Government Accountability Project of Asheville

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• Asheville considering building massive performing arts center on The Block (updated)

• Asheville needs anti-displacement guardrails in next year’s budget (new)
• Buncombe County needs to adopt an anti-displacement policy
• Asheville needs to adopt an anti-displacement policy

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Two major issues before Asheville City Council this week – the proposed Parkside land hold and the projected $26 million budget gap – highlight why GAPavl has called for the City and County to formally commit to developing a comprehensive anti-displacement policy.

Updated item: Asheville considering building massive performing arts center on The Block

Council is being asked to continue holding 2.4 acres of City-owned land downtown for a possible public-private arts and entertainment complex known as “Parkside.” The site is on Eagle Street (within The Block, Asheville’s historic Black business district), and therefore adjacent to neighborhoods and institutions that were deeply impacted by urban renewal. While no final project has been approved, early decisions matter. Once a large development gains political and financial momentum, it can quickly feel inevitable. Public land in historically harmed areas requires strong transparency, racial equity analysis, and clear community benefit standards from the beginning.

New item: Asheville needs anti-displacement guardrails in next year’s budget

Asheville faces a projected $26 million budget gap for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. Closing that gap will likely require property tax increases, fee increases, service reductions, or some combination. Those choices directly affect housing stability — especially for renters, seniors on fixed incomes, and working families. Without intentional safeguards, financial decisions made to balance the budget can unintentionally accelerate displacement.

These two issues are relevant to the call we’ve been maintaining in GAP reports: Asheville should not make major decisions affecting public land and public dollars without a clear anti-displacement framework in place. We are continuing to call on both the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commission to formally commit to developing such a policy through a collaborative process with staff, community organizations, and residents at the table.

We have a new template for you to contact the Asheville City Council about these two new issues, and also encourage you to continue reaching out to the elected leaders of both Asheville and Buncombe County to encourage them to commit to developing an overarching anti-displacement policy.

• Click here to skip to the template for emailing the Asheville City Council about the plans to build a massive performing arts center on The Block and the displacement dangers surrounding the forthcoming budget.
• Skip to the template for emailing the Buncombe County Commission and the template for emailing the Asheville City Council about the need for an overarching anti-displacement policy.
• Click here to review our responses to some good questions that Asheville City staff posed about moving forward with an anti-displacement policy.
• Click here to read our full proposed anti-displacement policy proposal.
• Click here to read our summary of anti-displacement policies in other North Carolina cities and counties.

For most of our history, GAPavl has focused on the full range of issues that come before City Council and County Commission, encouraging timely action on specific agenda items. We’re going to keep doing that whenever the need arises. But we also know that real political change requires a long-term perspective. It requires perseverance. It requires staying with an issue long after it stops being “new.”

As we see it, pushing Asheville and Buncombe County to commit to anti-displacement is of vital importance, which is why we’ve been emailing you about it for over a month now. We know it’s hard – for elected officials and for all of us – to maintain focus on an overarching policy change that will take time to develop and implement. We’re not entirely sure we have the perfect formula for doing that, but we are committed to trying, and encourage you to stay with us.