City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the uh March 10th, 2026 Asheville City Council meeting. If you could just take a moment to silence your cell phones. If you want to sign up to speak tonight on the uh any item on the agenda, please make your way out to the hall and let them know and they'll put you on our sheet so you're in front of us. If you would take a moment to um rise for the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Um a couple of items. First, I'm going to as a as um precursor to our evening, I'm going to read our chamber decorum statement. Members of the public attending council meetings or addressing the council shall abide by the following rules. Everyone shall follow the instructions of the mayor or any other presiding officer or official and shall refrain from impeding or interrupting the conduct of business. This shall include but not be limited to clapping, yelling, or other audio expressions of approval or disapproval of comments made during the meeting. Persons addressing the council are expected to observe the decorum of the chamber, to be respectful of the council and the public, to refrain from the use of profanity or foul language, to refrain from personal attacks and commentary on candidates for political office, and to refrain from making disclosures prohibited by the personnel privacy act with respect to any city employee. Failure to abide by these rules may subject you to removal from the council chamber. Thank you. Um, and before we begin our agenda, um, I just want to take a moment to recognize that we have had some, uh, very serious incidents in our community over the last few days. Uh, and right before we started this council meeting, the chief who is walking in, uh, Chief Jackie Steppp and I issued a joint statement, and I just want to read it. Uh it's not not too long. Um just so you are aware, our hearts and thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones, the victims grappling with trauma, and all the members of our community who are feeling the pain and fear caused by the recent gun violence in Asheville. Over the past three days, Asheville has experienced multiple incidents of gun violence that directly affected our city. While these incidents

appear unrelated, some of these incidents were conflicts that escalated into the use of firearms. Behind every one of those incidents is a person, a family, and a neighborhood impacted. Our residents deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods and public spaces. And we we must work together as a community, not just during crisis, but through ongoing efforts to promote peace and safety for everyone. The Asheville Police Department is actively investigating these incidents. In addition, the APD is collaborating with its federal, state, and local partners, focusing on identifying and prosecuting repeat violent gun offenders. The APD has also increase police presence in areas where gun violence has occurred. We call on the entire Asheville community to join in preventing further violence. Stopping gun violence requires more than law enforcement. It requires the coordinated effort of city leaders, community members, and organizations working together. It also requires partnership to ensure that those who inflict harm in our community uh to our on our community members are held accountable for their actions. By sharing information and cooperating with police, residents can help minimize retaliation, solve crimes more quickly, and create safer neighborhoods for everyone. For those who would like to share information anonymously, please contact APD at 828-25211110. You can also send an anonymous tip using the tip to that's the number two APD smartphone application. Search Asheville PD on your app store or by texting tip to APD to 8847411. And this is also available on the city website. So, thank you for that and indulging me in that reading that statement. Okay. Um, next on our agenda, we have one proclamation and that is Red Cross

Month. And I know that Jerry Goldberg is here. So, if you'll meet me down at the podium. Whereas the American Red Cross chapter serving western North Carolina, including Asheville, has a long history of helping our neighbors in need by delivering shelter, care, and hope during disasters, making our communities safer through its life-saving home fire campaign, providing life-saving blood, teaching skills that save lives, and supporting military members, veterans, and their families. And whereas last fiscal year in western North Carolina, 204 active volunteers assisted 625 people affected by 208 local disasters. Most home fires trained more than 9,000 people in first aid, CPR, and AED. and preparedness collected nearly 24,000 units of blood and provided 353 emergency services to military members, veterans, and their families. And whereas since Hurricane Le made landfall, the Red Cross has awarded more than $39 million in long-term recovery grants to nonprofits and provided more than $5 million in financial assistance to affected families in western North Carolina. And whereas these collective efforts are a powerful reminder that the strength of our community lies in our shared commitment to one another. And whereas we thank and honor the selfless volunteers, dedicated employees, and generous supporters who make this compassionate work possible. Now

therefore, I Esther Mannheimr, mayor of the city of Asheville, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Red Cross month. So congratulations Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. I really and that of course uh my fellow community members. I really don't have much prepared. I just wanted to say that um our community is is an extremely resilient community. It it speaks volumes. I have been um deployed all over uh the United States for hurricanes over the last 10 years. and what I witnessed during Helen and the continued effort what is still going on. It it's amazing. It really is and it's all due to the strength and the resilience of our community. Um there's a lot of good work still going on. I'm partial to the Red Cross, but please if the Red Cross doesn't call to you volunteer somewhere because there's still so much crucial work going on and uh there's a place for everyone to participate in that. So thank you for the opportunity. Okay, that concludes our proclamations for this evening. Um, council, I need a motion, just hanging with me for a second. I need a motion to amend the agenda to add a motion to amend the consent agenda. That seems like kind of redundant, but to reschedu the March 24th budget um work session from 3:00 to 2 o'clock. All this is is a motion to change the time.

Second. You got that? Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Great. Now, I need a motion to adopt the consent agenda. So moved. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Council, I don't have anyone to signed up to speak under this item. Do any of you have any questions, comments? Okay, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. We've adopted the consent agenda. Now, I'm turning it over to our manager, DK Wesley, for the city manager report.

Uh, thank you, mayor. We have one item under the manager's report today and that'll be Bridget Herring, our recovery coordinator. She'll be giving a progress update on where we are today.

