A divided Asheville City Council approved plans for a 252-unit apartment building southeast of Biltmore Village Tuesday after a debate over how the city should regulate development near waterways following Hurricane Helene.
Some Council members worried that the developer’s plans to deal with possible flooding from Sweeten Creek, which is near the site at 21 London Road, were insufficient or too vague.
Others said they were satisfied with the plan's safety because it elevates the building at least two feet above the 100-year floodplain and it dedicates almost all of the first two floors to parking.
Council voted 6-1 in May 2024 to approve a smaller building proposed by the same developer, planned at the time to have 208 apartments and be six stories tall. On Tuesday, the vote was 4-3 in favor of the developer’s request for permission to build seven stories and have 252 apartments instead.
Council member Sage Turner noted that the developer could still build the smaller building if Council voted against the proposed changes, but said, “I’m concerned about building anything in the flood zone right now.”
Council member Kim Roney said she supported the smaller project two years ago because it met city goals for moderately priced housing along transit corridors. But, she said, Helene constituted “new information” and she wondered whether flood maps, once they are updated, will show that more areas of the city are vulnerable to flooding. Current flood maps for Asheville date from 2010 and, critics say, do not account for the effects of global warming.
“The river moves and she’s alive and she will change and she will do whatever she wants,” Roney said.
Most of the building will be outside the 100-year floodplain but a corner of the building containing the lobby, leasing office and some parking spaces is planned to be inside the floodplain. An engineer and an attorney working on the project noted that plans show several exits from the building will be well above flood level, giving people several options for getting out in an emergency. The old version of the plans also called for parking – generally considered less subject to damage during a flood – on the lowest two levels.
Mayor Esther Manheimer said that while there are valid concerns about building on the site and the city may tighten its ordinances governing building in flood-prone areas, the city still has to decide whether to approve projects submitted while the city considers changes to its development rules.
City government is at the beginning of a process to redraw its primary development ordinance, a process Manheimer said will take two years.
“There’s a bunch of work that we need to do on our side. Meanwhile, life goes on and folks are applying for things and wanting to do different things,” she said. “What do we do in the meantime?”
Council member Bo Hess said he typically sees apartments near rivers and other bodies of water in other cities.
“I like more housing, personally,” he said. “Sometimes we trip up over ourselves and there’s a lot of investment that wants to happen in Asheville.”
Council members Hess, Manheimer, Antanette Mosley and Sheneika Smith voted for approval. Roney, Turner and Council member Maggie Ullman voted “no.”
Bears, bears and more bears
Council discussed but took no action on ideas to reduce problems with bears in the city after hearing a plea from Ashley Hobbs, a biologist with the state Wildlife Resources Commission, to push residents to reduce the supply of food they are allowing bears to get at.
Bears are eating unsecured garbage, bird seed, pet food and food some people put out intentionally to attract bears, she said. Bears are increasingly accustomed to seeing humans as a source of food in Asheville, which in turn causes more people to be injured by bears and more incidents in which bears break into houses, Hobbs said.
Since 2023, bears have hurt seven people in Buncombe County and broken into 143 homes in the county, she said.
Hunting is illegal in the city and relocating bears doesn’t solve the problem, Hobbs said.
She asked Council to provide funding for more bear-resistant trash cans and increase penalties in a city ordinance banning feeding of bears.
“I need something, something from the city,” she said.
Bear-resistant trash cans are very effective at reducing problems but the city has cut funding for them, Hobbs said.
Malvern Hills pool
Malvern Hills Pool in West Asheville is scheduled to reopen for the 2028 swimming season following Council approval of a $4.4 million construction contract Tuesday.
The pool hasn’t reopened since following the summer of 2023 because the city said it could no longer be repaired. After Helene damaged the pool at Recreation Park in 2024, that left only one city-owned public pool in Asheville.
West Asheville residents had sharply criticized previous plans for the new pool. City government made changes and some residents at Tuesday’s meeting said they were pleased with the result.
“We need more pools in our community and I’m looking forward to swimming in this pool very soon,” Scott Burroughs said.
Etcetera
Council also:
–Approved spending up to $660,304 on bicycle and pedestrian paths near a section of the I-26 Connector project in West Asheville and to make lights, roundabouts and medians that are part of the project more attractive.
The money will be spent on facilities that the state Department of Transportation, which is responsible for the overall project, considers beyond its standard requirements for the section of Interstate 240 between Haywood Road and Interstate 40. The paths will provide bicycle and pedestrian connections to several streets in the area around Brevard and Amboy roads.
Work has already begun on parts of the I-26 Connector, which will widen Interstate 240 in West Asheville and build a new crossing of the French Broad River. Council will be asked in November to consider a much larger set of improvements for the section of the project between Haywood Road and U.S. 19-23 east of the French Broad, city Transportation Director Ashley Haire told Council.
–Said goodbye to long-time City Clerk Maggie Burleson, who is retiring, and appointed Jodilynn Byrd to take her place. Byrd most recently was deputy city clerk in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The clerk, one of only three employees hired directly by City Council, keeps the city’s official records and performs a variety of other tasks.
Burleson has served as clerk for 31 years and worked as a secretary in city government before that, joining the city in 1975.
Citing Burleson’s “unparalleled institutional knowledge, meticulous attention to detail and gracious professionalism,” Manheimer proclaimed Tuesday as Maggie Burleson Day in the city.
–Authorized City Manager DK Wesley to apply for a federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas grant on a 6-1 vote.
Annual grants from the program support a task force of officers from several local law enforcement agencies, including the Asheville Police Department. They focus on curbing the “trafficking, manufacturing, and distribution of illegal drugs” rather than simple possession, a staff report says.
Roney cast the lone “no” vote, saying the American Civil Liberties Union has raised concerns about how the funds are used nationally.
More
Video of Tuesday’s regular meeting and a special meeting to appoint a new clerk is available here and supporting documents and presentations are here. Council’s next regular meeting will be at 5 p.m. Nov. 10 on the second floor of City Hall. Council will hold a strategic planning retreat 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 29 in the banquet hall of Harrah’s Cherokee Center - Asheville at 87 Haywood St. and will meet online at 11 a.m. Nov. 5 to review the agenda for its Nov. 10 meeting.
