City Council - Regular Meeting
Asheville City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting landlords from collecting rent for unsafe dwellings once an inspector's order is issued. The meeting also included updates on city capital projects and public discussion on bear management and homelessness.
About this meeting
- Government Body
- City Council
- Meeting Type
- City Council
- Location
- Asheville, NC
- Meeting Date
- September 8, 2026
Published excerpts
Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.
61 sections (from 63 segments)
All right, good evening everybody we are live Thank you all for being here tonight at the Asheville City Council meeting if you could take a moment to silence your cell phones and And if you didn't already have an opportunity to do so, you can always step out into the hall and sign up to speak at any point during the meeting, and it will show up on our screens once we have it up. If you would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. individual with liberty and justice for all.
Wait, not at the agenda. Well, I'm missing the decorum statement that's usually sitting here.
I don't know what happened to it. Somebody took it.
We'll forego the reading of the decorum statement. All right, tonight we do not have any proclamations on our agenda. We have a consent agenda, and we have one item that we need to allow for a recusal. So can I have a motion to recuse the vice mayor from item E on the consent agenda? So moved. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Logan got it. Logan got it. Thank you, Logan. Okay, so you are recused from item E. Are you gonna stay? Yeah, we'll do that and then come back and we'll do the rest of the consent agenda. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, that's important. All those in favor, please say aye. I think we did. Aye. Any opposed? I did, but not on the mic, so that was a unanimous vote to recuse you. All right, do I have a motion to adopt item E on the consent agenda?
Second. All right, I have a motion and a second. All right, we do not have anyone signed up to speak under the consent agenda. However, I would like to highlight item E, which I'll just read it. It's a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with City Collective LLC to develop a master plan for land in the Deaverview neighborhood owned by the City of Asheville and the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville. And just to expand a little bit on this project for several years, it has been in the making that the Housing Authority would redevelop the Deaverview neighborh
Okay, Maggie, Councilwoman Roney made the motion and Councilwoman Turner seconded that motion. Again, we don't have anyone signed up to speak under this item.
Aye. Any opposed? All right. Okay, we have one presentation tonight and that is going to be under the manager's report and I'm going to turn it over to our city manager, DK Wesley.
Do you, this is for the historic lights, the historic lights.
Because I was down there this weekend in the evening and I noticed there's temporary lighting. It's not historic by any means, but it's lighting.
Alright, thank you. That concludes the manager's report. Tonight we don't have any public hearings, we don't have any unfinished business, and we have one item of new business, that is an ordinance amending Chapter 4 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Asheville by adding a new Section 4-209C in order to provide additional protections for tenants from unsafe dwelling conditions. And there is attached to the agenda the amendment to the existing ordinance. This is an ordinance that regards life safety slash unsafe conditions. And in this, there is a list of conditions that are considered li
We do have a number of people signed up to speak under this item, so we can go ahead and proceed with that. All right, folks, you'll have three minutes to speak. Please watch the lights on the lectern. Green means go, orange means getting ready to stop, and red means stop. Our first speaker is Nina Tovish.
Motion. I'm sorry. That's right. We're not on a public hearing. Do we have a motion to? Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Second. Okay. Maggie made the motion. Sorry. Second. Thank you. Okay. We got it now. Thank you. All right. Please.
Okay, we have the next speaker, Al Sottorelli, has several people yielding their time to him. If you are one of those people, please raise your hand when I call your name. Kyle Moss, okay, and Corrine Kelly, and Linda Baker. Okay, you'll have 10 minutes, up to 10 minutes.
Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Rachel Weiss.
Pryor Ray? Maggie, can we provide the... She's got it. Okay, or we can do that.
Thank you. Okay, that is all the folks we have signed up to speak under this item.
Just brief comments. I echo the appreciation for folks showing up. And the general idea of how do we get this to be clear to the public? How do we mesh with the state and local laws? But I want to add a different layer of just appreciation in that we've been talking a lot about apartment complexes and building new apartments. I think even the media that's here tonight has been reporting on it. We talk and focus a lot about that so you see a lot of it. I am thrilled to be talking about things that actually help the local renters, local people living here now. I wish that we would be talking abo
I did want to, there was one comment about the opportunity to cure that was mentioned. The existing ordinance and what this refers to does say the following regarding the process. So once the inspection is completed and there is a notice of violation, There is also then, after this notice is provided, there's an opportunity to be heard. And it says, if after such notice and hearing, the housing code coordinator slash designee, okay, inspector, determines that the dwelling under consideration is unsafe or unfit for human habitation, according to the standards of this code, he or she shall state
It was scheduled to be and then wasn't heard. And then wasn't heard.