Great. Thank you so much. Um, Madame Mayor, members of council, good evening again. My name is Bridget Herring. I'm the recovery coordinator and just want to give a highlevel snapshot of a few of our aspects of recovery this evening. So, the key takeaways I want to leave you with is that the work is happening. We are working really hard to maximize cost recovery to minimize any impacts to our budget in other ways and really thinking about um an eye on resilience and the infrastructure that we're rebuilding. I recognize that the recovery funding um remains slow to be available to our community, but that the city is working in really close partnership with both um our state partners and our federal partners to advance the work as quickly as we possibly can of what's in our sphere of control. and that based on the feedback from you all and the infrastructure recovery board, the city manager has revised the CDBGDR infrastructure allocation to reserve funding for future resilience hub investments. So, want to close the loop on that. So, starting with the FEMA public assistance program, just as a quick reminder, this funding source is solely focused on repair from damage caused by tropical storm Helen. Um, you may have read some of the stories in the news that the Department of Homeland Security is experiencing a shutdown right now. And so how that's affecting our work is that FEMA staff is not working on any permanent work projects. So they're still working on debris removal and emergency protective measures, but not the permanent repairs. However, we're not delaying any work at this time. We're monitoring this um situation closely and are hopeful that it'll be resolved before it creates any undue impacts on our projects and our community. I do want to give um some recognition to our congressional delegation. They've been advocating really diligently for the city of

Asheville and western North Carolina and getting resources and we've seen some obligations come through and so just want to recognize that partnership and lift that up for everybody. So this is a little snapshot by the numbers. You've seen this slide before, but it has some updated information. So as a reminder, we had 135 damaged items. We've bundled those into 51 projects through the FEMA public assistance program and to date we've received a little over 25 million um in reimbursement through that program and this shows you the different categories of work. So, as I was saying before, um the category A and B, that's the work that FEMA is continuing on now. And then those categories E and G, that's in the permanent work. That's the kind of stuff that they're stalled. But great news that we've received this reimbursement. Um, as you can see in the circle graphic, we have 64 million that's been obligated. That means those funds are available for us to request reimbursement based on actuals. But as you can see in the yellow, we still have a lot of work to do to move those projects towards obligation. So progress is happening, still work to come.

Obligation is the point in which you're going to get the money. Correct. It's that's when it goes to the state. It's it's a technical term, but to the rest of us, it means you're going to get the money, right? That means we can turn in our receipts and get paid back for it.

Um, so you've seen this slide twice before. I'll just note that when we brought this to you in January, all of our projects were at the beginning of that phase two where we were just trying to like record what was damaged and share that with FEMA. When we came back in August, we had we had 37 projects that were still in this kind of impact and eligibility and only five projects in obligation. So, I think it's really great now that we can see that's down to eight in that kind of project formulation and up to 18 in the obligation. So, just kind of showing some of the progress we're making because I know it's hard to see when we're not doing a lot of construction on the ground to be able to demonstrate stuff's happening. So, moving on to the hazard mitigation grant program. As a reminder, this is um $1.4 4 billion in FEMA funds that get administered by the state North Carolina emergency management. That's what NCEM stands for. That's a division of the Department of Public Safety. It has two main aspects to that program. One that is infrastructure grants that public entities can apply for. We've submitted over 400 million in grants. We've had some good conversations, but no determinations on those grants yet. The other side is the private property piece where our property owners have the opportunity if they choose to get bought out to elevate their property to stabilize it. And so the numbers you see in here are the current um applications we have that are within the city of Asheville limits. The good news here, the thing that's changed is that three have been approved. So that's the first that we've seen um since the storm. I know that's very slow, but at least we're seeing a little bit of movement. Um, and since we're finally seeing some movement, we can turn the corner and talk about what happens next. So, last week the state was here to have a

kickoff meeting with all the property owners in Bunkham County that were in that batch that was approved. And so, what happens next is that the state moves forward with doing a um appraisal of the property based on the preheling market conditions. Then there's some back and forth with the homeowner or the property owner. they still have the chance to opt out if they don't like the offer that's being made, but that process can take up to 90 days. If the um the property owner continues to opt into the program, then the state will use a contractor to clear the site. That can also take 90 days. And then after that site work is complete, that's when it's deed restricted to open space and then transfer to the local jurisdiction. So, we're looking at like a six-month window for those first three properties if they choose to stay in the program before they come to the city. We want to respect people's right to participate in this program voluntarily and wouldn't um disclose which properties those are until they're in our custody. So, moving on to the community development block grant disaster recovery or CDBGDR. As a reminder to um those at home that might be watching, this funding has a number of different allocations ranging from housing, economic revitalization, and infrastructure is one of them. And I just want to close the loop on where we were when we talked last at your February 24th um policy, finance, and infrastructure meeting. So just as a high level, this program's goal is long-term recovery, restoration, um revitalization, and resilience. And then based on that, um feedback that you provided, we've made some revisions to the infrastructure allocations to look like. So So what we heard was that water

was a priority and we want and we heard leaving that as is for now. And then so we looked at the parks. French Broad River Park was the highest evaluated project. So we took a smaller reduction from that and then a slightly larger reduction by a percentage from the Aelia Park project. So you can see the current um the original allocated amount the percent reduction the revised and what that leaves is 2.125 million to look at resilience hub investments. We did have a mathematical error. So, I wanted to show that that's the 0.5 from the water. So, just to make sure there wasn't like different numbers and different presentations without um a record. Do you have a question? Well, I just if someone's watching this meeting but did not watch the policy and finance meeting, you'll miss the part where these are not the only funds that are going towards these areas of recovery. There are other additional funds layered on top.

Correct. for the projects. Absolutely. This is just the CDBGDR component. There's one part and

correct. So if you look at the policy, finance and infrastructure meeting from February 24th or from the February 10th infrastructure recovery board, we show the funding stack per project that we're trying to deploy towards these. And then another concept that might be new because it was new to me when Chenica brought resilience hubs to our um council retreat back in 2021. I was like, what even is a resilience hub? But after um Hurricane Helen, we did it. So odds are if you're not familiar with the words, you might have participated or received help. Um a resilience hub is neighborhood support. So you can provide emergency response at the street level. Um, it can be food security, community gardens, it can be um electricity backup if there's a grid failure because the day is really hot or really cold. Um, it can be water filtration, food pantry, um, community space, communications hubs. Um, so we've been exercising this tool and what this symbolizes for me is actually implementing the neighborhoods being able to be safer and it's a critical infrastructure that we hadn't identified any funding for yet. So I appreciate staff looking at this.

