The Asheville City Council meets twice this Tuesday, June 25th on the 2nd Floor of City Hall, 70 Court Plaza in downtown Asheville. At 3 pm they will have an Affordable Housing Plan Worksession. Click here to watch it online. At 5 pm, they will have their regular meeting. You can watch the meeting online at this link.The full agenda for the meeting is here.
2 RED:
Things that seem problematic
Buncombe County still hasn’t shared a plan for tracking racial data
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 raised this issue last week in our 6/17/24 GAP Report and then included it in our latest Report Back on Thursday. We have not received a response from anyone in the Buncombe County government. This is a big problem: the consistent collection and sharing of racial data is a baseline requirement for any serious attempt to address racial inequities. The only way to assess whether racial inequities are actually shrinking in County-led or funded work is to collect and share racial identity data about the beneficiaries of their programs.
We plan to keep raising and re-raising this issue until we get a satisfactory response, and we invite you to join us.
Things to do
Email the Buncombe County Commission and the Equity and Human Rights Office and urge them to make a clear public commitment to track and disclose racial data on all County programs.
We have prepared a new email template below that addresses this issue. If you took action on this issue last week, thank you. We invite you to join us in writing again. It may take repeated attempts to get a response.
Report Back
Read our Report Back here.
Asheville City Council Agenda – Public Hearing B. Public hearing to consider the conditional zoning of 172 Moody Avenue (staff memo)
Developers are asking the Asheville City Council to rezone an area along Smokey Park Highway so they can move forward with a project that will include commercial units and 350 residential units. There is currently no plan to offer any affordable housing units on the property.
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 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 won’t offer any affordable units.
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.
We have prepared an email template below that addresses this issue.
1 GREEN:
Things that sound like a step in the right direction
Asheville City Council Agenda – Consent O. Resolution authorizing audiovisual upgrades to City Hall’s First-Floor Conference Room to enable full hybrid meeting capability for Boards and Commission meetings (Staff memo)
The City’s Communication and Public Engagement (CAPE) Department is seeking approval of a contract with a company called Solutionz, Inc. to upgrade audiovisual capacities in the first floor conference room of City Hall. This will enable City Boards and Commission meetings to be more effectively done in a hybrid manner, so that members of these boards can participate remotely as needed, and so the community can also have more options for how to engage.
We think this is a step in the right direction. There are many racial equity obstacles when it comes to serving on, participating in, or simply tracking the work of Asheville’s Boards and Commissions. It’s especially challenging for folks with family responsibilities, or who deal with transportation, language, or technology barriers. Upgrading the technology at City Hall so that all Boards and Commissions can hold hybrid meetings won’t fully address all of those issues, but they will make an important difference.
Things to do
Email Communication and Public Engagement Director Dawa Hitch to show appreciation to her and her whole department for moving forward with this plan.
We have prepared an email template below that addresses this issue.
COUNTY EMAIL TEMPLATE TEXT
You can send an email to the Buncombe County Commission by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to each recipient, 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. We ask that you send us a copy (cc: or bcc:, your choice) at info@gapavl.org so we can better track how many emails were sent.
To: brownie.newman@buncombecounty.org, jasmine.beach-ferrara@buncombecounty.org, alfred.whitesides@buncombecounty.org, amanda.edwards@buncombecounty.org, terri.wells@buncombecounty.org, martin.moore@buncombecounty.org, parker.sloan@buncombecounty.org, Noreal.Armstrong@buncombecounty.org
CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org
Subject: Is Buncombe County going to track and share racial equity data?
Dear Members of the Buncombe County Commission and Dr. Armstrong,
As you know, the Cease The Harm Audit described the County’s failure to track racial data as a “key harm.” Do you plan to address this problem, and begin routinely tracking racial identity data about the beneficiaries of the many programs the County oversees or funds? If not, how will you be able to track progress? And if so, when will you publicly share your plan for implementing these new practices?
Thanks for your leadership,
CITY COUNCIL EMAIL TEMPLATE TEXT
You can send an email to the Asheville City Council by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to each recipient, 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. We ask that you send us a copy (cc or bcc, your choice) at info@gapavl.org so we can better track how many emails were sent.
To: AshevilleNCCouncil@ashevillenc.gov
CC or BCC: info@gapavl.org
Subject: Project off Smokey Park Highway should offer some affordable housing
Dear City Council Members,
You’re being asked this week to approve a rezoning request so that developers can build 350 new housing units off of Smokey Park Highway. They are planning to offer zero affordable units. Given how desperate our region is for more affordable housing, I think they can do better. Do you agree? Will you push for them to explore that possibility?
Thanks for your leadership,
CAPE EMAIL TEMPLATE TEXT
You can send an email to Asheville’s Communication and Public Engagement Director Dawa Hitch by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to her, 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. We ask that you send us a copy (cc or bcc, your choice) at info@gapavl.org so we can better track how many emails were sent.
To: dhitch@ashevillenc.gov
CC or BCC: info@gapavl.org
Subject: Thanks for increasing access to Boards and Commission meetings
Dear Director Hitch,
I heard that your department was moving forward with a plan to improve audiovisual capacity in City Hall’s conference room, so all Boards and Commissions could offer hybrid meetings. I appreciate you and your team for taking this important step to expand access to these meetings, enabling more folks to serve on these committees and more community members to be able to attend and participate in them.
Thanks for your leadership,