Well, you know, I guess the question is, is there, is council satisfied with the wording of the ordinance? And again, what's attached to the agenda, Brad has asked that we add this additional phrase And I can pass this. I don't know if anyone's looked at this.
It just makes it clear that there has to be an order.
So my only concern, so there's that, whether or not we want to need to change this language any further. The other is that one of the commenters said that this would allow someone to stop paying rent. And that is true, except that there has to be this due process and there has to be an order entered. And that is an order, as I said at the beginning of this, that is an order entered by one of our inspectors. And again, state law still says the tenant may not unilaterally withhold rent prior to judicial determination of a right to do so. So I do want to make clear, I don't want people who are te
My question was for Brad for legal. I'm just curious, as someone that's very concerned about mold in general, if mold is an allowable addition or if there's some legal issue that it would not be.
May I respond to that just to push a little, make sure I understand? So generally, I tend to think, you know, to make a change at a state level, a lot of cities have to share a problem and get loud about it. You know, it's just kind of a general overall statement. What would be the impact of us adding mold to this? If there's no harm, does it introduce a topic? Does it create a situation where we could build some momentum around mold? Is there anything we could do?
To me, that translates to some more grassroot effort for a while, which I'm interested in. But we won't be able to address tonight, probably.
Yeah, Brad and I have gone round and round about the mold. We actually brought it to public safety when we were doing the abandoned building ordinance, and we had a whole discussion about that because that was interesting. Actually, not that I don't believe our legal and our staff, but I did some research, and I could not find one city or one state that had a mold ordinance. And there was different reasons why behind that. But I do have a question. about this process piece, because, you know, someone's living without hot water or in unsafe conditions. I don't want this to drag on and we have t
when a city inspector would have to address it and then also when the landlord would have to address it that would just give clarity to everybody so all these questions are kind of making me a little bit worried about making this decision tonight and that is because in our existing code let me just read this to you it says um that when a complaint comes in um and it is determined that any dwelling is unfit for human habitation for one of these reasons. The code enforcement officer shall, and this is like old existing language, if their preliminary investigation discloses a basis for such charg
No. It was in the ordinance. This is in the current ordinance.
Well, this is the... It's our current code.
So is there already a motion and a second?
Yeah, we already have a motion and a second. So let me make clear that the motion and the second is to adopt this version that Brad sent us.
Well, I don't know that we need an amendment as long as the initial motion was to. I think that was the initial motion. Or was it? No, because someone said I'm so moved or something. Right. So we have a motion and a second. I just wanted to clarify that we have a motion and a second to adopt the language as sent to you in the email.
This is the one from Brad. So it reads, it shall be unlawful for the owner of a dwelling to collect rent from a tenant who occupies the dwelling at the time it becomes unfit for human occupancy, unsafe, and represents a threat to life or property or to permit any other person to begin occupancy of such a dwelling. A dwelling shall be subject to this provision if any of the conditions contained in section 4-209A exist and upon the issuance of an order prepared in accordance with section 4-217B. That is the motion to adopt that. one other item not to make this confusing there is um we it this be
What if we compartmentalized past what we can? I mean, I think the Tenants Union and the community has worked pretty hard to get us here. And then we at HCD potentially take up a conversation about mold and or other items or communications. to the community or just an idea to help us get through tonight.
I do want to say that this also includes, let's say your rent was $1,000 a month and you go two months and you do go to court, you will get three times your rent back for those two months. So you'll get $6,000 back. So that's built into this ordinance. And I just want to... make sure we point that out and incentivize our landlords out there to just do the right thing up front. And yeah, I would love to continue the mole conversation.
Very smart. I wasn't clear if that was, can we authorize such a thing?
Okay, so sounds like we want to go ahead tonight, but we might want to look at some other issues further down the line. Good to vote? Good to vote.
Did you have a concern about staff and onboarding it two weeks later or anything? Did you get your need met there?
Well, all this, you know, interestingly, this ordinance is fairly simple. It doesn't actually change the conditions that the inspectors are looking at anyway, currently. It just changes this piece about rent.
Yeah, but it doesn't change the conditions that our inspectors are looking at. So it's not like it would require a trainer. And it doesn't change the process either for the code enforcement.
So no change to the motion, no change from the second. We'll move forward on the vote.
OK. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Okay, that concludes the printed agenda for tonight. We do have a number of people signed up under general public comment, so we're going to move into that. Okay.
For those of you that are interested in the follow-up potentially on mold or a conversation that happens at HCD, you could go to the city's website and sign up for email updates for that committee, and then you'll get the agendas for that committee if that's of interest to you.