Yeah. So then the next steps would be to move forward with the two parks projects and the water project looking at those revised levels that we just talked about. um then looking at our action plan and the program manuals to figure out how those would connect with the potential investments that um council person Rooney was just speaking to. Um I know that there was a a desire to fund additional resources in this category. So staff is recognizing that and working on how we identify those resources and we'll be able to come back to you as they come available, what those opportunities will be and we'll continue to work on the resilience hub mapping project um so that we can align that work with what we're learning about the CDBGDR land to figure out what's the easiest way to make these funds accessible to our community. So, I would be remiss if I didn't um mention that there's opportunities to shape this work with our community. So, um for the two parks projects, we're getting community input now on the concepts that are out there to see what people are evaluing and what they want to see in those parks. There's an online um survey that's open now through March 16th. There's some videos you can watch. You can fill those out. That link will take you there. There's also two popup events. Um the community engagement market at Pisgah View Apartments and if you're a dog lover out there. Um there's a rough and roll which I had to look up even though I have a dog um at Riverbend Park where there'll also be an information booth. So that's three ways to engage in that project. And then the resilience hub mapping project also has an online survey that's really designed for um organizational leaders that feel like they were providing these hub services in response to Helen so we can understand more about what happened,

where it happened, who was served, see some of the gaps that might exist. Um and then the project team's working on a day of listening for um April 18th and that's for individuals to come and speak about how they utilize these services from the other um aspect of from a user instead of a provider. Um we don't have the details on where and the time but um that link takes you to the project page where they will be once they get confirmed. So that's really what I was here to talk to you about today. Just want to make sure that um the community knows and everyone knows like recovery work is happening. We're working on maximizing that cost recovery. We're trying to take this feedback to drive that decision making. So unless you have any other questions, that's all from me. Thank you.

That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we are going to move on to our public hearings agenda. We have two items tonight under our public hearings agenda. The first is a public hearing to conditionally reszone 230 Sardis Road from industrial district to residential expansion conditional zone. And Will Palmquist is here.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, members of council. Uh I'm Will Pquist with the planning and urban design department and I'm here to present this conditional zoning petition for the project known as 230 Sardis Apartments. Here you can see the project site located in the Anka area of western Asheville. It's about a 9 acre site right on the city boundary with Bunkham County. Um you can see there's an existing building on the site. It's the former it's a former plastic manufacturing company. You can see um some of the other land uses in the area uh including some light industrial uses and also uh the existing Greymont Apartments which is to the southwest of the project site. Uh the existing zoning is industrial. Due to the project proposing more than 50 residential units, a conditional zoning to the residential expansion district is required. The existing future land use as designated in the city's comprehensive plan is industrial manufacturing. Uh due to the incompatibility of that future land use with the residential expansion zoning district, staff is proposing to update the future land use designation in the comp plan to residential neighborhood. Um which would be a better match for that uh zoning district for consistency. And here you can see the site plan of the proposed development. Uh it's an L-shaped building that fronts along Sardis Road and Greymont Lane. It's a four and fivetory building with 180 units total. The five stories would be on the outside of the building as it's built into the hillside and the fourstory portion of the building would be on the interior uh facing the parking lot. You can see some of the other amenities proposed on the site plan, including new sidewalks along Sardis Road and Greymont Lane. Uh the parking

lot itself, playground, dog park, pool, and amenity area for the future residents. And then just elevation drawings um proposed by the applicant. uh relatively prototypical uh multifamily apartment style building with various bays and balconies proposed on the exterior. There are two uh specific conditions associated with this conditional zoning seeking technical modifications to standards in the unified development ordinance. The first is a request to reduce the required widths of sidewalks on along Sardis Road, Greymont Lane, and internal to the site. That's a request to reduce from the required 10- foot wide standard to a 5- foot wide standard. There is also a request regarding the location of proposed street trees along uh Greymont Lane um in excess of the 20 foot maximum distance from the edge of the pavement. Um do want to check my notes quickly though. Okay, you might want to clarify. Um, I think it's actually supposed to be Sardis Road because it's an NC DOT roadway. Um, they are particular about street trees being located in their rights of ways. So, the applicant is proposing the street trees be located outside of the right of way. And that means it'd be further than the maximum 20 foot distance uh between the uh edge of pavement and the location of the trees that our UDO requires. So I believe that should read Sardis Road because that's the NC DOT maintained roadway where Greymont Lane's a privately maintained street. Uh so the project has been reviewed and approved with conditions by the

technical review committee on January 5th. It was also approved uh by the planning zoning commission at its February 4th meeting with a condition to clarify the minimum sidewalk width along Sardis Road as being the 5 foot wide request. Regarding the project's consistency with the comprehensive plan, uh the proposed future land use of residential neighborhood would support uh this type of project in that it would provide uh more housing diversity in the form of an apartment building. The project would also support a number of goals in the comprehensive plan, including to encourage responsible growth, increase and diversify the housing supply, and make streets more walkable, comfortable, and connected. For those reasons, staff concurs with the planning zoning commission and recommends approval of the proposed conditional zoning. I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have.

I have my evergreen question, which is probably for the applicant. um if there is any plan for renewable energy or if there is at least um nothing that would prohibit it from being an option in the future. Um yes, uh staff did not receive any information on that subject. Nothing to my knowledge would preclude the possibility of some kind of solar alternative energy installation, but we don't have any specific information at this time. Thank you. Welcome. If this project had been in a zone that allowed some of the upzoning we did along corridors, transit corridors, what would their process have looked like?

Uh, this specific project would still have to go through a conditional zoning process. Uh, we did increase the thresholds for uh level three conditional projects in commercial districts if there's affordability components. um certain minimum affordability requirements being met. This project being a market rate housing would not qualify for those. I was trying to recall the square footage. Do you remember 100? Yeah, I believe it's Wait, are you saying so if it had it would still wouldn't have it's Yeah. So even if it had affordability included because it's not in a commercial district that we had the higher thresholds for, it would still require conditional zoning. But it's in um but it's in industrial

corrects. Geez. So I didn't seems like a Well, I'm bringing it up because I wonder if that needs to be right more widely used. Um in that way this project a project like this could come to us with some affordability baked in or just not come to us. In other words, if they baked in some affordability. I guess if council wants to gatekeep anytime you reszone industrial sites because the lack of industrial sites in the city that would be a consideration um anyway one that I've heard previously but

well and that came up recently with Costco and the chamber of commerce letter. So this is a loss of manufacturing and industrial land. Is there any concern at staff level on that overall? It's it's owned by BSF, right? That's what I looked up.

