtract. Alright, we will move on to the next slide, please. So this is another area for consideration, and I think you know, including this as a as a point of conversation. helps us to think through the opportunities that that this type of track can offer, which is promoting commercial and industrial reinvestment in the swan and Noah and but more village districts which aligns with the state's. business development goals also aligns with the state's local revitalization goals and guidelines. So I think that's the opportunity that it offers there. The risk is that it does have heightened vulnerability to displacement and offers a potential influx of market rate investment, which could increase financial pressure on existing commercial and residential stakeholders. So that's just kind of wanted to tee up that discussion and get some input and feedback on this type of census track.

So I'll start off, I believe the risks outweigh the benefits in this particular instance because our own studies specifically mention Oakley and Shiloh as high vulnerability areas. So that's my thought and I would love not to consider these areas. Same.

Rachel, what, if we hadn't done this today, what would have happened? We would have been assigned zones or we would not gotten zones or?

We do not need to make any nominations into this project and into this program. This adds one financing tool to the table. It doesn't take away other financing tools. It likely means that we may not have an opportunity to nominate census tracts until 2037, I believe. So it just sort of, I think it's consideration of what are we leaving on the table and understanding that there's not a lot of opportunity and time to really fully dive into impacts and opportunities for such a long timeframe.

Do you feel like you're going to learn substantial information that may impact our thoughts from this HUD meeting today? I just don't know that I'm going to be ready to give you input today, but I could be ready by Tuesday after laboriously talking to some of you all and philosophizing.

Nikki, do you have any thoughts around the training for this afternoon?

I saw city manager Wesley come off mute. If you'd like to share any thoughts.

Yes. Thank you, Nikki. So we hope to get some additional information from the training this afternoon. We were seeking your feedback today because as Rachel mentioned, if we're going to submit nominations, we have to submit them no later than Sunday. So this does not give you all the opportunity to take any official action.

This Sunday? Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay.

The 21st.

It's almost July, right?

Unfortunately, the timeline has been quite condensed. Had we had more time, we would have wanted to do more analysis of the different tracks. We would have wanted to do more engagement with our residents and with you as well. And so based on all the information that we have and what Rachel has been able to PULL TOGETHER, THESE ARE OUR RECOMMENDATIONS. THESE ARE STAFF'S RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ME TO SUBMIT BEFORE SUNDAY. HIGHEST AND BEST WOULD BE DOWNTOWN. AND THEN SOME CONSIDERATIONS WITH THESE OTHER TWO. I THINK WHAT I'M HEARING FROM YOU ALL AND WHAT I WAS THINKING IS I HATE TO LEAVE, LIKE WE HAD FIVE OF THEM, RIGHT? AND WE DON'T FULLY UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF 1.0 ON THOSE FIVE. I WOULD HATE TO NOT SUBMIT A NOMINATION BY SUNDAY. have some unintended consequences on each side, right? Submit them all and say, these were in 1.1. We want to put them in 2.0 or not submit any and have unintended consequences on both sides. So not a perfect place to be in, but that's- So can you say again, sorry, I'm just trying to get clarity.

If we don't submit anything, say again, what happens to our current opportunity zones?

They will not be designated. They'll all go away.

So if we were to submit nothing, we will have no Opportunity Zones in Asheville under 2.0?

Yes, that's correct.

Well, I am curious. I mean, again, the way the state has set up their program is they've asked for municipalities, counties, and stakeholders to submit nominations. If we pursue just not to nominate, I am assuming that other stakeholders may submit different nominations, right? I don't think we know yet how the state will finalize their ultimate recommendations to the IRS. So it could be that the state, if we do nothing, the state may select on their own without our input. So this is our opportunity for collective input on behalf of the city. Or if not, we can elect to just not provide input and let the state pursue the options as they see fit. Sorry.

And, you know, I just want to be clear that the rush is because HUD came out with 2.0 and put in place these deadlines that were super fast. Because I've been getting notifications through the U.S. Conference of Mayors because it's kind of a scramble for all these cities to respond. And I'm not exactly sure why HUD chose to. move in this quick pace, but I'm sure there's some reason. But anyway, but that's the rush. It's not us. It's a federally imposed deadline. Okay.

