No affordable housing proposed in Haw Creek housing project (requesting conditional rezoning from Asheville City Council) (Staff Memo, Presentation)

Developers are asking the Asheville City Council to rezone a land parcel at 767 Haw Creek Rd from “Residential Single-Family Medium Density District” to “Residential Expansion – Conditional Zone” so they can move forward with a project that will include 84 new residential units. There is currently no plan to offer any affordable housing units on the property.

As we successfully argued with a similar rezoning request last month, the City Council has the power to set conditions for this kind of rezoning, and we’d like to see them push these developers to explore the possibility of offering at least some meaningfully-affordable housing units for this project. Given how starved our region is for affordable housing, we don’t think the City should be green-lighting any projects that don’t offer to address this important responsibility, especially if it is committed to racial equity – the lack of affordable housing in our region disproportionately affects Asheville’s Black residents. Without the offer of any meaningfully-affordable units, this project can be expected to exacerbate racial inequities in housing in our region.

Things to do

Email the Asheville City Council and encourage them to use their power to set conditions for rezoning requests like this, and insist that some of the proposed units in this development be offered at affordable rates.

You can use our City email template below to send them a message about this issue (and the one below).

Full civil rights history of Woolworth building should accompany its designation as an historic landmark (Staff Memo, Presentation)

The Asheville City Council is being asked to pass an ordinance designating the F. W. Woolworth building at 25 Haywood Street as an historic landmark. One of the rationales suggested in the staff memo is that “the building is also especially significant for its importance as a site of local civil rights protests and activism in the 1960s.”

We don’t think the description in the staff memo about this building’s “importance as a site of local civil rights protests” offers enough information, and wonder whether a more complete history will be publicly presented once this building is designated as historic. It’s important that people know that Woolworth lunch counters were a major pillar of Jim Crow segregation, which is why they were a focal point of civil rights protests in Asheville and around the country. We were glad to see a much more complete historical description reflected in the full report prepared by Urban Planner Alex Cole, but the staff report and presentation don’t offer that important level of detail. This historic landmark proposal moved through the Historic Resources Commission, where it was unanimously endorsed 8-0, but it wasn’t brought before the African American Heritage Commission (AAHC), and we’re not sure why. (It’s worth noting that the Woolworth building was included in a grant-funded African American Heritage Resource Survey that AAHC and the City received just two years ago, so it would seem pertinent to their work as well.) Will AAHC be consulted on how this building’s history will be conveyed, once it receives historic status?

Things to do

Join us in reaching out to the Asheville City Council to encourage them to ask why the African American Heritage Commission was not consulted about this historic designation, and how they might be involved moving forward in ensuring that this building’s prominent role as a pillar of segregation is fully told.

You can use our City email template below to send them a message about this issue (and the one above).

Buncombe County needs to track racial equity data

The County postponed their Leading with Race Summit because of weather concerns. The Summit, whenever it takes place, will include a report by the County “on the (racial equity) goals we’ve accomplished and the County’s next steps.”

With the Summit postponed, we’re continuing our call for County leaders to announce their intentions and plans. Their Racial Equity Action Plan, adopted in 2021, included as a goal: “Establish organizational equity and accountability processes to increase capacity to make data informed decisions.” If that remains a goal, it’s time for the County to share their plans and timeline for pursuing that goal. 

We will pass along any information we receive about the new date for the Summit.

Background about this issue: Deep racial inequities are present in literally every dimension of life in Buncombe County: economics, education, criminal justice, health, and housing. The County has pledged to address these inequities, which is an important starting point. However, the County has a tendency not to track or report on racial demographic and equity data in their programs and processes. This issue was prominently flagged by the Carter Group in their Cease The Harm audit from earlier this year.

We reported on this issue in our GAP reports on 6/17/24, 6/24/24, 7/1/24, 7/8/24, and 7/15/24 and in our Report Back updated on 7/11/24. We haven’t yet received a response from Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder or the County Commission. We are continuing the call to advocates for racial equity to join us in asking: is Buncombe County committed to a comprehensive strategy to shift its culture and practices in the direction of being data-informed, with an important emphasis on gathering racial demographic data for all of their programs? And if they are, when and how will that strategy be implemented?

Things to do

If you haven’t yet, please join us in reaching out to County leaders (we are now also including Chief Equity Officer Noreal Armstrong in our efforts) to announce their plans for collecting and analyzing racial equity data for all of their programs and funded projects.

You can use our County email template below to send them a message about this issue.