Neighborhood Resources Last updated or reviewed on February 21, 2024 Do you have a question about something happening in your neighborhood? Are you trying to get an issue addressed? We’re here to help! This resource guide is intended to address Asheville neighbors’ most commonly asked questions and issues. For general City information, please visit our homepage. Reporting issues and general requests Streets, sidewalks & other city services Public and private projects in your neighborhood Homelessness and encampments Police and crime Transit Stay connected The Asheville App: Reporting issues & submitting general requests Use the Asheville App (online or download to your smartphone) to let city workers know about common issues, including: Potholes, sidewalk hazards or accessibility issues, street lights, street sign damage, street sign requests Abandoned vehicles, injured or deceased animals, hazardous waste Overgrown lots, brush collection requests, graffiti Fire hydrant leaks, water leaks, stormwater or draining issues Planning and zoning, code, or short term rental violations Trash collection, litter, trees and right of way Learn how to use the Asheville App. If you have reported your issue and would like to follow up with the City for an update, or if you have general questions about the app, contact us at neighborhoods@ashevillenc.gov. Back to top of page Streets, sidewalks & other city services Traffic Signals During business hours, report defective traffic signals or pedestrian crossings to the city’s signal shop by calling 828-259-5455. After normal business hours and on weekends, report defective signals to the Asheville Police Department at 828-259-5888. Street Light Malfunction The City of Asheville partners with Duke Energy Progress to provide street lighting for the safety and security of Asheville’s citizens. When a street light is malfunctioning, either not turning on at night or staying on during the day, the City relies on your help to report it. Report concerns to the Asheville App. If you have other questions or concerns that relate to street lights, please contact Joel Tweed for more information at jtweed@ashevillenc.gov. Manholes in need of attention A manhole may be owned by Metropolitan Sewerage District (MSD), Duke Energy, AT&T, or City of Asheville. Usually the name of the utility owner is printed on the manhole itself. For MSD owned manholes, call 828-225-0061. For City owned manholes, report the issue on the Asheville App or call the Stormwater Services Division at 828-232-4567. For Duke Energy or AT&T owned manholes, contact the City Stormwater Services Division at 828-232-4567 to report issues. We will do our best to connect you with the utility provider. Litter Cleanliness falls to a variety of City departments, as well as private property owners, state agencies, and other organizations. The City of Asheville currently recommends reporting litter or sanitation issues to the Public Works Sanitation Division via Asheville App or directly at 828-259-5857 or sanitation@ashevillenc.gov. The Sanitation Division can assist in coordinating City departments and outside organizations to address sanitation issues, especially where litter is crossing property lines. Trash, Recycling & Collection Services The Sanitation Division manages trash, recycling, brush collection, and pick up of bulky items including scrap metal and white goods. Sanitation also provides special services for residents unable to manage their trash and recycling carts. Contact Sanitation at 828-259-5857 to request set-out assistance, trash or recycling roll carts, bulky item or white goods pick-up, dead animal removal, to report missed trash pick-up, overgrown or junky yards, missed garbage collection, or illegal dumping. Below are links to additional helpful information about sanitation services: Recycling Guidelines Adopt a Street Program Find your trash/recycling schedule Use the AVL Collects App to view your garbage and recycling schedule and receive collection notifications. There is also an AVL Collect app for smartphones. Composting: Food scrap drop off Dispose of large, seasonal, or unusual items Reserve a bear resistant trash cart Not sure whether your street is maintained by the City? Find out if your street is owned by the City by typing in the street name or address in the search bar on SimpliCity. Grass strips between sidewalk and curb: Whose responsibility is it? In residential areas, it’s generally the responsibility of adjacent property owners to keep sidewalks and grass strips along curbs clean and unobstructed. The City of Asheville and NC Department of Transportation also manage some of the medians and green spaces in commercial areas. Report concerns to the Asheville App. If you would like to follow up, call the Streets Services Division’s Code Enforcement Officer at 828-259-5749. What if I have a speeding problem in my neighborhood? The City of Asheville encourages drivers to navigate streets safely and responsibly, especially in residential areas When residents identify a particular street segment as being potentially viable for traffic calming measures, the first step should be multifaceted. First: get connected with Asheville Police Department. In an effort to improve road safety, the Asheville Police Department encourages all community members to submit requests for traffic enforcement. Use the Traffic Enforcement Request form to submit traffic related concerns, such as speeding, moving violations or reckless driving. Please be sure to include the nature of the complaint, location and day/time. Second: if your neighbors are interested in traffic calming, fill out a Traffic Calming Program Questionnaire, which includes a petition. Send the completed form to the City Traffic Engineer (ccairns@ashevillenc.gov). The Transportation Department will work with the neighbors to obtain any further information needed to move on to the next step. The Transportation Department is focused on managing traffic speeds on roads that do not have established speeds outside of the 35 mph ordinance. As capacity allows, a traffic engineer will perform an engineering and traffic study in requested areas to determine whether