Correct. Um so we do have um folks from economic community development here to speak a little bit more about general um economic development strategies regarding industrial manufacturing. if you'd like to hear more um from those staff members present. As far as the conditional zoning goes um you know because it supports goals in the comprehensive plan and with the amendment of the future land use can be compatible with the future land use and generally compatible with the surrounding land uses. Uh planning staff didn't have specific concerns about the appropriateness of this uh specific application. Thank you. Will

you're welcome. Any other do we want the applicant to come address? I think Councilwoman Rooney had a question. Any other comments or information from the applicant before we open the public hearing at your option? Good evening. My name is Derek Allen. I'm with Allen Stalin Kilborn. Uh I'm a land use lawyer and I'm representing the applicant CIP construction. I have a couple of members, Paul Smith and Dennis Burton from CIP. They're here with us this evening, as well as our site engineer, Warren Sugg from CDC. Um, I'll keep this real brief. I think this one is relatively straightforward. Just want to answer a couple of the questions. Um, there's no plan for any uh renewable in terms of solar on top of the buildings here. The HBAC components are on top of this building. U I've asked them to take a look if there's some other things that they can do and they have promised to do that. Um in terms of the industrial piece of this one, the Greymont property that is a multif family project that sits in the county and wasn't really shown on on the maps because this is right on the city line uh as a comparable apartment complex and this is really the other half of that. And so this site sits in between that multif family project and on one side and uh primarily single family detached dwellings on the other side. Uh we did start this project uh back in the beginning of November. Uh we've gone through the pre-application the neighborhood meeting. There were a few folks that showed up. Uh no one showed up to the P planning and zoning commission uh meeting on this one. Uh we had unanimous uh approval at that uh PZC hearing and we think this is a good project uh for one of our well our biggest need which is more housing in this area. I'm happy to answer any questions that I can answer or Warren

can answer questions about the the site plan itself and uh the applicant can answer any questions that you might have about programming. To add some clarity, I think you I heard you say something I've heard before. the HVAC units are on top of the building. So, what we've heard in some past situations and then why I asked the question the way that I do is that if the HVAC units can be moved to one side, then the building is essentially solar ready if a future use is desired. Um otherwise, it's very haphazard and limits um the opportunity for the future. So, I appreciate that consideration.

Sure. And and one of the things as you and I have talked about is the way that it's set up right now in terms of available solar and how it works in North Carolina is that it really benefits the power company and no one else. And so that's something that we should be pushing for from a city level uh to make changes at general assembly. And agreed. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um I had a question. I'd actually posed it to our staff, but maybe you'll be able to better tell me. Uh we've been talking a lot as a community going through budget season around property tax and revenues and revenue streams. Um is there any projected value on this building that would help us understand what kind of revenue we might receive in property taxes?

I think looking at um what the tax value is of that Greymont side, which is uh $38 million. If you look at that, I think that's a pretty comparable range to give you scope and scale on it. And right now the the tax value on that property is more like three million. You talking about the one to the behind it? Oh, okay. I had that up. Um, is it a similar number of units? Do you recall? It is a similar number of units. Yes.

Well, annoyingly, they value each building. So, We won't look at that. So, is there active displacement happening? There's a existing unit. No, the this site where they're proposing is currently an industrial. It's owned by DAS. I was going to say it's not behind it. It's sort of wrapped by an apartment complex that I believe we approved a few years ago. It was in the It's in the county. It's in the There was one that was like part partly in the county and partly in the city and I couldn't remember if it was this because there's another one out there. Yeah, this building is where Citizen Times was. Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. Thank you. Certainly.

Thank you. the one behind it.

So, the one behind it. This is Yeah, maybe more. But let's see what it currently brings because it currently And that sounds appreciated. because it's not undeveloped land, you know, it's bring something, right? I just wanted to uh confirm that technical modification for the tree distance from the edge of pavement is supposed to be from Sardis Road. So, the project conditions currently say Greymont Lane and that should be amended as part of any um any condition of approval to incorporate that change. Did you get that? Wait,

could you do you mind studying that for the record? Yes. Uh condition number I can pull it up in a second here. Uh the condition regarding the technical modifications requested for the project. There are two uh one is regarding the uh spacing of trees from the edge of pavement. Um the maximum distance in excess of the 20 foot maximum. Uh the conditions currently read that's on Greymont Lane, but in actuality that modification is being requested for Sardis Road. Okay. What condition is that? Uh I can tell you once in a couple seconds.

12. That sounds right. We did the math on the tax the property tax increase. It's around 20,000 30,000 from above what is currently currently it only brings in 28,000 for its industrial use for what it's worth. It's helpful for us to Yeah, I feel like it's a good it's a good um figure for us to kind of always talk about when we look at these projects. The next one too.

Okay. Um any other questions right now from council before I open the public hearing as soon as I find my Oh, here we go. Sorry. Too tabs open. All right. Um I have one person signed up to speak under this item. You'll have three minutes. Um, I'm opening the public hearing. Please watch the lights on the lect turn. And our speaker is Andrew Paul.

Hey everyone, I'm Andy. I am a lead organizer with Asheville for All. I'm here to express support for this project. Um you guys know we have a big housing gap um that we need to fill in this city and that means we need to say yes to housing. We need to do it yesterday. Um but the second best time to do that is today. Um I think just the one thing I want to point out here that hasn't been mentioned is this is um by my calculations a less than a 15minute walk to two different schools. Um, I've become kind of obsessed with the idea of having housing near schools, um, and allowing children to walk to schools, also allowing teachers that need housing, um, to be near schools. Um, uh, you guys probably know the state of North Carolina makes it really hard to put schools near housing. Um, and we know that having housing near schools benefits the schools. um it increases achievement and it actually benefits the uh neighborhoods as well. So, I just I love the idea that we can take some housing and um put it in this area where we're sort of seeing more housing come already. I think it's a good thing for the area and it's a good thing for the city. Thanks.