So my question then, Nikki, is after you said if we don't make recommendations, the state and or HUD could come in and do it for us. Does that then mean even if we do make recommendations, the state and or HUD could come in and make determinations? Yes.

to have a follow-up potentially i don't i don't know right i mean we've been again um meeting with uh the person from the uh commerce department that's helping to walk through this and again this is this is the state's nomination process where they've invited cities that then they will then take that feedback and make the recommendation so i'm a little unclear what what will happen with the state's process to to perfectly answer your question but all i do know is that we have this opportunity to provide a nomination And then the state will ultimately then submit the final recommendation up to the feds.

And what we can talk about that we've highlighted in Next Steps is that the state may, they have not committed, but they may convene local governments, cities and counties to kind of talk through the nominations and understand the impacts of that. From what I understand in speaking with the representative at the Department of Commerce, they do anticipate a very high uptake of this program across the state. So it's not likely that there will be sort of leftover spots, if you will, to kind of reassign back to this area. Another kind of consideration is that I think submitting a nomination is sort of part of the direction, and not submitting a nomination is... the municipality taking a stance on the direction there. We've also spoken with our colleagues at the county and they did not nominate any tracks in unincorporated areas. They didn't nominate any in incorporated areas, sort of deciding to leave that up to those cities and towns as well. So the county, Buncombe County at this point has not submitted any nominations to this program.

But I saw that they had at least two were mentioned in your presentation that were outside the city. So presumably in the county.

Eligible. Yes, there are several eligible tracks, but they have not made any formal nomination of tracks into this program.

Council, I remember when this came about and there was fear. I remember particularly the Emma community being worried about it. I think we were going through a Robert Woods Johnson Foundation grant program at the time and there was talk of it. But I offhand cannot think of a project that happened that had a negative outcome because of being in an OZ. And maybe I'm just not able to think quickly enough while we discuss this, but does anyone have a project that comes to mind that was like negative impact?

So I thought that was Maggie's question.

Yeah, I mean, I know we're not going to get that. Staff might be able to go look. But while we're here today, I can't think of anything.

My question wasn't necessarily about negative impact. It was just like... utilization of the opportunity period. Like I would love to be like, there are 17 projects that have utilized the bet. Like I don't, we don't have that data.

I know it was like, I think four or five. But I guess the difference here is that it's a permanent thing. So when it happened the first time, it was like this one-off program. It's over 10 years, five years in, it's not as strong. It's not as used. But if it's 10 years upon 10 years upon 10 years, That could have an impact. That could be a difference. So we might see more development in these zones simply. I don't know. I'm conjecturing. But I'm hesitant to remove any zones if we didn't have any negative impact. And if it did, in fact, spur development that we found to be beneficial. Go ahead, Nikki. Yeah.

The only one, and I don't know as much about this as Sasha does, but the Cappadocia Church, I think, had that there was an initial acquisition of the Cappadocia Church in the East End, alongside some other lots that I think were assembled. And forgive me, I don't want to misspeak, but Fortunately, the Preservation Society stepped in. But what I understand is that the initial assemblage of or purchase of the church was done through an Opportunity Zone investment. So again, that is the only example that I know. And again, I can follow up on that and provide it in some more detail in a follow up. And Janice, Janice saving me again. Janice, do you have more information about that?

You're muted. I can't think of any that were negative, but I do recall there was one in the river arts district that was in the opportunity zone. And it came up at when you heard it, it must've been a CZ council did discuss. What does that mean? So you were at least able, even though it was an opportunity zone, you were able to ask the questions about what kind of impact would this have? So I guess I would view this as maybe just because the zones are there, you may still be able to have some say in it if the development is subject to your review and approval. That's a great point, Janice.

So Sage, a few things. So I'm glad that Nikki mentioned the Cappadocia, the potential project. Remember that that, I believe, was going to be market rate. And then the Preservation Society, the East End Neighborhood, came in and now it's supposed to be affordable and it came to us for support. It didn't pass unanimously because of the cost to do that. Secondly, last night, the mayor and I attended a Juneteenth program and Seifu was part of that program and he reminded us that the Legacy Neighborhood Coalition came to be as a result of something that was going to directly impact Emma and it was related to Opportunity Zone. So I just want to share that it seems to me that the Legacy Neighborhood Coalition is very cautious when it relates to opportunity zones and the vulnerability that that places them in. So at the beginning, DK, when I saw the presentation, I thought it was saying that the staff's recommendation was for one of the opportunity zones and for us to perhaps consider the other two. Are you saying that actually it's staff's recommendation that we do three?

The recommendation is just for the one.

Mm-hmm.

And then a consideration of the two. That's correct. What you said previously is where we are.