measures to slow traffic are warranted. What determines if my street is a candidate for traffic calming? The traffic engineering study must show: The speed that 85 percent or more of vehicles are traveling below must equal more than 5 miles per hour over the speed limit Approval by the Asheville Fire Department to ensure that emergency response times will not be negatively impacted if traffic calming measures are installed. Traffic calming studies take time and examine a number of factors, followed by designation of funding for implementing changes. Once street calming has been justified by the above measures, the street will be considered as a candidate for an upcoming traffic calming project. Note: Stop signs are not used for traffic calming purposes, although the City does create All-Way Stop intersections on a case-by-case basis due to other safety and operational concerns. Street Light Petition If you would like to petition for a street light removal, or a new street light installation, please download the following forms and follow the instructions: Street Light Removal Petition Street Light Installation Petition Snow Removal In a winter weather event, the Streets Division of Public Works works hard to get city streets cleared as quickly and safely as possible. Priority is given to streets that are main thoroughfares and/or provide access to important facilities and services. View the Snow Removal Priority Map. It is the responsibility of adjacent property owners (and businesses where applicable) to clear snow from sidewalks. The City clears sidewalks in areas that are adjacent to City facilities. Setting Expectations Sidewalks: How can the City add a sidewalk on a street that doesn’t have one? New sidewalk projects are coordinated through the Transportation Department. The need for new sidewalks can depend on factors such as traffic, level of use, funding, and connectivity to facilities including transit stops, amenities, schools, etc. Why isn’t my sidewalk ADA compliant? ADA compliance is a multifaceted issue. Is this an old sidewalk that needs to be widened? Is it broken and unlevel? Is it a ramp issue? Are utility poles preventing compliance? All of these play a part in the answer to why a sidewalk is not compliant. Many neighborhood sidewalks are not within ADA compliance just by the nature of when and how they were built. The City has capital planning in place that prioritizes ADA and pedestrian improvements, but it will take time and funding to reach ADA compliance goals. How long does it take to get a piece of sidewalk repaired if it is damaged? Most sidewalk repairs will be scheduled on a case by case basis. Some repairs can take months or years while others can be extremely quick. This will depend on the severity, funds, backlogs, etc. Potholes: If I’ve reported a pothole on the Asheville App, how long will it take to get fixed? Maintaining the over 400 miles of road within the City of Asheville is a top priority. Each request is carefully evaluated and prioritized based on several factors, including: Severity: The extent of the damage to determine how urgently a repair is needed. Safety hazards are prioritized. Budget: Resources are allocated judiciously, considering the available budget for road maintenance and repairs. Staffing: We take into account our workforce capacity to ensure that we can efficiently address the requests without compromising quality. The City has one dedicated crew for pothole maintenance who address 5-10 requests each working day. These skilled professionals understand the importance of smooth, hazard-free roads and work diligently to meet the demands of our community. Most asphalt plants close at least part of the winter, so you won’t see requests answered quickly at that time of year. The crews are also trying to make more comprehensive repairs when responding to potholes, versus a quick short-term solution (e.g., cold patch), which can add to the response delay but provides a longer-lasting repair. Paving: How does the City determine the priority of which roads get paved? Every four years the City conducts a pavement condition survey. This survey grades every road on a 0-100 scale which generates a 0-100 score for the system as a whole. This information is put into a program that helps optimize the use of funds to keep the overall score as high as possible. The City then looks at the distribution of these roads in an attempt to spread the work across all parts of the community. Using this system (an industry standard practice) means that paving the worst roads first is not always the best approach. Back to top of page Public and private projects in your neighborhood What’s going on with that road? Street and sidewalk interruptions From resurfacing projects to infrastructure improvements to special events, there are a host of reasons a road may be temporarily closed in the City. It’s possible that the street in question is owned by NCDOT or is privately maintained. Find out if your street is owned by the City by viewing the City Maintained Street Inventory. The City utilizes a variety of communications methods to notify residents of upcoming street closures and interruptions. If the closure is due to a City project, more information may be found on the city closures map. For additional information on closures and interruptions not listed on the map, contact Neighborhood Services at neighborhoods@ashevillenc.gov. If the closure is related to an NCDOT road, you may be able to find more information by looking at NCDOT’s projects. The closure or interruption could be tied to an MSD project. For more information, view the MSD Street Interruptions Map. If the closure looks to be related to a special event such as a festival, any adjacent property owners should have been contacted by the event organizer. A development project is coming to my neighborhood. How can I learn more? There are several ways you can stay informed about development projects in the City: SimpliCity is a tool you can use to understand the development process from the first permit to breaking ground. Also using SimpliCity, you can view all development permit applications. Sign up to be notified when someone