GAP Report for 8/31/26
QUESTIONABLE
Helping Flood Survivors Reestablish Safe Housing Without Losing Community
Buncombe County will consider accepting $4.12 million in federal hazard-mitigation funding to acquire and demolish flood-prone homes. The voluntary program can protect residents from repeated danger, and Commissioners should accept the funding. But acquisitions also permanently remove households and housing from a community. The agenda does not explain whether residents will be able to find comparable housing nearby, how tenants will be affected, whether heirs-property owners can participate, or whether some communities could experience disproportionate housing losses and relocations. The program demonstrates why the County needs a consistent anti-displacement analysis framework. Commissioners should approve the funding and hold a public hearing within 60 days on the feasibility of developing that framework.
REPORT BACKS
Why Rush Zoning Changes Before Asheville’s Anti-Displacement Tool Is Ready?
Updated 8/31/26: City Council unanimously approved the duplex, Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), and parking amendments without waiting for the City’s forthcoming displacement-analysis tool or comprehensive Universal Development Ordinance (UDO) overhaul, as GAPavl requested. Council did preserve proposed ADU height limits after discussing concerns from legacy neighborhoods, but the changes still passed before the City could evaluate their cumulative effects and develop potential protections.
Asheville Needs a Larger Conversation About Police Surveillance
Updated 8/31/26: City Council voted 5–2 to terminate Asheville’s contract for eleven fixed Flock automated license-plate recognition (ALPR) readers, a positive step. However, Council did not extend the review and expansion freeze to Axon and other vendors, close the remaining data-access and deletion loopholes, or establish the structured public process GAPavl and others requested to evaluate ALPR’s claimed safety benefits, evidence, civil-liberties risks, acceptable uses, and limits.
Safety, Second Chances, and HACA’s New Screening Rules
Updated 8/31/26: The Housing Authority of the City of Asheville (HACA) Board met on August 26 after receiving public comments on proposed longer lookback periods for several criminal convictions. Because HACA has not published minutes, a recording, or another account of the meeting, we do not know whether the revised screening policy was discussed, amended, adopted or postponed.
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