So if you're going to require us to be nailed down, I would not be supportive of the two that are presented to us as things to consider. And frankly, I have a little heartburn with the one because of its proximity to neighborhoods that were already considered vulnerable for displacements. But I recognize that downtown is downtown. I'd be anxious to hear from colleagues because I'd be okay with not doing any of them, if I'm being honest, but I'm persuadable with one.

Yeah, I'll jump in. I see the dynamic you're referencing for downtown. And I do support the downtown one because I mean, I would love to see 10,000 residents downtown. We have our infrastructure there. It's a place where there's all the jobs. I think that that is a really beneficial place for growth and this is a tool that can help that um the uh one in west asheville doesn't make a lot of sense to me it doesn't seem like a strategic place based on our comp plan and our growth priorities it doesn't have the infrastructure transportation so i would not support that one the thompson street one um i'm of two minds um And we can't draw the map. If I could draw the map, I would love to have a little bit of focus in the area where so many commercial businesses were wiped away from Helene and having a tool for what rebuilding there, and then we'll have the UDO, which will guide what rebuilding could look safely. Like that could be a benefit, but it also creeps up into really important neighborhoods where there's vulnerability. So I feel on the fence with this one. And maybe the consideration is both this 002000 and 002102. or just one of these? Rachel, can you clarify?

Yes, we just offered up this sort of 2000, if you will, one as consideration highlighting just the opportunities and risks as it overlaps with different neighborhoods and as it intersects with those commercial corridors along the river. So it's the top one. That's correct.

Yeah, that's pretty tricky. Sorry, I think that gets me what I needed. I mean, That's some of the highest pressure area, Shiloh, and then it creeps up into Oakley.

And the same thing about the downtown one. That's kind of where I was getting into, Maggie, because we can't determine. So part of that really does abut East End. In fact, when I was growing up, that part- Yeah, can you go back to that map? Sorry, the downtown. Because of the law, it wasn't downtown because Black businesses couldn't be downtown. It's just that now we consider it

Yeah. Could you go to the downtown map? That answered my question for Thompson Street. I kind of feel. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. This goes up to Charlotte Street and over to Grove.

So you see where Eagle Street in South Hart. So in Valley Street, that's kind of concerning. If you lived in East End.

Yeah. I do go back to downtown at large and I hear the, I think Ben said it very well, like local perspectives on the jurisdiction or on the map versus what the federal are unlikely to line up. But the majority of our downtown, again, where our greatest infrastructure is, where I would like to see and is more appropriate to build up, I feel good about where I would support this one. And if someone convinced me of Thompson Street for recovery purposes, I could go there. But the Thompson Street one has some real drawbacks with including Shiloh and Oakley. That makes me nervous, especially because we don't have our anti-displacement infrastructure. package firmly in place yet. So that's kind of where I stand.

I have kind of a different question. Can you go back to the OZ1 slide, Rachel?

I'm not driving, but Talia, if you will help us go back maybe towards the beginning of the presentation. I think it's the first or second. There we are. Okay, there we go.

If we designate new areas and then forward back to the next slide, does it undesignate 1.0 areas? Yes. That's my understanding, I just wanna confirm.

Yes, so basically the clock is reset, the map is reset. We would have to re-designate, re-nominate existing tracks to see them back into the program. So if we wanted, for example, track two, it's in the sort of pink red there, Hillcrest, Hill Street, portions of Montford area. As an example, that's a current census tract. If we wanted to have that be an opportunity zone area again, we would need to resubmit that to have that be designated as a census tract.

Except asterisk what Nikki said. pretty lengthy explanation about this. This is submitted to the state and the state could elect or other parties could nominate. And so ultimately it could be something other than if we weren't to submit anything, there could still end up being opportunity zones that we didn't provide input on.

So yeah, even if we do submit, like we're not the authority here, we're just, hey, here's our preference, right?

The reason I asked the question is because of that other party submitting. Do we need to make a recommendation to not apply for 2000 Shiloh Oakley? Do we need to make a protective action?

So that is not a part of the nomination form, but I think what we can do is provide some follow-up context about our tracks available here, and we can continue to be in contact with our state commerce representatives about the nomination process as they're moving forward.

And I assume if we're not submitting a previously designated opportunity zone, we're sending our signal that we don't want it designated this time.

I just wonder if while we're putting our anti-displacement toolkit together, if it makes sense for us to have our own residents' backs and our own backs by being explicit about why we didn't apply.