applies for a permit to build something near you. Residents can also tune into the development process by checking the agendas for the following public meetings: Design Review Committee – meets third Thursdays at 12:30 p.m. Technical Review Committee Downtown Commission (downtown projects only) – meets second Fridays at 9:30 a.m. Other relevant committees for neighborhoods regarding development include Affordable Housing, Planning & Zoning, and Planning & Economic Development. I noticed a sign about a community meeting for a development proposal, but it didn’t look like a City sign. What is this? It’s likely that the sign you’re talking about is for a pre-development meeting that a developer is required to hold as part of the City’s permit approval process. Learn more about the large scale development process and how you can participate on our SimpliCity site. I want to learn the status of a City project. View detailed information on all of the City’s ongoing projects on our Project Page. The Capital Projects Dashboard shows the progress of all of the City’s approved Capital Improvement Program projects and provides further information on how projects of different types are supported and funded. These projects include construction, improvement and maintenance of: Streets, sidewalks, greenways, facilities, traffic calming, traffic signals, pedestrian improvements, parks, playgrounds, stormwater, water infrastructure, public transportation, etc. Don’t see the project you’re looking for, or are you looking for more detailed information? Contact us at neighborhoods@ashevillenc.gov. Back to top of page Homelessness & Encampments The City of Asheville is committed to ending homelessness and supporting our community in building a system of services that work together to meet people’s immediate and long-term needs. To learn more about the City’s role and efforts, visit the Homeless Strategy Division page, which includes information about the issue of homelessness, funding opportunities, and data. The Homelessness Resources/Citizen Guidance page lists current information about how to share concerns with the City, and the Homelessness Resource Guide provides tips for businesses. Visit the Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee page to learn more about how you can join our community’s efforts to end homelessness. If you’d like to report a non emergency homelessness issue in the City, you can email our task force at helpendhomelessness@ashevillenc.gov. For property owners concerned about homeless camps on their property: Property owners can fill out a No Trespassing Form, which allows Asheville Police Department to charge violators on their behalf. In order to charge for trespassing, the property owner must first ask the trespasser to leave OR there must be a sign posted with notice not to enter the premises. Please note, this form should not be used to report trespassers. Back to top of page Police & Crime If you have an emergency call 9-1-1. If you have a question, issue, or don’t know who to contact you can reach the Asheville Police Department Communications Center 24/7/365 on the non-emergency line at 828-252-1110. Text a tip to the police Report an incident to the police and check on the status of submitted reports Buncombe County Family Justice Center is a local resource for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse. Community Crime Map allows users to choose a date range to view criminal activity (up to one year), select which crimes to view, and the opportunity to sign up for a neighborhood watch report that automatically generates an email breakdown of recent criminal activity specific to a particular area. Back to top of page Transit ART (Asheville Rides Transit) provides bus service throughout the City of Asheville and to the Town of Black Mountain (see individual route schedules for exact times) from around 5:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Monday – Saturday and from 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. on Sunday and Holidays. All routes originate from the ART Transit Station, located at 49 Coxe Avenue in downtown Asheville (next to the U.S. Post Office). The ART Transit Station provides restrooms, indoor and outdoor seating and an on-duty information assistant until 9:30 p.m. The assistant can provide you with the latest maps and schedules, help you purchase single, monthly or annual passes, and answer questions that you may have about riding the bus in Asheville Back to top of page Stay Connected with Online Resources AVL Alert: AVL Alert is an emergency and non-emergency notification system. This system enables the City of Asheville to provide you with the information that you want to receive via the communication methods that you choose. Neighborhood News: This bi-weekly email newsletter provides useful updates, notification, and information for neighborhoods. Your Voice, Your Choice: The City of Asheville is taking additional steps to connect with people whose voices are often missing from decision making processes. “Your Voice, Your Choice” is an opportunity to sign up to receive invitations to participate in the matters most important to you. Engagement Hub: This is the online home for outreach and listening efforts to shape the future of our community. Here you can find upcoming events, initiatives, and opportunities to share your input on key topics. Public Records: Obtain copies of public records and information free or at minimal cost unless otherwise specifically provided by law. Please read the list of records already available online, records not held by the City, and records that are not public record. Property Information (SimpliCity): Enter your property address for information about trash pickup, property details, and more. Open Data Portal: Asheville’s public platform for exploring and downloading open data, discovering apps, and engaging to solve important local issues. Parks & Recreation AvlREC App: Your mobile source that connects you to everything Asheville Parks and Rec has to offer. Back to top of page Did we miss something? Let us know how we can improve this page by contacting us at neighborhoods@ashevillenc.gov.
