Coming your way in 2021: smart water meters. At their Sept. 22 meeting, Asheville City Council authorized the City Manager to execute an agreement with Cavanaugh and Associates to develop, facilitate and complete the Request for Proposals process for selection of an “advanced metering infrastructure system.” That’s a mouthful but what it means is that the [...]
Asheville Fire investigators will have more tools to dig into debris to determine the origin and cause of fires under a FEMA grant accepted by Asheville City Council during their Sept. 22 meeting. The FEMA’s Fire Prevention & Safety Grant will provide specialized equipment for AFD’s Fire Marshal investigators, such as mobile software for documentation (iPads), [...]
Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month. The celebration of Hispanic Heritage is “marked” from Sept. 15 - Oct. 15. I could go into some more historical information or talk about some of the Latinx greats like Selena, Frida Kahlo, Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, etc. but because Hispanic Heritage should be celebrated every day of the year, I want to use this opportunity to talk about our collective survival. Let me tell you what I mean by that but first, do you know where your food comes from?
The joint City-County Vance Monument Taskforce has begun its work of exploring options for removing, repurposing, or making alterations to the Vance Monument, as charged in a joint resolution by the City of Asheville and Buncombe County. With six members appointed by the City of Asheville and six [...]
Program is designed to help landlords make providing affordable housing more feasible Twenty-five landlords in Asheville now have a chance to be part of an innovative solution to the affordable housing crisis in our area. Thrive Asheville, an initiative of UNC Asheville that brings together local community advocates, policymakers, and professionals from diverse perspectives to find equitable solutions [...]
Pre-opening for members only begins Sept. 28 The City of Asheville Parks & Recreation department is very pleased to announce the reopening of the WNC Nature Center to the general public on Oct. 5. Visitors will notice a few changes since their last visit. To ensure the safety of the public, staff, and the resident animals that [...]
In September 2019, the Asheville City Council approved a temporary moratorium on the approval of new hotels, which meant that no hotel development applications would be approved for a year. Since then, staff and consultants have worked diligently to understand the issues surrounding hotel development and assess the impacts. In late [...]
Beginning Sept. 1, the City of Asheville is looking to engage residents on two sidewalk improvement projects. While the survey does not ask for preferences on the design, the comments collected will help staff understand nearby residents’ needs and concerns. The sidewalk improvements will take place in east and west Asheville. The Capital Projects Department proposes [...]
During their Aug. 25 meeting, Asheville City Council voted to reduce the speed limit on 43 City streets. The changes were made at the recommendation of City staff, who had received requests from the public to consider the speed limit changes. City staff performed appropriate traffic-engineering studies along the various streets designated for speed limit changes. So [...]
On March 13, in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, Asheville Water Resources suspended all water account disconnections due to non-payment of City of Asheville combined utility bills. On March 31, the state of North Carolina followed suit with an executive order by Gov. Roy Cooper that also suspended utility disconnections due to the [...]
At Asheville City Council’s Aug. 25 meeting, City staff presented an ordinance focused on the preservation, enhancement and expansion of the City’s tree canopy as it relates to private land development activity. The proposed changes will ask developers to consider the tree canopy and require that they keep a portion of the trees in place, plant [...]
Currently, North Carolina is severely undercounted in the 2020 Census. We are on track to lose $7.4 billion in federal funding annually. These are our tax dollars — hard earned and rightfully ours — and this funding is critical. The only way to access that money is to be fully counted. Here’s what it will affect: Roads [...]