Okay, all right, so folks that are here for general public comment, again, I'll just reiterate, you'll have three minutes to speak. Please watch the lights on the lectern. Green means go, orange means you're getting ready to stop, and red means stop. And the first person signed up to speak under general public comment is Janice Riordan. I said that right. Yes.
Thank you. You can also send that to us as an email. That would be helpful. Thank you. Stacey, loud?
Okay. Doug Bowman, and there are several people ceding their time to Mr. Bowman. Chris Pelley, raise your hand. Linda Fornoff. Jonathan Connelly. And Lang Hornthal. Thank you.
Yeah, DK and I talked about this at the beginning of the meeting. And we shared the presentation ahead of time so that staff was able to see it. And I think Parks and Rec has already agreed to partner. And I think what I'm hearing from you all is kind of like, well, you've agreed to partner, but have you agreed to partner like this far? this much, this deep. So the managers heard the request and I think we'll wait for some follow-up.
Just as a general nerd fact, we lose more land to invasive species than we do to development each year. I learned that in city planning school. And there are some active groups, volunteer groups, throughout the community that are going ready. They're ready to show up and dig. And I'd love to come out and help you. I know when we were enacting the Tree Canopy Protection Ordinance, this was probably four or five years ago, there was a lot of talk about preserving trees from being cut down and planting more trees where we build, but there was zero talk about saving trees from vines. And I remembe
Okay. Oh, we have one more person signed up to speak. Yeah, is he here? Jonathan Wayne Scott? You are here. I'm sorry. I couldn't see you.
Okay, then that concludes our public comment, I guess, before we adjourn.
I do, I hear the folks about the bears. In fact, I was reaching out to staff about trying to maybe move that bear to our city nature center. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to work out at our nature center because we already have two mama alphas that are there. But I think working with the staff and the North Carolina Wildlife Commission to save that bear and all of our bears and also get those bear resistant trash cans out there. I would also maybe bring to public safety. I do agree that maybe we need to look at more accountability for the humans that are feeding bears, and maybe look at our
Bo, Councilman Hess, I really appreciate some of your words. I live off Haywood Road in West Asheville, much like the comment. I really appreciate you being here tonight. I'm experiencing that. I've lived there for 25 years, and I know it's not just West Asheville, but Haywood Road is really undergoing some serious challenges right now. As is Tunnel Road. Yeah, it's not just Haywood Road. Haywood Road is just more one of our traversed corridors. And previous to some issues, I think we had a conflict, but some of us were going to walk West Asheville with the city manager. So let's reschedule th
And I think Jade... Dundas gave us an update sort of recently regarding the corridor work. So maybe we need, and it was during a work session. It was a pretty high level. So maybe we need to have a touch back on that to get an update of where that's at holistically.
It's been months and I think there's something with the manufacturing of the cans. Are there some reason why they're not entirely available? But on the bear issue, this actually came up a while back, and I met with the Wildlife Commission folks because at the time, Franklin, North Carolina, had passed a pretty strong ordinance around bear-wise protections and requirements for residents. to follow bear-wise practices. And so we weighed that decision here and did tighten our ordinance to make it clear that it's not legal to feed bears. People are doing it. I talk to people all the time. I'll say
So... So what obviously happens is then you get bears just regularly coming. Actually, and what had happened there is the bear had ripped off the gas line on the side of the house, and there was a gas leak, and the gas company had to come out and fix it. They're very strong. So... but we did talk about at that time whether or not to move in the direction like some of the western cities do like in boulder colorado where if a bear gets into your bear your can the fine is for you it's two hundred dollars per property owner um if that unless they've changed it and they put the onus on the property
And we could, we often put in water bills information about new laws or stricter laws or whatever, We might consider an insert that does go over the rules for people that they cannot feed bears, even if they think they're not feeding them when they're putting bird food on the ground in their backyard or cat food on their back door or whatever back doorstep.
I love that idea. Before we do it, let's coordinate with these Bear Wise folks. I would love to see a bear movement. I'd love to be Bear City, not Beer City. You know, I think the trash cans, I've heard complaints over the years, they actually still get broken into. People are having to go above and beyond. So what I did, because we're just like way out of your ordinary yearly plan right here, but what I did was start a new note for my 2027-2028 budget planning. And the big first item is, how are we dealing with our bears?
Okay. Yeah. And I, and you know, anyway, not to keep, everyone's got to go home, but I do think we need to touch in with wildlife because I'm sort of surprised that North Carolina hasn't come to terms with the fact that we have a lot of bears now in this state. And we can, because it is a wildlife regulated, but like, for example, states like Florida that have an alligator problem, they're very aggressive about removing very quickly problematic alligators and moving them off. But they've had to do that because it's such a safety threat. And we just, I think we're just sort of coming to the rea
These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.