Summary: Buncombe County is seeking rezoning approval to build over 200 units of affordable housing at 50 Coxe Avenue. While this is a major opportunity to expand housing supply, the proposal does not clearly address how it will serve the lowest-income households most at risk of displacement, and affordability is time-limited. City Council should use this decision point to secure deeper affordability, long-term protections, and stronger alignment with displacement prevention goals.

The Facts: The City of Asheville is considering Buncombe County’s conditional zoning request to allow the redevelopment of 50 Coxe Avenue into a 7-story, mixed-use building with approximately 203 affordable housing units and ground-floor retail. The site is currently owned by Buncombe County and used for administrative offices and surface parking.

• The project will add a significant number of income-restricted units in a high-cost, transit-accessible downtown location.
• The development is expected to include a range of affordability levels, primarily serving households at or below 60–80% AMI. The most recent estimates of how many units will be available at different levels of affordability were presented to Buncombe County last year and are as follows:
  • 20% AMI (8 units, 3% of total)
  • 30% AMI (36 units, 17% of total)
  • 50% AMI (11 units, 5% of total)
  • 60% AMI (110 units, 53% of total)
  • 80% AMI (41 units, 20% of total)
• The project requires zoning modifications, including a significant reduction in tree canopy requirements (from 10% to 1.2%).

You can read the staff report here and see the presentation slides here. You can see the presentation the County planning department and UNC Development Finance Initiative (DFI) made last year that outlines the different levels of affordability here.

Our Assessment: This project represents a meaningful public investment in affordable housing and makes productive use of publicly owned land. Adding over 200 units in a transit-accessible downtown location is a significant step forward, and the inclusion of units at 60–80% AMI will benefit many working households.

However, the project as currently proposed is unlikely to meaningfully reduce displacement. Only about 20% of units (44 total) are expected to be affordable to extremely low-income households (≤30% AMI), who face the greatest risk of housing instability, displacement, and homelessness. The proposal also does not clearly commit to pairing units with housing vouchers or supportive services, which are often necessary to reach those households. In addition, there is no clear mechanism to prioritize access for local residents or those at risk of displacement.

Finally, affordability in projects funded through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is typically limited to a defined compliance period (often around 30 years), after which units may convert to market-rate housing. While 30 years may sound long, it means affordability has an expiration date. Across the country, cities are already losing affordable housing as these periods expire. In a high-cost market like Asheville, once these units convert to market rate, they are extremely difficult to replace—meaning today’s investment may not result in lasting affordability.

Taken together, these gaps mean that while the project adds supply, it may have only a limited impact on the underlying drivers of displacement in Asheville.

Our Proposal: City Council should use this rezoning decision as a critical intervention point to strengthen the project’s anti-displacement impact.

Specifically, Council should request that a greater share of units be designated affordable to households at or below 30% AMI, in alignment with data showing that the lowest-income households face the greatest risk of displacement and homelessness. The City should also commit to pairing units with housing vouchers or supportive housing programs, in coordination with the Continuum of Care, to ensure access for those with the greatest need.

In addition, the City should also explore ways to ensure that these units are accessible to households most at risk of displacement. This could include prioritizing people who are living in transitional housing or are at high risk of displacement, setting aside units for residents using housing vouchers or who are currently homeless, and working with local partners to connect units to those most in need to available housing. These approaches are widely used by housing authorities and cities across the country, and could easily be adopted in Asheville. Federal housing guidelines allow local preferences for households experiencing homelessness or displacement, and many communities pair affordable housing with housing vouchers and supportive services to ensure that units are accessible to those with the greatest need. While Asheville already uses some of these approaches through its Continuum of Care system, they are not yet consistently applied to new affordable housing developments like this one.

More broadly, this decision highlights the importance of applying an anti-displacement lens to major housing investments. As the City works to develop a formal analysis tool, projects like this present immediate opportunities to begin implementing those principles in practice.

Things to do: We invite you to use our email template to ask City Council to strengthen the anti-displacement impact of the 50 Coxe Avenue project before approving rezoning.

Email Template: 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 the recipients, 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 – please cc: or bcc: info@gapavl.org on your individualized email, so we can better track how many emails were sent

To: AshevilleNCCouncil@ashevillenc.gov

CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org

Subject: Strengthening anti-displacement outcomes at 50 Coxe Avenue

Dear Mayor and City Council Members,

I’m writing in support of the proposed affordable housing development at 50 Coxe Avenue and to encourage you, as you consider approval of this project, to take concrete steps to strengthen its impact for those most at risk of displacement.

This is an important opportunity to add housing in a high-cost area, and I support moving the project forward. At the same time, I urge you to use this decision point to ensure that the project more effectively serves very low-income households and helps address rising homelessness in our community.

Specifically, I encourage you to:

• Increase the share of units affordable to households at or below 30% AMI
• Ensure that some units are paired with housing vouchers or supportive housing programs
• Prioritize access for households most at risk of displacement, including those already living in or displaced from Asheville (many of whom continue to work in the city)
• Strengthen the long-term affordability of the project beyond standard time limits

These are practical steps that would help ensure this public investment delivers meaningful and lasting benefits for the community.

Thank you for your leadership and for taking this opportunity to strengthen this project’s impact.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

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