Government Accountability Project of Asheville

Summary: Buncombe County is taking action on a unified fire district, major bond investments, and floodplain regulations—all of which carry significant displacement risks. While County staff have acknowledged the importance of these issues, the County has not provided clear, public analysis or mitigation strategies. We continue to urge the County to commit to developing a comprehensive anti-displacement policy.

The Facts: At its April 21st meeting, the Buncombe County Commission considered several major items with direct implications for displacement:

• Unified Fire District (Public Hearing): The County is proposing to consolidate fire service tax districts into a single, countywide district, redistributing tax burdens across communities.
• GO Bonds (Affordable Housing and Open Space): The County is authorizing up to $36.5 million in bonds, with funding split between affordable housing and open space/conservation projects.
• Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance (Public Hearing): The County is considering updates to floodplain regulations, which can affect rebuilding rights, property values, and long-term residency.

You can review the full agenda and supporting documents here.

After meeting with GAPavl, County staff shared that our concerns have been circulated internally, that the County relies on its Comprehensive and Strategic Plans and internal equity procedures to assess impact, and that they see value in the need to address displacement. You can read their full response below.

Our Assessment: The County is making decisions that directly affect cost burdens, land use, and housing stability—without a consistent, transparent framework for understanding or preventing displacement.

• The unified fire district will shift tax burdens, with some communities, such as Swannanoa, likely to see increases. For households already facing rising property values, even modest tax increases can create financial pressure that contributes to displacement, particularly in more vulnerable areas.
• The bond package includes needed housing investment, but also funds open space, farmland preservation, and greenway projects that can increase surrounding property values without protections in place. Without safeguards, these kinds of investments can unintentionally accelerate rising rents and home prices in nearby communities, putting additional strain on existing residents.
• The flood ordinance may restrict rebuilding or increase costs in vulnerable areas, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Helene. In practice, these changes can make it harder or more expensive for current residents to remain in place after a disaster, increasing the risk of permanent displacement.

It’s important to emphasize that we aren’t flagging these policies as “problematic”—in each case, there are reasons to think each of them could lead to positive results. Rather, we have serious concerns that because the County is not offering a transparent anti-displacement analysis of the impact of these policies, there’s no way of knowing whether some of their impact won’t be unintentionally destructive, especially to more vulnerable residents.

County staff have pointed to existing plans and internal processes as evidence that these kinds of impacts are being considered. However, there is no clear, public evidence of that analysis being applied to the decisions currently before the Commission. Specifically:

• No displacement impact analysis has been presented for these agenda items
  
• No public documentation of tax or equity impacts for the unified fire district has been identified, despite references to such analysis
• No mitigation strategies have been proposed for communities likely to face increased costs
• No commitment has been made to develop a comprehensive anti-displacement policy
  

Without this level of transparency and consistency, neither the public nor decision-makers can fully understand who is affected—or how. This is not just a question of whether the County is doing this work internally, but whether it is doing so in a way that is visible, accountable, and capable of informing better decisions.

Things to do: We invite you to use our email template to urge the County Manager and Commissioners to commit to developing a comprehensive anti-displacement policy.

Email Template: You can send an email to the Buncombe County Manager and Commissioners by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to the recipients, and enable us to track how many emails were sent overall in the campaign. If you prefer to write your own email, you can copy and paste (and adapt) our template text – please cc: or bcc: info@gapavl.org on your individualized email, so we can better track how many emails were sent.

To: Avril.Pinder@buncombecounty.org, alfred.whitesides@buncombecounty.org, amanda.edwards@buncombecounty.org, drew.ball@buncombecounty.org, jennifer.horton@buncombecounty.org, martin.moore@buncombecounty.org, parker.sloan@buncombecounty.org, terri.wells@buncombecounty.org

CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org

Subject: Without an anti-displacement analysis, your decisions could be causing harm

Dear County Manager and Commissioners,

I’m writing to express concern about several items on your April 21 agenda, including the unified fire district proposal, the GO bond allocations, and the flood damage prevention ordinance. Each of these decisions could have a positive impact, but could also negatively affect housing stability and cost burdens in our community.

While I appreciate that County staff have acknowledged the importance of an anti-displacement focus, I have not seen any clear, public analysis of how these items on your agenda will affect displacement, nor any strategies to mitigate those impacts.

I urge you to begin developing a comprehensive anti-displacement policy to guide future decisions. The City of Asheville has already begun this work, and Buncombe County should do the same.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Report Back

Coming Soon!

Email from Dr. Noreal Armstrong, Access and Human Affairs Director for Buncombe County

Since we met on March 30th, the points and concerns you mentioned have been shared with others. We are assessing work that has been done, work we are doing, and work we aim to do.

Our 2043 Comprehensive Plan, 2030 Strategic Plan, and many other plans share our six focus areas and steps we have in place to consider impact in our decision making. Additionally, Commissioners had recent discussions on similar topics to those raised in your email during discussion of homeowner grant during the budget workshop. A specific discussion was how we better utilize that program to have a greater impact.

We see value in what you are championing. We engage community for feedback, we have procedures in place (GEC, EOA,& embedded access and equitable measures) to assess impact and we actively work to improve where and how we can. You mentioned attending your meetings to hear concerns and ideas being discussed amongst community members, we are willing to attend on an ad hoc basis. Please send any additional information about the meetings.

I have linked the plans mentioned above and information about the fire district project including the report below.

Comprehensive Plan Implementation – PublicInput

Strategic-Plan-2025-2030-PDF

https://www.buncombenc.gov/1095/Fire-Services

All the best,

Dr. No