Thank you. Okay, I'm going to close the public hearing. Um council, do I have questions, comments, or a motion? Everybody. Council, I have I've just emailed you um an amendment to reflect what uh Will has provided you with just one change. If you could just read the motion um with the amendment language that I just provided. So read the motion, add the amendment language. Exactly. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. I move to approve the conditional zoning request for the property located at 230 Sardis Road from industrial to residential expansion conditional zone as well as amend the future land use map from industrial manufacturing to residential neighborhood and find that the request is reasonable as in the public interest is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan meets the development needs of the community in that the request one prioritizes greater density of development overall throughout the city as appropriate two increases the rental housing supply and three eliminates gaps in the citywide sidewalk network. Condition 122 is amended to substitute the reference to Greymont Lane with Sardis Road related to maximum street tree distance from edge to p of pavement.

Second. Okay, Brad, did we anyone mess that up or good? Okay, we have a motion and a second. Council, any questions, comments before we vote on this. All right. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. All right. We have one other public hearing item. That's a public hearing to conditionally reszone 383 North Louisiana Avenue from office district to office district conditional zone. And now we have Sam Starbomb here. Not that it's a competition. Also, Sam, you don't have a beard, so already Yeah. Sorry.

Yes. Well, thank you, Madame Mayor, members of council. Again, for the record, my name is Sam Star Bomb. I am a planner 3 with the planning and urban design team here with the city of Asheville. And before us today, we have a level two conditional zoning petition for an 89 unit multifamily complex of which 100 of those 89 unit or 100% of those 89 units will be at 80% AMI or below. We will of course look at what all of this means later in my presentation, but before I do that, I want to start with where we are in Asheville. Where are we in Asheville? We are in West Central Asheville. More importantly, we are in the legacy neighborhood of Emma. You can see where that is to the right. Uh Emma and its neighborhood boundaries are in the green. The Asheville jurisdiction, it is what is shown clearly. And then Bunkham County jurisdiction is in gray. Emma stands alone and is fairly unique in that it is both in Bunkham County and City of Asheville jurisdictions. The subject site, which is 3.13 acres, is of course in the city of Asheville jurisdiction, which is why it's before you this evening. You can see the subject parcel highlighted in blue just in the left image. It is north of the North Louis a Louisiana Avenue and Patton intersection right below just south of the Hazel Mill in North Louisiana intersection. And I wanted to talk a little bit about the existing and proposed zoning this evening. We have an office zoning district and we are going to office 1 CZ. Some of you, many of you or possibly none of you are probably wondering why is this before you this evening. And the answer is this. Under the UDO section 778, the residential expansion district is only reserved for level three projects. This is not a level three project. So, this is not going to an expansion

district. Moreover, this cannot stay at a level two because of existing zoning district regulations that govern uh building heights, building massing and in that footprint which make the architectural vernacular of the office district uh make this building impossible. Right? So there is for example in the office district a 4,000qt building footprint minimum. The building footprint for this 89 unit multifamily building is 27,898 square feet. So we're well in excess of that. Variance is is something that may have been an option, but because this is a LITC project, it is time-sensitive. They have to have all their entitlements by May 14th, which means that going to a level two conditional zoning, which is not to an expansion district, but to office 1 CZ was the clearest path forward from an administrative point of view. So again, we are at office. This is being proposed to go to office 1CZ. We'll look a little bit at that later. I also want to spend some time here as I do with all my presentations looking at what the future land use map says because this is what we do to evaluate our recommendation. This area is a traditional neighborhood. This particular parcel is in the traditional neighborhood future land use designation. But you can see from the image on the presentation that there are quite a few different designations. It is crucially very close to urban center and also employment and anchor institution. I'll get more into this letter when I later when I get to compliance. But there are two things that need to be pointed out here. The first of which of course is that no change in the FOU designation is required as a result of this legislative action. And then secondly, let's spend some time looking at what a traditional neighborhood is. And and again, this is a teaser for later, but basically it is important of note that traditional neighborhoods offer opportunities for infill housing in order to improve the supply and mix of housing options. Period. End of

sentence. And that's what we're looking at today. So this is the site plan for that 89 unit multif family building as I had mentioned 89 units 100% of which are 80% AMI or below. And that's actually not necessarily the case. This is actually just what we could get the applicant's legal team to stipulate to in the conditions document that they will put 80% AMI or below for 100%. We know from the LITC application that it is actually much more deeply affordable than that. There are units uh one two and threebedroom units at affordability levels of 30% 50% 60% and 70% AMI. So this is deeply affordable but in the conditions document that document E exhibit E you're going to find 100% at a 80% AMI or below. This building is a three four story split. That is simply because the topography changes significantly moving south from Hazel Mill Road. And then this is also where that second technical modification comes in why we need the CZ. The max height in the office district is 40T. This building is asking for a max height of 48 feet just to make that work. And then as I had alluded to earlier, the office has a maximum building footprint of 4,000 square ft. This is proposing 27,898 ft, which is significantly above that. And then lastly, it is important to note that this is one of those areas that was changed in in the transit supportive corridor amendments that we took through last March. One of those many amendments is that uh there are no parking minimums required. Right? So the parking required is zero for this but nevertheless the applicant is proposing 116 spaces. That is still well below the 178 maximum parking spaces. You can also see from the image it is compliant in that it is meeting all the landscaping standards

that is in 711 of the UDO. You can also faintly see, I'm not sure how well that shows up for you, but in the bottom right you can see where there is the playplace, those trees and some of those other trees that are grayed out or a little transparent. That is where the tree canopy preservation and open space are being met. But you can also see from this image that there are sidewalks along Hazel Mill and North Louisiana. Those are being proposed at 5T. Which brings us to conditions, right? So, two of these conditions are that the proposed sidewalks be 5 ft for internal and external. At the February planning and zoning commission, the planning and zoning commission did recommend that the applicant team work with the city transportation department at that final TRC level to explore widening the external sidewalks along North Louisiana and and Hazel Mill to six feet. That way, there is more pedestrian access moving to the anchor and employment institutions. This area is served by both the WE1 and the W5 transit lines. So pedestrian access to those is important or at least it was to planning and zoning commission in February. And then those other two things I've already talked about just that building footprint max and then the height of 48 where only 40 is allowed in the office district. So these are the building elevations. I won't spend too much time on this one. I'll spend more time on the other one. I do think that the bottom two images, the elevation north and the elevation west really show what type of topography the applicant team is working with here. There is a considerable grade challenge. It's about 20 ft in difference. So this is where you see that 34 split and then how it goes gently down the slope towards Padden Avenue. This is the other elevation slide. This is where you'll get the material pallet used for this. There are no shockers here. This is exactly what you'll see in most of Asheville. You can see that it is a mix of stone veneer,

