The City of Asheville was one of many partners recognized at Thursday’s grand opening and ribbon cutting at the Glen Rock Depot at 372 Depot Street in the city’s River Arts District. The opening of the 60-unit mixed-use apartment complex by Mountain Housing opportunities is in stride with Asheville City Council’s strategies for affordable, green and sustainable development, said Mayor Terry Bellamy, and is a big building block in the city’s East of the Riverway sustainable multimodal neighborhood initiative.
“When Cindy Weeks and Mountain Housing Opportunities approached the city with this project many years ago, the city readily said ‘Yes,’” Bellamy said during her remarks at the grand opening ceremony.
In 2005, council granted a rezoning request for the development of the Glen Rock, the first development to be approved under a newly created “Urban Place” zoning district, largely due to its potential to create high-density mixed-use infill development.
Council also appropriated $1.6 million from the Housing Trust Fund and in Federal HOME funds for the Glen Rock development. The Housing Trust Fund is a revolving source of funding used by the City of Asheville to provide loans to developers willing to provide a certain threshold of affordable housing. HOME funds are allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and distributed by the city to projects that support its affordability goals.
“This is a model project for our East of the Riverway sustainable communities initiative,” says Community Development Director Jeff Staudinger. ”Creating new, affordable housing that is close to schools, jobs and recreation. It is a mixed-use infill, building rehab and neighborhood revitalization project all rolled into one.”
The city was recently awarded an $850,000 HUD and DOT grant for its East of the Riverway initiative.
For those wanting more information about HOME and Community Development Block Grant funding, the city’s Community Development Division will host a training workshop on Wednesday, Dec. 8. Click here for more information about that workshop.
Speakers at the Glen Rock opening included Buncombe County Commissioners Bill Stanley and Holly Jones and MHO Executive Director Scott Dedman. Attending the opening were Asheville City Council members Jan Davis and Gordon Smith, Buncombe County Commissioner Carol Peterson and North Carolina State Representatives Patsy Keever and Susan Fisher.