Asheville – Asheville City Council approved the rezoning of 115 Fairview Road for a 281-unit apartment complex and awarded the developer a Land Use Incentive Grant (LUIG) in the amount of $4,560,000, payable over 18 years. To receive the grant, the developer agreed, among other terms, to rent-control 20% of the units as affordable to persons earning no more than 80% AMI for 20 years and accept vouchers for half of those units.
Council’s Housing and Community Development Committee rejected the proposal because they wanted more deeply affordable housing. Presenter Sasha Vrtunski explained that the LUIG program was set up to create more housing for people earning about 80% AMI. It wasn’t intended to support lower-income housing or have tiers of affordability.
Councilwoman Antanette Mosley did not support the LUIG program in general. First, it served people who are white and earning around 80% AMI. Second, it reduced property tax revenues that the city could be spending on housing for the poorest of the poor.
Vrtunki then quoted what she described as speculation from the Thrive Asheville report. “City housing investments that target incomes at higher ends of affordability (e.g., 60–80% AMI) likely exacerbate racial and gender gaps in our community because our most underserved community members, on average, fall below this AMI band.”
Acknowledging that members of staff aren’t supposed to tell members of council what to do, Vrtunski urged council, if they couldn’t accept the plan as-is, to try to approve the project in some form. “The approval of housing units is really important, and if we start choking down on the number of housing units we approve in our community, it actually hurts everybody. It pushes rents up for everyone,” she said.
After comments from council about needing to re-evaluate all the city’s affordable housing programs at once, Assistant City Manager Rachel Wood said staff was already working on that, and council will likely see proposed changes in January.
Councilwoman Maggie Ullman said this was not the time to redesign the LUIG program. The developer had gone through a long process, played by the rules, and checked all the boxes. He did not need to arrive at the final approval stage only to hear members of council say, “We don’t like our rules or incentives.” Mayor Esther Manheimer’s request that the two projects in the pipeline be grandfathered in will likely be honored.
Back to the project at hand, councilmembers wanted the developer to do more than set aside units for voucher holders, in case one applied. So, the developer agreed to actively market units to voucher holders and inform the housing authority of any openings. Should no voucher holder apply within a reasonable timeframe, the next comparable unit would be similarly offered to voucher holders.
During public comment, Andrew Paul told council they were “letting the perfect be the enemy of the good” and “closing the gap by bringing those who are struggling down to the level of those who are really struggling.” Every time council rejects a proposal for constructing more affordable housing because it doesn’t have enough amenities, they are setting people up to need more government services.
Jonathan Wainscott compared the $253,000 the developer requested to the $35 million a year the Tourism Development Authority collects. That money is spent to grow an industry that creates low-wage jobs and drives up the cost of living. Council was working at cross purposes by trying to grow its tourist economy while constructing affordable housing. “It’s kind of silly,” he said. “I feel like we’re trying to lose weight on a diet of nothing but Oreos and bacon.”
Council approved the project and the grant. Councilwomen Kim Roney and Sheneika Smith voted against both measures, and Mosley joined them to vote against the LUIG.
In Other Matters –
In a continued public hearing, council approved the 279-unit apartment complex planned for the north bank of Lake Julian. The developer had already promised an affordable housing component and committed to providing bike spaces and EV car chargers. New concessions included adding 30 solar panels “at optimal locations,” constructing a minimum of 14 three-bedroom apartments, making internal roads navigable by cyclists, and building a second access road that connects to a traffic signal. Councilwoman Sage Turner did not explain why she cast the lone vote against the project.
After accepting a few revisions to the Housing Trust Fund policy that couldn’t wait until the city overhauls all its affordable housing subsidy programs, council unanimously approved a $475,000 loan for Fairhaven Summit. This development had already received a $500,000 loan in April, but more money was needed to cover increasing interest rates.