brick, horizontal fiber siding, and then shingles for that roof. Most of your roof pitches 612 1212 very much in what you would find for the mountain modern multifamily architectural design type. So, this slide is brief. I always include this just because it tells us the story of how we got here and and what the approval process was before we get into staff recommendation. was approved in December by the technical review committee at the initial review on on December 1st and and then as I had said earlier it went to the planning and zoning commission on February 4th. It was approved unanimously 7 to zero. There were some recommendations and conditions that came with that that is in your document packet. And now I want to spend some time again looking at how this complies or does not comply with the future land use designation and the living Asheville comprehensive plan. And thought I had another slide. Well, must have been a different I'm going to go back real quick because this is different from the presentation I had. One of the things I did just want to stress there was another one talking about the future land use designation. Traditional neighborhood I had mentioned is about infill housing. What I did not mention earlier is the types of zoning that are allowed there and the the types of building it seeks to have in a traditional neighborhood. You will find in in living Asheville it does mention that RM6 RM8 office and CZ are appropriate zoning designations. That's exactly what's being proposed here. We find that this is wholly and totally appropriate. It also calls for that mix of housing and actually specifically enumerates exactly what is is envisaged for for a traditional neighborhood and that is single family homes, town homes, accessory dwelling units and multi-family structures that blend seamlessly and that is what's happening here because you can see to the the northwest as you drive sort of through

and and deeper into the Emma Legacy neighborhood that mix that is is mentioned in traditional neighborhoods. So that is one of the things we consider. Then we also look at those comprehensive goals. This does encourage responsible growth. It increases and diversifies the housing supply especially along transit corridors which council had mentioned that that is crucially important last March. It also promotes development and availability of affordable and workforce housing close to those anchor and employment institutions. And it is not for any one of those reasons but for all of those reasons combined with that preponderance evidence. staff agrees with the planning and zoning commission's recommendation and finds that it is wholly and totally appropriate to support approval of this conditional zoning.

Thank you. Thank you. We were just noting Okay. I was just noting I appreciate your page numbers on the reference to the comp plan. Um I have a few questions. I don't Someone else was about to go. Um um I've noticed this is maybe more your opinion. Um, both these projects requested interior and exterior sidewalk reductions back to 5T. It was an action of council at some point to make it 10 ft. Are you seeing that a lot? And are you experiencing it any indication if it's like a cost or a site maximization or is it both? Why are we seeing it so often?

It the capital stack required for development today is tenuous. It is difficult and it is I think more expensive. It is one of those to say that that is the death nail in projects is incorrect but it is one of those things where it is just very costly to do that is something I know cost goes on the minds of everyone. Sidewalks was something everyone mentioned too. Sidewalks I think cost is part of it. There is also room availability. I I wish someone with transportation were here to talk about sort of the right of way challenges because right of way isn't just the street, it isn't where you drive that there are also, you know, there's easements for for utilities, for storm water, for things like that. So, it is in part cost, it is in part some financing that the city doesn't see because we're not party to. And it is also just a design constraint. Uh we think uh planning and zoning had mentioned and and recommended that they go to six feet. Do you think that's appropriate? Anything more than that is going to be a crunch just because of utilities, because of storm water, and all these other things that you that are are legally there or are underground that you don't see in your daily pedestrian experience.

Wait, PNC, you recommended six feet. Yes. Is that right? You said that. Okay. External. Okay. Just the external. Uh Sam mentioned Costco because that's going to be one of their if they if they manage to land back here again trying to meet all these requirements for their internal road. Right. Right. Right. I have a you question. Go ahead. I'll have more. Well, this is one. It might be on your list because you usually ask this. Do we know about the unit split? How many three bed? How many?

Yes, we do. I have a brief overview. I would ask the applicant to clean this up. So we do of those 89 units 31 are onebedroom, 36 are twobedroom and 22 are threebedroom. That's what I was able to find on their litec. And then of course there are splits. Again I want to reiterate for council which I did in my presentation that there are 30 50 60 and 70% AMI for all of those. So it's not that

like 30% AMI just gets one that there's a mix within all of those. And a little more good news in there is this is a LITC project which I guess triggers a whole bunch of its own parking requirements. So I'm assuming there's debate in there, but it sounds like it's a new LITC possibly a new LITC developer to the community. Is this that is correct. I'll let the applicants representative speak to that. I will say I I'm glad you brought that up, Councilwoman Turner, is that we do see with LITC projects there are parking is required. So just because we reduced that parking minimum doesn't mean that they're necessarily able to meet that again because of financing complications which is a reality of the development world today.

Yeah, we see that requirement even in the private lending market. Yep. I'll just say I love this project. This is a perfect anti-displacement project. Take that and will I have to ask my Okay. Oh, that's great. We're all on the same team. Um, I have to ask my evergreen question. Is there any plan for renewables or anything that's preventing renewables in the future of this project which would help to keep the units more affordable longer? I'll let the applicant speak to that. Thank you.

I can um any other before we hear from the applicant. Okay. All right. We're ready to hear from the Thank you. Wait a second. Are you kidding? Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, staff. Um Sam, that was really a thorough report and that was a funny zinger at will. Um I do have uh the unit breakdown that's straight from the LITC application. If I could hand that up. I've got copies for folks.

That's you'll see that the breakdown across the ones, twos, and threes and the 30%, 50%, 60% and 70% of AMI. Um, and that 80% AMI as the condition uh is just to allow for flexibility if this developer isn't the one that goes forward with the project. So, we've run into those issues before with super specific conditions and we're trying to be better about that, but we wanted to show what the the project really going to look like. Um Sam Welen is here. Uh he represents Blue Ridge Atlantic, which is the applicant in this matter. Uh and the developer. Warren Sugg is the engineer site engineer for this project. Again, um we started this project uh back in the spring of 2025. And to uh council member Turner's question uh earlier about is this one of those projects that we tried to uh make as of right uh this is this is the one um and this is how it would fit and the uh structures inside the ordinance related to footprint uh put it into this process that we've been doing now for the last 6 months. Um, and so I think that's one of those things where the intention was missed. And I think that we can clean it up by making it clear in the ordinance that the affordability uh pieces that are out there to can override the the footprint um designations. There's about six uh zoning districts where this problem comes up. And so I don't think that the intention of this council is being manifested in the ordinance right now, but I do think there's a way to to fix that. and I would certainly like to to see it and it would save us all time for these projects that are really good projects.