So I, You know, when Opportunity Zones first came out back in whenever it was 2017, there was some excitement and then there was a whole bunch of concern about whether or not this would just accelerate gentrification and displacement. And it looks to me like overall, there's not a lot of good information about the results of Opportunity Zones out there, but that it was not used primarily for the growth of business, which is what it was touted to be. but it was used primarily for multifamily housing development, so apartments. And that could be because the opportunity zones were available, and also there was a really good lending market for a while, and we know that there was an apartment boom in America, which actually has brought down rents overall. So it seems to me like you have – you know, back to Sage's philosophy, you know, you have kind of a philosophical question of, well, if you want to encourage housing growth, this is a tool to do that. Is that enough of a benefit to your community to offset the challenge around displacement, urban renewal? effect or gentrification and displacement. And I guess I just, I feel like we're, to everyone's point, we're kind of flying blind a little bit here because we really don't have any idea how often this tool was used in Asheville. And I know staff is offering to try to find out that information, but I'm not sure you even can because I don't know that it's publicly available information on projects that we didn't have any involvement in. So, I mean, I guess what I wanna ask myself is, do you think the pace of multifamily housing growth is adequate in Asheville or should it be more, even if it's market rate and not affordable rental units, then that may drive your decision-making around this. Or do you just say, well, The places where I want to see multifamily housing growth is not in these opportunity zones. So this isn't the right tool to facilitate that growth.

Esther, just for context, I'm getting some messages of projects that we're using this. So burials, eulogy, there's a business. That was an OZ project. The visuals building where they have their rooftop. The sanctuary, which is big one behind the school, Isaac Dixon. The Duke, which is the one that is across from Hotspot, Clingman. And I believe that one had some affordability. So I'm kind of stuck. I don't want us to not have any. I feel like this is a tool. So if you think about, I mean, the Duke came to us. Who made that great point? Ben, maybe. These projects are, it was Janice. These projects are still coming to us for review. So if we're incentivizing investment, procuring projects that come to us for our input and leveraging and pushing for better impacts and outcomes, Isn't it possibly good? I mean, right now what we're doing is looking at a myriad of LIHTC projects that are 60, 80 AMI. And if we keep just doing those around the city, we're always going to have these OZs because we're always going to be in those tiers. You know, it's almost like we have to raise up. 80, 90, 100% AMI, these communities, to protect them from the longevity of a repeated permanent OZ plan. So I'm hesitant. I don't want to have none. I think we need to procure investment in the ways that, while I don't appreciate the models, are the models that are available.

Yeah, I'll jump in. That was starting to click for me too, Sage, of our... zoning ordinances would still predetermine, would still be the local law, right? So it's really, especially as we're going to be updating our UDO and collaborative process to have our updated priorities and goals around anti-displacement. If they don't meet our zoning rules, they wouldn't even have the opportunity to pursue the financial tools. So it's really a tool if they can already comply with the vision we have set about in our zoning rules. So that kind of makes the threat, there's checks and balances on this then, right? And part of what's been tricky the last 10 years is we've known we need to update our zoning rules because it hasn't been reflecting what we truly want. So really it's about a financial tool for projects that meet our existing guidelines or our updating guidelines. So that makes me a lot more flexible on this.

I think to that point, if Janice is coming in, can you, I'll let you speak, go ahead.

DK, why don't you go ahead with your thought? I just wanted to follow up on the zoning part of this.

Yeah, I was just going to say yes and yes to what was just said. This is not going to be y'all's last bite at the apple. This is just a piece of the puzzle, which is a financing tool. And it sounds like there has been a lot of thought about this prior to this conversation. And so I'm hoping Janice can give kind of update on where the resolution that was passed by a previous body that speaks to all the things that you all have talked about during this discussion.

Okay. So the resolution that I found, and I can share it in the chat, was from 2018. And it basically was, it seems to be adopting these opportunity zones, but then making clear that council had concerns about possible impacts with displacement and that In adopting these opportunity zones, council was saying we will work with developers with these opportunity zones to the extent that they are, you know, that we can address these concerns. The one thing about zoning, and I hope Steph's still on, but I know the project I was thinking of just happened to rise to the level of the conditional zoning, so that's why you got to see it. We probably could do some amendments to the code to say if something's in an opportunity zone, even if it's just sort of a project that wouldn't normally require council review, that it would require council review. So that might be something we need to change because I don't know that it would always come to you for review, council.

