Council approved 5 significant changes to Asheville’s development rules on Tuesday, March 11. In addition to supporting the three amendments that make it easier to build housing in commercial districts on our city’s major bus routes that we summarized here, they also voted to make it easier to build small homes in most neighborhoods in the city using what are called flag lots and cottage developments. Importantly, the changes to the rules about flag lots and cottage developments will not take affect within the city’s Legacy Neighborhoods or the areas designated within the Missing Middle Study as particularly vulnerable to displacement. These exceptions were requested by the Legacy Neighborhood Coalition (LNC) after thoughtful engagement with city staff and representatives from the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission. While the votes on Tuesday night did not honor all of the requests made by the LNC, we ask that the city commit fully to continued work with that group so that future proposed changes can honor their unique concerns and situations as best as possible.
Watch public comment on YouTube by our Housing & Transportation Director, Susan Bean, in support of these changes, by clicking on the image below. You can also read her comment below.
“The cost of housing in Asheville is too high. There is a well documented housing shortage nationwide and we are no exception. Not having enough homes means people compete for the few that are available and that drives prices higher. Just since Helene, 2 of my friends who were renting in the city have moved out of state because they couldn’t afford to stay here and I expect evictions will keep going up since we know many people weren’t able to work for weeks if not months after the storm. One thing that would help our affordability crisis would be to have more housing options in places that allow people to ride the bus or walk, which decreases overall household expenses. When Buncombe County is building multi-family housing relative to the city at a rate of 19:1, we are forcing people to live further away from things like jobs and schools. We need more housing choices in the city.
In addition to supporting these proposals as a way to create more housing choices in our city, we do also support protections for our community’s legacy neighborhoods. I was excited to learn that there have been productive conversations between Legacy Neighborhood representatives and city staff recently, and I hope that time will be allowed for those conversations to continue in order to influence future proposed changes to our rules about what homes can be built and where.
I ask that you support the proposals before you tonight, while honoring as best as possible the requests of the legacy neighborhoods, as a way to allow for more housing options in our city.”