Um part of this process as you know we had a neighborhood meeting uh this project is uh a budding in uh inside the the Pterma neighborhood. I know that Sam Weldon has had detailed uh negotiations and talks actually conversations rather uh with Andrea and the others in the Pterma neighborhood. I know Andrew is here this evening. Uh I believe those have gone well and were fruitful. Um in terms of the uh uh uh sustainability measures, there are provisions inside of uh the LITC application process. Uh and I can let Sam come up to talk about those, but there are incentives inside of that um that may end up putting uh some of those um measures in place into this project. Uh but the next phase for that LITC application process is midmay. So uh to be determined on that. Um in terms of the questions uh that came up about the recurring request for sidewalk uh reductions uh internal on smaller multifamily sites. Uh saves impervious area, allows for more amenities to go in, allows for better parking access. Uh it's just too big for smaller sites. If you're in Builtmore Park, that's a different thing. for a 10 foot wide internal sidewalk, but on a smalish apartment site that just doesn't fit externally.

Sorry to interrupt, but similar for the requirements of the LITC program, right? Because you have to have more internal park space, you have to have areas for computer use. There's all these program heat up site. Yeah, correct.

Sorry. Um and then externally what we see oftent times uh is trying to fit everything in from utilities uh to storm water to uh do rightway widths and then also pulling the sidewalk away from roads. Uh so there is a buffer in between walkways and bikeways uh and ped and uh cars going back and forth. So that's the the general answer of those kinds of things, but it's specific uh on each project. This is a little tighter uh in the roadway to the uh structures here than in some places um if you've been over there. Yeah. So

um I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh Warren can answer questions about site plan and Sam can answer questions about the light process or programming. Thank you. Councilwoman Alman mentioned the bedroom counts and I just wanted to share if you didn't understand the point she was making. We had expressed some concern in recent years that all the affordable projects we were seeing get approved and built were limited to like onebedrooms and sometimes a two-bedroom. A lot of efficiencies. So, we're starting to worry about family size relocations and family growing in certain areas with affordability options. So, I'm just glad to see more of the larger units. We have a couple people signed up to speak under this item tonight. Um, and so you'll each have three minutes.

Um, back again is Andy Paul and then we have one other person signed up to speak. Sam's going to take him off. Okay. Hey again. Um, I actually want to tell you guys a story. So about a month and a half ago, I started a new position at work. Um, I teach at AB Techch, but my new position has me stationed at a high school. So, uh, students in in their high school, uh, can come to my classroom and get a college class without having to leave and they get college credit. And so, about a month and a half ago, I was getting a tour of the high school and the staff person giving me the tour, having no idea who I am, um, said, you know, I want you to know the students here are really diverse. um that some of them come from families with a lot of money and some of them are sleeping in their cars. Um and yeah, I see your faces. I you know, I know uh I know a few of you have are a teacher have taught before and you know the the the the relationships you form with your students are are pretty powerful and even the most annoying student in your classroom, you want the best for them. And so it sort of struck me when I heard that. So um all this is to say that I hope that um a family you know with with with a working uh with a working parent or two working parents a family with a kid going to school in our community um if one such family can find a home in this place um I I think that's uh something worth uh worth pursuing. Thanks. Thank you. Uh, Andrea Golden.

Hi, good evening. My name is Andrea Golden. I live in the Emma neighborhood and I'm the director of a neighborhood organization called Boulder Emma. So the neighborhood is Emma, the organization is Boulder Emma. And Boulder Emma has about 400 members who are all neighbors of ours that work together to talk about how to stop displacement. And one of the things that we do is organize our neighborhood council. So when our neighborhood council first heard about this development, there was a lot of apprehension. It's a change to kind of the feel of the neighborhood. We're mostly a mobile home park neighborhood. We had just had an extremely negative experience with a new development coming in on Emma Road on the county side of the neighborhood that brought zero affordable units. So, a lot of apprehension at first. We went to the community meeting where we first met Sam and um you know, I do want to name there were n neighbors that were nervous in spite of the affordability levels, nervous about traffic, nervous about density, nervous about change. And as a resident and together with our 400 members, we all share those same feelings. There is sadness around losing our semi-ural character as a community. And we do think that we we would ask the city and the county to continue to work together on your future land use planning to give communities like ours the tools that we need to determine how can we meet the affordable housing goals and help solve the affordable housing crisis without being asked to change who we are and who we want to be. That said, we brought the proposal back to our neighborhood council and we went through several months of dialogue. We have a highly participatory neighborhood council and I don't come and make public comment unless the council has voted by consensus for me to bring a message. So I don't just represent myself, I

represent many of my neighbors. And we came to the conclusion that although we have sadness around uh change to neighborhood character, we trust that we can create future land use tools to address that and that this is exactly the kind of housing that our neighborhood needs. Um, I really want to commend Sam and his team. He met with us um over and over and over to help ensure that this housing was actually going to help stabilize our community and not interrupt our community. Um, and so I'm here to express uh the Emma Neighborhood Council's full consensus in support of this project. And I really really hope we see future projects like this. I will name we really like that this had to go through conditional zoning and I hear the the concern about how it slows it down, but without that tool, we wouldn't have been able to potentially come to the table and reach some of the agreements that we made about how to be a good neighbor while joining a neighborhood like ours. So, we're actually really thankful that we were given the space and the time um both because of conditional zoning and because of Sam's willingness. So, thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we don't have um anyone else signed up speak under this to read the motion if you are. Yes, please. Okay.