That's interesting.

Do you know of projects that didn't, I mean... I don't know. My sense is that these are for bigger projects. So do we know that projects do get staff approval that have applied for this?

Well, Sage does have the number of the different ones. And I do you recall those coming before you other than the Duke?

Yeah, no, we looked at financial incentives for the expansion of their personnel. You know, like that was it. No, we don't always know them.

Well, if we add a council review requirement to those projects that don't normally trigger a council review, we might negate the benefits of doing an opportunity project.

Not for the bigger ones, though. The bigger ones will come to us. Yeah, that's what I mean. And the bigger ones are going to be the ones that really utilize it, I think.

Esther, can you expand on that thought that it might negate, just so I can understand?

Yeah, I mean, I'm just, I don't know what the threshold is to trigger an Opportunity Zone finance project, but if it's so small that it doesn't normally need to come to council, if we add a requirement that it has to come to council, that costs extra money to do the project. So I'm just opining that whatever financial benefit you get from an opportunity zone finance project might be offset by the burden of having to bring that by right project to council for approval. But I mean, also that's probably downzoning. And right now there's no end in sight to our bar on downzoning. Yeah.

Does anyone have interest in more than the two recommendations?

Is it just me? What if we had Rachel finish this presentation, right? You still have a few more slides with your recommendation, right?

Yes, that's correct. Thank you, Talia, if you'll scoot forward. Yeah, here we go. So just a bit of rationale. So we've talked a little bit about the census tracts and looked at the maps. But as has been discussed, previous Opportunity Zone projects, favored market rate development over low-income housing and given this deadline we don't have the time required for community engagement regarding this nomination and i think as you all have been talking about there is engagement on the neighborhood levels it's also difficult to understand which projects did and did not use opportunity zones as part of their financing tools so that would be part of that additional engagement so So it is a little bit opaque to understand that. And while excluding these tracks, loses a potential private investment tool that could be supportive for economic recovery. I think particularly for those riverfront corridors, it avoids potentially contradicting with our neighborhood preservation goals. So that's sort of how we're framing this up today. And if you'll go to the next slide, Talia. Thank you. The next steps are that staff can complete the nomination form and we can submit the nomination to the State Department of Commerce by the June 21st deadline. Again, our recommendation as it stands is nominating census track one, which covers downtown. The Department of Commerce would then review all nominations across the state. analyze the feedback they've submitted and any public nominations that they have received as well. As I mentioned earlier, if necessary, the state may convene county and municipal leaders to learn a little bit more and identify those most viable tracks to include. This is something that they've not officially committed to, but they have left the door open for that. And then the state will send its final nominations to Treasury for certification and approval. And all of that is working towards the goal of having these new maps take effect on January 1. And those are all the slides I have. So I'm happy to continue the conversation.

Lots of conversation and robust discussion. Really why you are seeing this today is because based on the timeline, we wanted to make sure you all have visibility on this before any nominations were made and kind of seek your feedback on it. We can decide not to nominate any, nominate all four, or nominate the recommendation from staff. No action is taken today, just your feedback.

I'd like to nominate as many as possible and then later in additional zoning controls.

I think some of you have given feedback. Any more feedback on these?

Feel free to just take my input then.

I think Vice Mayor and Maggie, Council Member Maggie has given some input and Council Member Maroney as well. I just want to leave space if Council Members Hess and Smith have any thoughts and Mayor has as well.

I think moving forward in the I guess most equitable way um i definitely support the downtown zone and uh i would i would want to look at the other ones but definitely that downtown zone for writing thank you all right i think that's it mayor that's all we have for today all right um wait dk one quick question

If you can't answer this right now, I'll take a follow-up. But we've had a request from neighbors around the Pickleball Courts in West Asheville at Malvern Hills for them to close at 9 rather than 10 because they're keeping everybody awake. Well, everybody's kids awake over there. and do something similar to how we run the Montford pickleball courts, which do close at 9. And so I'm just curious if we can get an update about where Parks and Rec is with reviewing that request.

Yeah, we can send you a follow-up on that.

And I saw a detail roll jumped on.

Yeah, I met with the Pickleball Association the other day, and they are supportive of that 9 p.m. early close. All right.

So good afternoon again. Just to piggyback off of what City Manager DK Wesley said, we will send out a communication. We plan to get that out today.

Thanks, D. Tyrell. All right. Thank you. All right. Have a good day, everyone. Happy Juneteenth.