Report Back

Updated 10/26/26: County staff’s October 20 briefing identified useful foundations for preventing displacement as the Swannanoa plan moves toward implementation: assigned responsibilities, timelines, and existing analysis of ordinance amendments’ effects on vulnerable communities. However, commissioners did not establish the consistent review of significant implementation decisions and subsequent monitoring that we proposed. This item was discussed at a briefing, so no adoption vote occurred; staff announced that the plan would return to the County Commission for an adoption hearing at their formal meeting on November 17.

Staff explained that individual plan actions identify a responsible department or agency, anticipated resource needs, and a timeline. Staff said the plan’s Growth and Redevelopment chapter contains recommendations intended to address displacement. In the subsequent discussion of comprehensive-plan implementation, staff also said proposed ordinance amendments routinely receive an analysis of their effects on vulnerable communities. These statements address parts of the approach we have encouraged, although neither transcript explicitly references our recommendations.

The remaining question is how those processes will be applied across significant Swannanoa implementation decisions, including investments and projects beyond ordinance amendments. Commissioners did not establish a consistent process for identifying displacement risks before approval or funding, selecting protections where needed, and monitoring results. Their discussion focused primarily on hazard mitigation, development regulations, and staff capacity. We appreciate the existing work and will continue following whether implementation provides the protections and accountability we proposed.

Staff announced a Planning Board hearing for November 16, followed by the County Commission’s adoption hearing on November 17. Those dates remain subject to scheduling changes. The regular October 20 Commission meeting added no substantive discussion of the plan.

Total GAP Supporter Actions Taken: 12

Recipients and Responses:

Buncombe County Commission

• County Commission Chair Amanda Edwards: No response
• County Commissioner Al Whitesides: No response
• County Commissioner Drew Ball: No response
• County Commissioner Jennifer Horton: No response
• County Commissioner Martin Moore: No response
• County Commissioner Parker Sloane: No response
• County Commissioner Terri Wells: No response

Summary: Buncombe County Commissioners will receive a briefing Tuesday on the proposed Swannanoa Small Area and Resilience Plan, which will guide growth, recovery and investment in the community for the next 20 years. We support the plan and the extensive community work behind it. As its 140-plus policies and actions move toward implementation, we believe the County should take one additional step: review significant actions individually for potential displacement risks and consider ways to reduce those risks before consequential decisions are made.

The Facts: Buncombe County Commissioners will receive a briefing Tuesday on the proposed Swannanoa Small Area and Resilience Plan, a long-range plan intended to guide growth, recovery and investment in Swannanoa following Hurricane Helene. The planning process grew out of the County’s 2043 Comprehensive Plan and has included a resident/community Steering Committee, studies of existing conditions and vulnerability, community meetings and broader public input.

Residents have played a substantial role in developing the plan, but Swannanoa is an unincorporated community and the plan is ultimately a Buncombe County plan. The Steering Committee is advisory; County Commissioners will decide whether to adopt the plan, and County government will be responsible for many of the decisions that turn its recommendations into action.

The draft contains more than 140 proposed policies and actions addressing housing, transportation, economic development, recreation, environmental protection, disaster resilience and other aspects of Swannanoa’s future. Once adopted, those recommendations could lead to changes in zoning and other regulations, new capital investments, development decisions, partnerships and specific County projects over the next 20 years.

The plan is not yet final. County materials describe the current version as a working draft under review, with final adoption by the Board of Commissioners scheduled for November. That means Tuesday’s briefing provides an opportunity for Commissioners to clarify not only what the plan recommends, but also how the County will evaluate the consequences of each policy as it is implemented.

You can see the staff presentation on the plan here.

Our Assessment: We appreciate the extraordinary amount of work that Swannanoa residents, Steering Committee members and County staff have put into creating this plan. We also appreciate that affordability, equity, and community resilience are woven through many of its recommendations.

But adopting a good plan is only the beginning. The real consequences will come later, as Buncombe County decides which of its 140-plus policies and actions to implement, when to implement them, and how.

A new sidewalk, zoning change, commercial investment, housing initiative, or infrastructure project might strengthen Swannanoa while having little effect on displacement. Another action might increase land values, housing costs or redevelopment pressure in ways that make it harder for existing residents or businesses to remain. Some actions may actively reduce displacement risk; others could inadvertently increase it.

The County can’t possibly predict all of those effects today. Instead, each significant action should receive an anti-displacement review when County staff begin moving it toward implementation.

That review could ask a few basic questions: Who is likely to benefit? Who might face increased housing, property-tax, rental or commercial displacement pressure? What evidence tells us whether the risk is significant? If a meaningful risk exists, what could the County do to reduce it? And what should the County monitor afterward to learn whether its assumptions were right?

The final plan should therefore identify which County department or staff team is responsible for moving each major action forward and require that significant implementation decisions be screened for displacement risk before they are approved or funded.

This is especially important because residents’ role changes once the planning process ends. Community members have had substantial opportunities to help shape the vision and recommendations, but the County will have much of the authority and responsibility for turning those recommendations into actual government decisions. An implementation-level anti-displacement review would help the County consider how its decisions affect the people and businesses already rooted in Swannanoa.

This would not require the County to abandon or delay beneficial investments. It would help the County make those investments more successfully, allowing Swannanoa to recover and improve while paying attention to whether existing residents and businesses are able to remain and share in the benefits.

We’ve been encouraging Buncombe County for almost a year to expand and connect its existing planning and analytical tools into a countywide anti-displacement decision-support and learning system. The Swannanoa plan offers an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how one could work in practice.

Things to Do: No action is suggested at this time. Last week, we invited you to email County Commissioners and ask them to make item-by-item anti-displacement review part of the implementation process for the Swannanoa Small Area and Resilience Plan.