Um first, I just want to say thank you to the neighbors of the Emma community for coming to city hall for this decision. Gracias. I move to approve the conditional zoning request for the property located at 383 North Louisiana Avenue from office one it reads to office conditional zone and find the request is reasonable is in the public interest is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan and meets the development needs of the community in that the request one provides infill development and targeted growth areas two increases the supply of housing in proximity to schools transit and parks and three reszones property ated transit supportive density in nodal clusters along or near transit corridors.

Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Questions or comments? We got it. Okay, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. You're all welcome to stay, but if you would like to make your mask sex, that's Thank thank you planning staff. Thank you.

We have one item of uh unfinished business. This is an item where the public hearing has already been conducted, so there will not be a further public hearing. It is a resolution approving the proposed amendment of the city's 2025 2029 consolidated plan to add affordable rental construction as a priority need and goal and submission to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and further authorizing the city manager to execute any documents necessary to give effect to this resolution. And Nikki Reid is here to talk about it.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Um our staff gave the presentation at the public hearing last month. the public comment period is now closed and we did receive one email um recommending support and recommending approval of the amendment. So that is the update and now our process is concluded and we're asking for your vote tonight. So thanks happy to answer any questions. Is it me or is the whole night only supportive, right? We're only getting positive. It was from our speaker. So uh a group the group that he represents was our public comment that we received. So thanks for grading. Thank you. Um, I think we just need to make a motion because we've already heard it. I'm happy to if we're ready. Yeah. Yeah, there's no there's no public hearing. We're just kind of rectifying what we did last.

I should say there was already a public hearing, right? Um, so I move to adopt a resolution approving the proposed amendment of the city's 2025 2029 consolidated plan to add affordable rental construction as a priority need and goal and submission to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and further authorizing the city manager to execute any documents necessary to give effect to this resolution. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? All right, thank you. That concludes the printed agenda. Um, and now I'm going to move on to general public comment. We have a few people signed up under general public comment. Once again, you'll have three minutes to speak. Please just watch the lights on the lectern. Our first speaker is Paul Howell. Good evening, council, city attorney, city manager, assistant city manager, and the epoxy that holds everything together, Maggie.

Uh, previous at the previous council, I ran out of time when I noticed something with the numbers in the budget, and it was about the swimming pools. And I see that Walton Street, you know, back in 2016, we asked the city council to save Walton Pool to renovate it, you know, save it because it was historical for us. So, I mean, they kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off and then finally in 2021, instead of giving us $1.3 million to renovate the pool, the pool was shut down. And basically voted on to be replaced with something down at the grant center, which isn't a pool, but a pool of water. But anyhow, I looked on there and I seen where it was going to cost $2.5 million to reimagine the pool. So, it cost more to reimagine the pool than it did to renovate the pool 10 years later. I looked on there. Oh, hold up. Walton Poo opened in 1948. I looked on and I seen Mara Hills Pool, which opened in 1936, getting the amount of $5.5 million to renovate their pool, but yet still they going to have a pool diet as well. They won't have their swimming. I mean, they won't have the diving board, the deep end of the pool. I mean, people around here in the mountain swim. Everybody don't get in the pool and wade. Y'all giving us these diet pools for all this money that people cannot enjoy. If you want to renovate our pools, return them to the way they were. There shouldn't be no reason why Walen Street pool can't come back. I mean, you can spend 5.5 million on the pool that's 12 years older than it. Why you can't spend a couple million on the pool?

That's also historical. I'm saying it's a whole lot of questions about people on our council not looking out for people of this city and looking out more for outsiders and transplants. And now I'm saying it's getting close to time for the a two-minute warning. People are tired. So y'all need to think about it. Also, who in the world in their right mind would put a dog on dog park at Aston Park for kids and grown people play it all the time? Toss it. Who would put a dog park down there? Why would you take a city park and put a dog on dog park in it? Lord, November can't get here fast enough. Thank you. Um, Gino Perez.

That's as high as it goes.

Thank you. Good evening, council members. My name is Gino and tonight I am here to speak about the redesign of our public transit network and the human cost of removing routes. The city's art choices report states that ridership and coverage are competing goals. You cannot spend the same dollar on both. In that report, the city's transit consultant defines coverage as insurance against isolation. Yet, by putting ridership first, the new model throws that insurance away. It cuts the share of residents near transit from 61% to 40. That means one in three people who today have transit will lose it. Hardest hit are the most vulnerable. The Art Concepts report admits that a wrership first model strips transit access from nearly one in four lowincome residents and people of color. This is abandonment by design. For seniors and disabled residents, your route map decides who gets paratransit and who gets left behind. By law, ADA van service can only go where your buses go. When the bus map shrinks, the ADA map shrinks with it. For a senior on those routes, that means losing two lifelines at once. the bus stop that was once within reach and the

ADA van that served that route. When that van stops coming, the city ends at their front door. Older adults make up nearly one-third of Bumpingham County. In a county this old, in a city this old, your planning must prioritize coverage. Because when you cut a bus line, you cut twice. Before you is a choice to define what the city of Asheville values. Above all else, value our people.

Thank you. Thank you,

Natasha Suede. Hello, I'm Natasha Schuade. My hair is straight so it looks different than normal. Um, anyway, so uh, as we build for the future and rebuild after Helen, I want to make sure we consider the true cost of things. With the expected rise rises in fuel costs, we need to build with this kind of resilience in mind, we very well could end up in a situation similar to the oil embargo of the 70s, which my dad has told me stories of how it brought society to a halt. For example, the fuel needed for construction equipment in a lot of these developments would be like an excavator or a skid steer or a lull. also the generators to power pumps, shopbacks, power tools, the truck and the trailers to bring all of this equipment onto the site. All of that equipment is needed to clear the land, dig the foundation, pour the concrete slabs, and the concrete only has 30 minutes from the plant to the pour, sorry, or it will be rejected. So all these trucks are moving things back and forth and this is all before building the walls. So as a community we have to make sure we're considering the true cost of development and we need to build for true local resilience. This entails things like opening up more options for people to move around like multimodal transportation and finding ways to release our daily concerns from gas prices and traffic.

Thank you. Thank you. Um that concludes the folks that are signed up under public comment. That concludes our meeting council. We have another meeting on March 24th which is going to be very long with our work session. So rest. All right. We are journed. Thank you.